ATTACK ON CONGRESS



My Reflexion on past and present events.



On May 23, 1856 during a session of Congress in Philadelphia, Charles Sumner a Senator from Massachusetts, gave an impassioned speech directed against Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina, and the evils of slavery. The Butler family, collectively, were the largest slave owners in the country.

A 37 year old junior senator from South Carolina, a relative of the Butlers, Preston Brooks, became outraged over Sumner's attack on his mentor, his family, and his state. Brooks physically attacked Sumner with a cane; beat him so badly about the head, caused injuries so serious, Sumner was absent from his seat in Congress for a year. It took Sumner years before he fully recovered from the attack. A full-fledge fight between the sections nearly erupted in the halls of Congress. A few weeks after this near riot in Congress, on June 12, 1856, Andrew Butler gave such an impassioned defense of Brooks that the move to expel Brooks failed. Brooks received only a Reprimand from Congress.

When Brooks returned to South Carolina, he was hailed as a hero. He was given SILVER CANES by supporters to commemorate and show support for his caning of Sumner.

Ironically, on January 27, 1857, Brooks who had been ill with a sore throat and fever for a few days, took a sudden turn for the worse, was suddenly stricken with a "spamodic paroxysm" that impared his breathing and within moments, he was dead! A further irony occurred when Andrew Butler, the Brooks defender, died almost a year later to the day that Brooks caned Sumner.

Even though Andrew Butler and Preston Brooks did not live to see the Civil War, the disruption brought in the halls of Congress in 1856 by their actions, could be viewed as the opening blows leading to the Civil War!