Blood on the U.S. Senate Floor: The 1856 Caning of Charles Sumner
This article from Washington Monthly recounts the 1856 caning of anti-slavery Senator Charles Sumner by pro-slavery Representative Preston Brooks on the U.S. Senate floor. Sumner had delivered a provocative speech, 'Crime Against Kansas,' attacking Southern senators and their 'doughface' allies for the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He personally insulted Senator Andrew Butler, implying he had fathered children with a slave and comparing him to Don Quixote with 'the harlot Slavery' as his mistress. Brooks, Butler's cousin, retaliated by ambushing Sumner from behind with a metal-tipped cane, beating him until the cane broke. Sumner suffered traumatic brain injury and took three years to recover. The article frames the attack as a step toward the Civil War, illustrating the violent chasm between slaveholding and free states. It also reviews Paul Quigley's book 'The Man Behind the Cane,' which examines Brooks's motivations and the culture of Southern 'chivalry.' The piece draws parallels to contemporary political violence.
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