May 22

It should be apparent to even the most casual of observers that the world of politics can at times be just a tad contentious. I think, however, contemporary politicians have a long way to go before they surpass their predecessors. On the 22nd in 1856, Senator Preston Brooks (pictured), of South Carolina, beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in a hallway of the United States Senate.
Brooks, from South Carolina, had become quite angry by a speech that Sumner had made that criticized the pro-slavery violence in Kansas during the Bloody Kansas period. It had been Brooks’ original plan to challenge Sumner to a duel but was talked out of that by a colleague who pointed out that the etiquette of dueling required the participants to be of the same social standing. Feeling that Sumner was on par with a common drunkard, Brooks quickly abandoned that option.
Charles Sumner was the senator from Massachusetts and the one of the states’ most ardent opponents of slavery.