A Bloody Attack In the US Senate

In May 1856, the territory of Kansas was erupting in open warfare as pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions violently attacked each other. In the United States Senate, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, an eloquent Harvard educated lawyer, delivered a blistering speech titled "The Crime Against Kansas."

Sumner's call for a free Kansas, delivered on May 19th and 20th, was cheered by abolitionists. But southerners were outraged by both the content and scathing tone of Sumner's speech.

A Congressman from South Carolina, Preston Brooks, was particularly incensed. And based on what he considered a code of honor, Brooks reasoned that Sumner had to be physically punished.

On May 22, 1856, Brooks walked into the Senate chamber, approached Sumner at his desk, and beat him viciously with a cane. The bloodshed in Kansas had literally spilled onto the floor of the US Senate.

Image: Senator Charles Sumner, courtesy Library of Congress