On Thursday last, after the adjournment of the Senate, Mr. Brooks, member of the House from South Carolina, made an assault upon Mr. Sumner of Massachusetts, in the Senate chamber, beating him with a cane very severely. Mr. Sumner had delivered a two days' speech upon Kansas affairs, which was, beyond comparison, the most malignantly abusive and personally insulting towards a number of Senators that was ever delivered in the U.S. Senate. In the course of that speech, which was carefully prepared and written out before its delivery, he uttered the following: --
"With regret I come again upon the
Senator from South Carolina, [Mr. Butler,] who,
omnipresent in this debate, overflowed with
rage at the simple suggestion that Kansas had
applied for admission as a State, and with
incoherent phrases discharged the loose
expectoration of his speech, now upon her
representative and then upon her people. There was
no extravagance of the ancient parliamentary
debate which he did not repeat, nor was there
any possible deviation from truth which he did
not make. But the Senator touches nothing
which he does not disfigure with error, sometimes
of principle, sometimes of fact. He
shows an incapacity of accuracy, whether in
stating the constitution, or in stating the law;
whether in the details of statistics, or the
diversions of scholarship."
But it is against the people of Kansas that
the sensibilities of the Senator are particularly
aroused. Coming, as he announces, from a
State; -- aye, sir! from South Carolina -- he
turns with lordly disgust from this newly
formed community, which he will not recognize
evan as a "body politic." Pray, sir, by
what title does he indulge in this egotism? --
Has he read the history of "the State" which
he represents? He cannot, surely, have forgotten
its shameful imbecility from slavery,
confessed throughout the Revolution, followed
by its more shameful assumptions for slavery
since."
The Senator this violently and ruthlessly
assailed was absent, at his home in South
Carolina. He is an aged man, and one of the
most courteous, accomplished and respected
members of the Senate. Mr. Brooks is his
nephew, and took upon himself the responsibility
of punishing Mr. Sumner for this abuse
of his venerable uncle. Failing to meet him
elsewhere, Brooks went into the Senate chamber,
after the adjournment, where Sumner
This assault will find no apologists among our people, as it has no justification. It meets, as it merits, the most unqualified reprehension, and deserves the severest punishment. We regard it as utterly disgraceful, a gross outrage, and we regret and condemn it as sincerely as any of the political friends of Mr. S. can do; even the malignant slander of an aged and absent relative, and the most insulting libel upon his State, do not justify the assailant. And as the subject is to be investigated by both Houses of Congress and by the criminal court of the District, we treat the majesty of the law and the dignity of the national Legislature and the honor of the country will be fully and promptly vindicated.
But while we say and feel this, we must also
say that
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