Attack+of+Charles+Sumner+by+Preston+Brooks

The Attack of Charles Sumner by Preston Brooks ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍by Marc Spera and David Lehman ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍

During 1856, around Springtime, possibly May, most probably the 22nd, there was a fight between Charles Sumner and Preston Brook. Well, by a fight we really mean Charles Sumner got his face implanted with splinters of wood and ‍‍gold. ‍ ‍

Charles Sumner: Charles Sumner was an American Polititian serving in the Senate for Massachusettes. He was around 55 when he was beaten by a cane in the Senate house. Charles wrote a speech that attacked the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was the split between Kansas and Nebraska because of slavery. The authors of this act were Stephen A Douglas and Andrew Butler, Brooks is Butler's nephew.

Preston Brooks: Preston Smith Brooks was a Democratic Congressman from the Southern American state of South Carolina. He is widely remembered in history for delivering a brutal, vicious beating upon fellow Senator Charles Sumner with a gutta-percha cane. He beat the old man violently in the middle of the Senate floor as a response to a Slavery speech which Sumner made to everyone. In the speech, he compared Brooks' close relative from South Carolina, Senator Andrew Butler, to a "Pimp" (or some kind of other slang, demeaning word), which was an extremely racial act at the time. In response, the two men got into a scuffle where in the end Brooks beat Sumner senselessly. As an affect, he was praised and cheered by the people across the Southern states for standing up for himself and delivering his message across to the Senate. The citizens in the North, however, were not so fond of his actions and did not take the beating of Sumner all that well. The Northern people began to view the Southern people as vicious and violent fanatics and were very demeaning and outraged. This event furthermore lead to more disputes between the Northern people and Southern people which pushes the nation one step closer to a Civil War.  THE EFFECTS: The effects of this act of violence were seen throughout America as a whole. The people in the South who praised Brooks began making new canes with messages of praise on them for what he did and how he was a good leader for standing up for himself. Members of Congress from the Southern states also began to bring weapons, such as knifes and even pistols, to Congressional Chambers and meeting to avoid any sudden incidents. In the North, people viewed him and all Southerners as cowardly and barbaric and the trust between the two regions began to diminish rapidly. Violence and uneasiness soon spread into Congress and the Legislature and Senators everywhere were beginning to argue about all kinds of matter which only split the nation even more apart, hence leading to a Civil War.