Cane That Said Hit Him Again

Written by: Stephen Puleo, Independent Historian

Past the stop of this section, y'all will:

• Explain how regional differences related to slavery acquired tension in the years leading upwards to the Civil State of war
• Explain the political causes of the Civil War

Suggested Sequencing

Use this Narrative to further illustrate the tension between northern and southern states, culminating in the kickoff of the Civil War.

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Aureate-headed cane in hand, South Carolina representative Preston Brooks approached an unsuspecting Senator Charles Sumner on Thursday, May 22, 1856, thankful the wait was finally over. The two days since Charles Sumner's inflammatory speech on the Senate floor had seemed like a lifetime. Fifty-fifty moments earlier, Brooks had delayed his deportment when he noticed a woman in the Senate Sleeping accommodation; he could hardly carry out his mission to avenge his kin and his region in the presence of a woman. It would violate the code of laurels past which he lived every bit a southern gentleman.

When the woman finished her conversation and left, Brooks waited another moment, his eyes boring into the abolitionist Sumner, whom Brooks viewed as one of the most dangerous threats to the futurity of the S. Sumner, from Massachusetts, seemed oblivious to his presence and to anything else except the spoken communication copies he was signing, or "franking," for constituents, the aforementioned voice communication he had delivered over five hours between May 19 and xx and that had infuriated Brooks in the offset place.

In the oration, which he titled "The Crime Against Kansas," Sumner had vilified southern slaveholders for violence occurring in Kansas, insulted Brooks's dwelling state, and hurled personal slurs against Brooks'southward second cousin, South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler.

Brooks felt a "high and holy obligation" to avenge the insults Sumner had directed toward his family unit and his state. Anything less and he would be humiliated every bit a man, a slaveholder, a proud South Carolinian, an abet for the southern way of life. Brooks saw no alternative; his years of adhering to the southern code of honour demanded he retaliate against Sumner. Nonetheless, by beating Sumner rather than challenging him to a duel, Brooks was implying that his opponent was not a gentleman worthy of respect.

S Carolina Representative Preston Brooks brutally attacked Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner after Sumner's 1856 voice communication denouncing slavery.

Brooks reached Sumner'southward desk, where the Senator was writing, head down, unaware of his presence. Sumner'southward chair was drawn up close, his long legs pinned under the desk.

"Mr. Sumner," Brooks began. "I have read your oral communication twice over advisedly. It is a libel on South Carolina and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine." And then he raised his cane.

Ii essential components of Charles Sumner'southward character had guided his preparation for and delivery of the controversial speech – one easily defined and virtuous, the other complex and dark. Without question, Sumner's antislavery convictions were admirable and resolute. He never wavered in denouncing slavery's evils, demanding that it be wiped out of being. By 1856, the abolition of slavery, pure and simple, was the driving forcefulness of his political life. In this quest, he stood taller and firmer than anyone in America, including Abraham Lincoln and William Lloyd Garrison. Yet Sumner's dark side was every bit as influential in shaping his persona. Egotism and narcissism also consumed him; his airs was well known to friend and foe alike. He cared trivial for the opinions or feelings of others, and his vox dripped with condescension when he delivered advice. He was intolerant of criticism, nearly incapable of conciliation, and virtually humorless; he had few close friends and only lukewarm political alliances. In short, the inspirational music of Sumner's antislavery message was ofttimes drowned out by the tone-deaf insolence of the messenger.

In his bold, confrontational, even incendiary speech, Sumner did not finish with a recitation of bug and possible resolutions. Instead, he viciously insulted the elderly Andrew Butler, who was not present in the Sleeping accommodation (he was at habitation recovering from a stroke) and the country from which Butler hailed. He charged that Butler had "chosen a mistress [who] . . . though ugly to others is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight – I mean the harlot, Slavery." He taunted Butler for his state'southward reliance on "the shameful imbecility of slavery." When he had finished, northerners and southerners objected strongly to Sumner's personal invective, especially because Butler was not present to defend himself.

Preston Brooks simmered. In the 36 hours following the speech, whether he visited a "parlor, or drawing room, or dinner political party," the talk was all about Sumner'due south insults to Brooks'due south "Country and his countrymen" and what could be done in response. "I felt information technology to be my duty to relieve Butler and avenge the insult to my State," he said.

When Sumner looked up and saw Brooks heighten his arm, he moved every bit if to rise, only Brooks struck him on the top of the head with the smaller terminate of the cane, causing an outpouring of blood that blinded Sumner.

Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner'due south 1856 speech condemned the Kansas-Nebraska Act and argued that Kansas should be immediately admitted as a costless state.

Brooks so struck Sumner again and again on his head and face with the heavy finish of the cane. Sumner struggled to rise, but his legs were all the same pinned under his desk. After a dozen blows to the caput, his optics blinded with claret, he roared and made a desperate effort to ascent. His trapped legs wrenched the desk (which was bolted to the floor by an iron plate and heavy screws) from its moorings. Sumner staggered forrad down the aisle, at present an even easier target for Brooks, who connected to beat him beyond the caput. Brooks rained down blows upon Sumner. "Every lick went where I intended," Brooks recalled later.

Equally he pounded Sumner, Brooks's cane snapped, only he continued to strike the senator with the splintered piece. "Oh, Lord," Sumner gasped, "Oh! Oh!" Brooks grabbed the helpless and reeling Sumner by the lapel and held him up with one hand while continuing to strike him with the other. He thrashed Sumner, delivering "about 30 first-rate stripes." Most the end of the beating, Sumner was "entirely insensible," though earlier he succumbed, he "bellowed like a dogie," co-ordinate to Brooks.

Two New York representatives, bystanders in the Senate Sleeping accommodation, finally intervened as the fracas wound down. One cradled the fallen Sumner, who, caput and face covered in blood, groaned piteously at beginning and then went silent, "equally senseless equally a corpse for several minutes, his caput bleeding copiously. . . and blood saturating his wearing apparel." Friends led Brooks to a side room. Other southerners picked upward pieces of the splintered cane; afterwards, these scraps were fashioned into rings that many southern lawmakers wore on neck chains as a sign of solidarity with Brooks.

This famous 1856 political drawing of the caning of Charles Sumner criticizes Preston Brooks for using a club against Sumner'south penned argument.

Meanwhile, colleagues helped a wobbly Sumner into a wagon and accompanied him to his nearby lodgings, where he was examined by a physician. Shocked and in pain, the Senator remarked before falling asleep, "I could not believe such a thing like this was possible."

News of the caning swept the country like a brushfire. Most of the nation's 3,000 newspapers carried the story on their front pages; in the Southward, Brooks was celebrated with glorious editorials about southern honor and pride. In the North, he was vilified as a creature and a barbarian who perhaps represented the bulk of slaveholders. Hundreds of southerners sent him replica canes every bit gifts, many inscribed with the words "Hit him over again!" Northerners – even moderates who normally would have idea Sumner too radical on the slavery consequence – found themselves supporting the Massachusetts senator unequivocally.

Brooks not only shattered his pikestaff during the chirapsia, he also destroyed any pretense of civility between North and Due south. I of the most shocking and provocative events in American. history, the caning convinced both sides that the gulf betwixt them was unbridgeable. Its violence fueled the sectionalism of the decade. Moderate voices now were drowned out; extremist views became intractable and locked both sides in a standoff course. Sumner survived the chirapsia – although he was absent for more than three years while recovering – just political compromise suffered a mortal accident. Slavery was now seen as office of a titanic moral struggle between sections with very different characters.

The caning was part of the dramatic rush of events toward war, which included the increasing militancy of abolitionists, the "Bleeding Kansas" event, the rise of the antislavery Republican Party, the Dred Scott decision of 1857, John Chocolate-brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, the election of Abraham Lincoln, and the secession of southern states. It shocked and divided the land and helped button America to armed conflict between regions. Several factors, predominately slavery, conspired to cause the Civil State of war, and the caning was inextricably linked to them.

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Review Questions

i. The "crime against Kansas" that Senator Charles Sumner referred to in his congressional speech was the

1. Southward'southward ultimate responsibility for the violence resulting from the Kansas-Nebraska Act
2. pro-union riots that occurred in support of organized labor
3. decision to create up to 5 slave states from the Kansas-Nebraska Territory
4. refusal of Congress to allow popular sovereignty to proceed in Kansas

two. In the antebellum South, the southern lawmaking of honor demanded

1. gender equality
2. arbitration to resolve disputes
3. the avenging of insults
4. political compromise on the issue of slavery

3. On the question of slavery, Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner'south view was most similar to that of

1. President James Buchanan
2. William Lloyd Garrison
3. Senator Stephen Douglas
4. Senator Henry Dirt

4. In the aftermath of the Sumner-Brooks incident, it became apparent that

1. Henry Clay's efforts to seek a political solution to slavery would work
2. Congressional representatives from west of the Mississippi River would earn the 1860 presidential nominations
3. opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act was diminishing
4. political compromise between the North and the South was unlikely

5. Which statement is most accurate regarding the Sumner-Brooks incident?

1. Both men were considered heroes in their respective regions, further increasing exclusive tensions.
2. Charles Sumner retired from office and later became a supporter of lenient treatment of the Southward during Reconstruction.
3. The Supreme Court censured Preston Brooks and removed him from Congress.
4. Preston Brooks was jailed for assail, but his apology served to lessen sectional discord.

6. What effect immediately preceded the Sumner-Brooks incident?

1. The Supreme Courtroom issued the Dred Scott decision.
2. "Haemorrhage Kansas"
3. Compromise of 1850
4. Presidential election of Abraham Lincoln

Gratuitous Response Questions

1. Explain Preston Brooks'south response to Charles Sumner'due south "Criminal offense Confronting Kansas" speech in the Senate.
2. Explain how the Sumner-Brooks incident afflicted the slavery debate.

AP Practice Questions

Arguments of the Chivalry, 1856. About a week after the violent event depicted in the paradigm, Henry Ward Beecher gave a speech in New York in which he proclaimed, "The symbol of the North is the pen; the symbol of the South is the bludgeon."

Refer to the image provided.

1. Which of the following contradicts the statement, "The symbol of the N is the pen; the symbol of the S is the bludgeon," in the cartoon?

1. Publication of the abolitionist novel Uncle Tom's Cabin
2. Passage of laws in northern states refusing to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act
3. John Chocolate-brown's raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry
4. Issuance of the Emancipation Annunciation

2. The image most directly resulted from

1. the question of whether to declare war on United mexican states
2. the access of California equally a gratis state
3. the secession of South Carolina
4. the sectional tension regarding slavery in the United States

3. The provided illustration reflects a growing belief that

1. the legislation Henry Clay promoted in 1820 and 1850 achieved political stability
2. political compromise was unlikely to succeed
3. tertiary parties could not win electoral votes
4. northern writers produced work of little literary value

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Main Sources

Select Committee appointed to inquire upon the circumstances attending the attack committed upon the person of Hon. Charles Sumner, a member of the Senate, H.R. Rep. 182-34, (1856).

https://world wide web.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/SumnerInvestigation1856.pdf

Brooks, Preston S. The Preston S. Brooks Papers. South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC.

Lucas, Gloria Ramsey, Slave Records of Edgefield, Due south Carolina. Edgefield, SC: Edgefield Historical Gild, 2010.

The Resolutions of the Legislature of Massachusetts Relative to the Recent Set on upon the Hon. Mr. Sumner. June xi, 1856.

Palmer, Beverly Wilson, ed. The Selected Letters of Charles Sumner, 2 vols. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1990.

Sumner, Charles. The Papers of Charles Sumner, 1811-1874. Boston Public Library..

Sumner, Charles. The Works of Charles Sumner. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1875.

Suggested Resources

Dietrich, Ken. "E'er Able, Manly, Only and Heroic: Preston Smith Brooks and the Myth of Southern Manhood." Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association(2011):27-38.

Donald, David Herbert. Charles Sumer and the Coming of the Civil War. Chicago: University of Chicago Printing, 1960.

Freeman, Joanne B. The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Route to Civil State of war. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018.

Gienapp, William E. "The Crime Against Sumner: The Caning of Charles Sumner and the Rising of the Republican Party." Ceremonious War History. September (1979):218-245.

Hoffer, Williamjames Hull. The Caning of Charles Sumner: Accolade, Idealism, and the Origins of the Civil War. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Academy Press, 2010.

Mathis, Robert Neil. "Preston Smith Brooks: The Man and His Image." Due south Carolina Historical Magazine. October (1978):296-310.

Nevins, Allan. Ordeal of the Wedlock, Volume one:Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847-1852; Ordeal of the Spousal relationship, Volume 2:A House Dividing, 1852-1857. New York: Charles Scribner'south Sons, 1947.

Puleo, Stephen. The Caning: The Assault that Drove America to Civil War. New York: Westholme, 2011.

Slusser, Daniel Lawrence. "In Defense force of Southern Laurels: Preston Brooks and the Attack on Charles Sumner."CalPoly Periodical of History, ii (2010):98-110.

mcdougallprephicer.blogspot.com

Source: https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/charles-sumner-and-preston-brooks

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