12. Responding to a denouncement by Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina attacked and almost killed his colleague on the floor of the Senate
During a speech on May 20, 1856, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts denounced the Kansas-Nebraska Act as “The Crime Against Kansas“, arguing the territory should be admitted to the union without any expansion of slavery. Employing intentionally provocative language, including graphic sexual imagery, Sumner accused Southerners of supporting slavery so greatly because they enjoyed raping their slave mistresses so much. Deeply offending Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina, Brooks considered challenging Sumner to a duel but believed the Massachusetts Senator to be of insufficient social standing to warrant the privilege of dueling a gentleman such as himself.
Instead, resolving to punish Sumner with a public beating, two days later Brooks entered the Senator’s chamber accompanied by his lackeys. Confronting Sumner at his desk, as Sumner attempted to rise Brooks began violently striking the Senator over the head with a gold-topped cane. Staggering down the aisle, Sumner collapsed unconscious on the floor of the Senate. As other members of Congress rushed to restrain Brooks, one of his companions, Representative Laurence Keitt, drew a pistol and ordered the Senators to back away. Continuing to beat Sumner until his cane broke, subsequently departing in silence, Sumner’s physical recovery would take three years and he would endure lifelong injuries from the attack.