Preston Brooks

Well, listen, on the left, they've been doing this for a long time, it sounds like.

I mean, think about slavery, you know, the period that I'm familiar with and abolitionism, like the lynching and murder of Elijah Lovejoy, the abolitionist printer in Illinois, right? I mean, the caning of Charles Sumner by Preston Brooks, right? A congressman.

That's a horrible story.

Right.

William Lloyd Garrison's outraged manhood brought the blush of shame to the cheek of the honest American who loved his country's honor better than any individual institution.

The memory of Charles Sumner's brutal beating by Preston Brooks stamped the mad passions of the hour indelibly upon history's page.

Debate in the Senate became fiery and dangerous as the crisis approached in the absorbing question of the perpetuation of slavery.

At the South, laws were enacted abridging the freedom of speech and press.

William Lloyd Garrison's outraged manhood brought the blush of shame to the cheek of the honest American who loved his country's honor better than any individual institution.

The memory of Charles Sumner's brutal beating by Preston Brooks stamped the mad passions of the hour indelibly upon history's page.

Debate in the Senate became fiery and dangerous as the crisis approached in the absorbing question of the perpetuation of slavery.

At the South, laws were enacted abridging the freedom of speech and press.

But, you know, again, there's also-

Although when we think about the caning of Sumner, I mean, Sumner, I don't know off the top of my head how old he was, but Preston Brooks came over, and South Carolinian, and who caned him.

He then left and went to Europe for, I mean, he was badly, badly injured, but he was gone for years, right? And this is Sumner.

And I don't know-

I've actually only been able to find three other situations where something like this happened.

One of the most famous is where Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner unconscious with a gold cane on the Senate floor.

This was in 1856, with the fight being between a Southerner and a Northerner over issues of, basically, that came from slavery.

Another brawl happened in 1858.

William Lloyd Garrison's outraged manhood brought the blush of shame to the cheek of the honest American who loved his country's honor better than any individual institution.

The memory of Charles Sumner's brutal beating by Preston Brooks stamped the mad passions of the hour indelibly upon history's page.

Debate in the Senate became fiery and dangerous as the crisis approached in the absorbing question of the perpetuation of slavery.

At the South, laws were enacted abridging the freedom of speech and press.

And it is a speech...

On the Senate floor against Kansas, against the Kansas-Nebraska Act, that gets Charles Sumner, senator from Massachusetts, tamed to within an inch of his life by Preston Brooks, South Carolina congressman.

On the Senate floor, a Massachusetts abolitionist senator is caned, like with a man beats him with his cane to the point where he almost dies.

The cane breaks in two.

And the story gets out immediately.

It's reported on the telegraph lines.

And you have papers in the North calling it, you know, an abomination and how could this happen? Papers in the South celebrating Preston Brooks saying that Charles Sumner deserved what was coming to him.

And that's that Brooks should go and take take his cane to the rest of the northern delegations.

Let's shift gears.

At this point in time, Republican leadership with people like the famous, the famous hater of Congress, Thaddeus Stevens, the brutal and bloodthirsty Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, and people like Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, who Preston Brooks famously caned back before the war.

And other radicals, Benjamin Butler, the famous General Benjamin Butler, famously nicknamed Beast Butler by the indignant women of the South who he had insulted and given his men license to sexually assault in New Orleans.

He becomes senator from Massachusetts as well.