A Southern congressman beats a Northern senator with a cane - May 22nd, 1856

On this day in 1856, Congressman Preston Brooks attacked Senator Charles Sumner with a metal-tipped cane.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that believes there's no time like the present to
learn about the past. I'm Gabe Lucier, and in this episode,
we're looking at an incident that brought new meaning to
the term political infighting. As a warning, today's episode contains
descriptions of physical violence that some listeners may find disturbing.

(00:42):
The day was May twenty second, eighteen fifty six. Congressman
Preston Brooks attacked Senator Charles Sumner with a metal tipped cane.
The brutal beating was in response to a speech Sumner
had given several days earlier, which he argued against the
expansion of slavery and insulted several pro slavery senators. Sumner

(01:07):
barely survived the attack and was absent from the Senate
for three years while he recuperated. The shocking incident highlighted
the growing animosity between the North and the South, pointing
the way to the Civil War, which would erupt just
five years later. On May nineteen, Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner

(01:28):
began a fiery two day speech on the Senate floor
His main topic was the controversial issue of whether the
Kansas Territory should be admitted to the Union as a
slave state or a free state. The Kansas Nebraska Act
of eighteen fifty four had sought to resolve that issue
by establishing popular sovereignty as the law of the land.

(01:51):
That basically meant that people who lived in a given
territory had the right to vote on whether to legalize
or to outlaw slavery. In practice, the policy created more
problems than it solved, as proponents of slavery began swarming
into the territory in an effort to tip the vote.
This inevitably brought them into conflict with Kansas abolitionists, resulting

(02:15):
in a series of violent encounters known as Bleeding Kansas.
Senator Sumner denounced popular sovereignty in his speech, referring to
it as a quote crime against Kansas, which was compelling
it to the hateful embrace of slavery. The Republican senator
then called out two of his Democratic colleagues for enabling

(02:39):
this crime. The first was Stephen Douglas of Illinois, whom
Sumner described as quote the squire of slavery, ready to
do its humiliating offices, A noisome, squat and nameless animal,
not a proper model for an American senator. Then Sumner
directed his eye at Andrew Butler of South Carolina, a

(03:03):
self styled Southern gentleman who claimed to live by a
strict code of chivalry. Butler wasn't present in the Senate
chamber that day due to his failing health, but Sumner
took aim at him all the same, impugning his character
by suggesting he had taken slavery as his mistress. Listening
from the back of the room, Stephen Douglas reportedly said

(03:26):
quote that damned fool will get himself killed by some
other damned fool, a prediction that was very nearly proven
correct just a couple days later, because while Senator Butler
hadn't heard what was said about him, his cousin, Congressman
Preston Brooks, had hung on every word. Brooks was a
representative of South Carolina and didn't appreciate Sumner's degradation of

(03:51):
his home state or his relative. Brooks was notoriously hot
headed and had a history of violence. In fact, the
reason he walked with a cane was because he'd been
shot in the hip. Sixteen years earlier, during a duel
with a future Texas Senator, Brooks considered challenging Sumner to
a duel as well, but later decided the senator didn't

(04:13):
deserve the chance to defend himself because he'd insulted Butler
behind his back and proved that he was no gentleman.
In the end, Brooks chose a less dignified form of retaliation.
He cornered Sumner on the Senate floor and caned him
like a dog. On the afternoon of May twenty second,
shortly after the Senate had adjourned for the day, Congressman

(04:36):
Brooks entered the mostly empty chamber with his wooden cane
in hand. He was accompanied by Lawrence Keat, a fellow
South Carolina representative, who stood at the door with a
loaded pistol in case anyone tried to intervene. Sumner was
sitting at his desk stamping copies of his Crime against
Kansas speech. The next thing he knew, Brooks was ranting

(04:59):
about Southern hono and beating him over the head with
a cane. Sumner tried to get away, but his legs
were pinned by his heavy desk, which was bolted to
the floor. He eventually managed to slip free and began
staggering toward the exit, half blinded by his own blood.
Half Way up the aisle, he collapsed, unconscious, but still

(05:19):
Brooks didn't let up. He continued pummeling Sumner with the
gold tip of his cane, striking him so hard that
the cane finally snapped over his head. Satisfied at last,
Brooks quietly left the chamber as other congressmen rushed to
Sumner's aid. Disoriented and bleeding badly, he was carried into
a Capital ante room, where he was examined by a

(05:41):
doctor and given several stitches to close his head wounds.
The savage beating had lasted maybe a minute total, but
the fallout from it lasted years. Right away, members of
the Southern press began lionizing Preston Brooks. Papers like the
Richmond Wig express their support, saying, quote, we are rejoiced.

(06:03):
The only regret we feel is that mister Brooks did
not employ a slave whip instead of a stick. And
speaking of stycks, brooks admirers sent him dozens of replacement
canes for the one he had broken over Sumner's head.
Some of which were even presented to Brooks in person
at banquets held in his honor. Meanwhile, up north, the

(06:26):
press lamented the fallen state of what was supposed to
be the world's greatest deliberative body. In a tongue in
cheek editorial, The New York Times even suggested that a
champion bare knuckles boxer should be sent to Congress on
the North's behalf, now that Southern representatives had resorted to
physical violence. In terms of punishment, Brooks was fined three

(06:49):
hundred dollars for assault by a Baltimore District court, and
angry House members called for his and Keat's expulsion. A
vote was held, but it failed to guard under the
two thirds majority needed to dismiss him, though Keat was
formally censured for brandishing a loaded gun. Nonetheless, the two
men were so outraged by the attempt to hold them

(07:12):
accountable that they actually resigned following the vote. In the end,
it was a hollow gesture, as South Carolina voters held
a special election to fill their seats that fall and
immediately voted them both back in. However, there was one
last twist to the story. Less than two months after
reclaiming his seat. Preston Brooks died of respiratory infection at

(07:37):
the age of thirty seven. As for Sumner, it took
him three years to fully recover from his injuries, and
even then he suffered chronic pain for the rest of
his life. During his absence from the Senate, his desk
was left empty as a reminder of Brooks's shameful attack.
Others in the Republican Party showed support for their colleague

(07:59):
by distributing nearly a million copies of his Crime against
Kansas speech. Sumner returned to the Senate in eighteen fifty
nine and continued to serve for another fifteen years, right
up until his death in eighteen seventy four. His fellow
Republicans advised him to tone down his rhetoric after returning
to the Senate, but Sumner refused, saying, quote, when crime

(08:23):
and criminals are thrust before us, they are to be
met by all the energies that God has given us
by argument, scorn, sarcasm, and denunciation. True to his word,
Sumner delivered his first speech following his return on June fourth,
eighteen sixty. It was titled The Barbarism of Slavery, and

(08:44):
it was just as fiery as the one he'd given
four years earlier. Say sir, in your madness. He wrote
that you own the sun, the stars, the moon, but
do not say that you own a man endowed with
a soul that shall live immortal when sun and moon
and stars have passed away. Sumner was once again criticized

(09:07):
and threatened for his condemnation of slavery, but thankfully no
one else resorted to violence to shut him up. The
caning of Charles Sumner symbolized the breakdown of reasoned discourse
between the North and the South. The sectional battle lines
had been drawn, setting the nation on a hopeless path
toward full scale civil war. I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully

(09:34):
you now know a little more about history today than
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(09:55):
at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays and benha
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listening I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another
day in history class.