The Brutal Caning That Nearly Killed a U.S. Senator

On May 22nd, 1856, a sitting Congressman walked into the U.S. Senate chamber and unleashed a brutal assault on a fellow lawmaker.

Rep. Preston Brooks of South Carolina entered the chamber with a cane. He approached Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, who was seated at his desk. Without warning, Brooks began striking Sumner repeatedly in the head.

The attack lasted one minute. Sumner, trapped under his desk bolted to the floor, could not escape. Brooks continued the beating until his cane snapped. Sumner lost consciousness.

The cause? A speech.

Sumner had delivered a fiery anti-slavery address two days earlier titled "The Crime Against Kansas." He singled out pro--lavery Senators, including Andrew Butler, Brooks' cousin. Brooks considered the speech an insult to his family and Southern honor.

The beating left Sumner bleeding and severely injured. He did not return to the Senate for three years. Brooks resigned from the House but was overwhelmingly re-elected.

The North was outraged. The South applauded. Canes were mailed to Brooks in support. The Senate refused to expel him.

Brooks was arrested. He was tried in a D.C. court and fined $300. No jail time. No Congressional censure. The legal response was mild. Political consequences? None that hurt his career in the South. In fact, his popularity surged.

This wasn't just an assault. It was a signal of what was coming.

The caning of Charles Sumner showed how deep the sectional divide had grown. It was a public breakdown of political civility - caught not in whispers, but in violence under the Capitol dome.

Just four years later, the country would go to war.

Filed under: General Knowledge