422

8. Bleeding Kansas and “Bully” Brooks _______________________________________

I. Charles Sumner Assails the Slavocracy (1856)

The erasing o f the Missouri Compromise line in 1854 touched o ff a frantic tug-of-
w ar between South a n d North to make Kansas either a slave or a free state. “Border
ruffians, ”p ou rin g into Kansas from slave holding Missouri by the hundreds, set up a
fraudulent but legal government. Resolute pioneers f rom the North, som e o f them
assisted by the New England Emigrant Aid Company, countered by fou n d in g
Lawrence, setting up an extra legal f ree-soilgovernment, a n d seeking adm ission as a
free state. Aroused by the resulting civil war, Senator Charles Sumner o f Massachusetts—
a handsome, egotistical, a n d flam ingly outspoken abolitionist—assailed the slavery
men in a savage two-day speech (“The Crime against Ka n s a s”). He singled out the
slave holding state o f South Carolina, a n d in particular her well-liked Senator Andrew P.
Butler, who, declared Sumner, h ad taken as his “mistress” “the harlot, slavery.What
”
aspects o f the speech would he most offen siv e to a South Carolina gentlemen ”?

C ongressional Globe, 34th Congress, 1st session (May 19-20, 1856), Appendix, pp. 530, 543.
B. B leeding K ansas a n d “Bully ” Brooks 423

If the slave states cannot enjoy what, in mockery o f the great Fathers o f the Re
public, he [Butler] misnames equality under the Constitution— in other words, the
full pow er in the national territories to com pel fellow men to unpaid toil, to separate
husband and wife, and to sell little children at the auction block— then, sir, the
chivalric Senator will conduct the state o f South Carolina out o f the Union! Heroic
knight! Exalted Senator! A second M oses com e for a secon d exodus!
But not content with this poor m e n a ce ... the Senator, in the unrestrained
chivalry o f his nature, has undertaken to apply opprobrious words to those w ho dif
fer from him on this floor. He calls them “sectional and fanatical”; and opposition to
the usurpation in Kansas he denounces as “an uncalculating fanaticism.” To be sure,
these charges lack all grace o f originality, and all sentiment o f truth; but the adventur
ous Senator does not hesitate. He is the uncompromising, unblushing representative
on this floor o f a flagrant sectionalism, which now domineers over the Republic. ...
With regret, I com e again upon the Senator from South Carolina [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, dis
charged the loose expectoration o f his speech,* now upon her representative, and
then upon her people. There was no extravagance o f the ancient parliamentary de
bate which he did not repeat. Nor was there any possible deviation from truth
which he did not make, with so much o f passion, I am glad to add, as to save him
from the suspicion o f intentional aberration.
But the Senator touches nothing which he d oes not disfigure— with error, som e
times o f principle, som etimes o f fact. He show s an incapacity o f accuracy, whether in
stating the Constitution or in stating the law, whether in the details o f statistics or the
diversions o f scholarship. He cannot o p e his mouth but out there flies a blunder. .. .

[Sumner next attacks South Carolina, with its “sham eful imbecility" o f slavery,
f o r presum ing to sit in ju dgm en t over free-soil Kansas a n d block the la tter’s adm is
sion as a fr e e state.]

South Carolina is old; Kansas is young. South Carolina counts by centuries;

where Kansas counts by years. But a beneficent exam ple may be born in a day; and
I venture to say that against the two centuries o f the older state may be already set
the two years o f trial, evolving corresponding virtue, in the younger community. In
the one is the long wail o f Slavery; in the other, the hymns o f Freedom. And if we
glance at special achievements, it will be difficult to find anything in the history o f
South Carolina which presents so much o f heroic spirit in an heroic cause as ap
pears in that repulse o f the Missouri invaders by the beleaguered town o f Lawrence,
where even the w om en gave their efforts to Freedom. . . .
Were the w hole history o f South Carolina blotted out o f existence, from its very
beginning dow n to the day o f the last election o f the Senator to his present seat on
this floor, civilization might lose— I d o not say how little; but surely less than it has
already gained by the exam ple o f Kansas, in its valiant struggle against oppression,
and in the developm ent o f a new science o f emigration. Already in Lawrence alone
there are newspapers and schools, including a high school, and throughout this in
fant territory there is m ore mature scholarship far, in proportion to its inhabitants,

'Butler suffered from a slight paralysis o f the mouth.

424 Chapter 19 D rifting Toward Disunion, 1854-1861

than in all South Carolina. Ah, sir, 1 tell the Senator that Kansas, w elcom ed as a free
state, will be a “ministering angel” to the Republic when South Carolina, in the cloak
of darkness which she hugs, “lies howling.”

2. The South Justifies Yankee-Beaters (1856)

Southern fire-eaters h ad already used abusive language in Congress, but Sum n er’s
epithets infuriated Congressman Brooks o f South Carolina. Resenting the insults to
bis state a n d to his cousin (Senator Butler), he entered the Senate cham ber a n d
broke his cane over the bead o f Sumner, then sitting at his desk. The senator fe ll
bleeding to the floor, while several other members o f Congress, perhaps thinking that
he was getting his ju st desserts, m ade no effort to rescue him. His nervous system
shattered, Sum ner was incapacitated f o r about three years; Brooks resigned bis seat
a n d was unanim ously reelected. A resolution passed by the citizens o f his district ap
plauded his exhibition o f “the true spirit o f Southern chivalry a n d patriotism ” in
“chastising, coolly a n d deliberately, the vile a n d laivless Sumner. ” The sam e group
sent him a new ca n e inscribed, “Use knock-down arguments. ” What does the follow
ing editorial in an Alabama newspaper suggest about the general attitude o f the
white South a n d what it portended f o r the Union?

There are but two papers in the state that w e have seen that denounce the chas
tisement o f Sumner by Mr. Brooks as a shameful outrage. One o f them is the Mobile
Tribune, on e of the editors o f which is a Yankee, and the other is a sheet, the name
o f which w e shall not mention.
With the exception o f the papers alluded to, the press o f the entire state have
fully approved o f the course Mr. Brooks pursued, under the circumstances, and rec
om m ended that other Southern members o f Congress adopt the same method o f si
lencing the foul-mouthed abolition emissaries o f the North. Indeed, it is quite
apparent, from recent developments, that the shillalah [club] is the best argument to
be applied to such low-bred mongrels.
More than six years ago, the abolitionists were told that if they intended to carry
out their principles, they must fight. When the Emigrant Aid Societies began to send
their [Yankee] tools to Kansas, they were told that if their object was to establish a
colony o f thieves under the name o f “Free State Men,” on the border of Missouri, for
the purpose o f keeping out Southerners and destroying slavery, they must fight. And
let them understand that if they intend to cariy their abolitionism into Congress, and
pour forth their disgusting obscenity and abuse o f the South in the Senate Chamber,
and force their doctrines dow n the throats o f Southerners, they must fight.
Let [editor Horace] Greeley be severely cowhided, and he will cease to publish
his blackguardism about Southern men. Let [Senators] Wilson and Sumner and
Seward, and the w hole host o f abolition agitators in Congress, be chastised to their
heart’s content, and, our w ord for it, they will cease to heap abuse upon our citizens.
We repeat, let our Representative in Congress use the cow hide and hickory stick
(and, if need be, the bow ie knife and revolver) more frequently, and w e’ll bet our
old hat that it will soon com e to pass that Southern institutions and Southern men
will be respected.

2Autauga (Alabama) Citizen, in 'The Liberator (Boston), July 4, 1856.

 C. The D re d Scott D ecision 425

3. The Delicate Balance (1856)

This chart was prepared f o r the 1856presidential election. In what ways does it re
flect grow in g tension over the slavery’ controversy?

W hile lkopiilalioii. POLITIC ~

-l_
, CHART I’rod tic Is or Uanurartures.
Slave States. - - 0.
Sl.*» r Stale*, - * 107.900.035
Free “ - 815.430,428

STATES
Point la lion lo Ihe Square Mile
Cnpilal in M anurarlures
f 95.918.84:
431,21*1.351
I leelon il Vole
WITH A COMPARATIVE, STATIsTHU. v ie w o p In.
New Han.i.-' Stive Stairs, . . Hu I,-jI8 ajiure milr>.
Free “ - 012.5.97 ••
North Carolina,
South farolim
U U B TM i H
JtC-M A N D S O
v../ U T
dik H n Ojienwl In Slav cry l»vthe Kan-ns-Nshraeka hill.
1,472,001 M|Uire mile*.
P U B L I S H E D BY T H E “ R O C K Y M O U N T A I N C L U B , " S P R I N C F I E L D , O H I O No. o f Fnriui in Slave State*, - 509.201
New JlTSeV.
M
,. ,-.,r “ *• Free “ - - S73.678
“ t'oUon Plantation*. (over live In lev,) 74,031
u A r m improved l.» nd. (Slave.) 54.970,328
~ “ “ (Free,) 57.720,494
• 31.<*t0,000
20 ,000 ,01)0
- 13.l**),l**>
“ “ in \\ heat, 1l,OUO,OOt>
“ “ in ColUm. - <V*o.om
Value of torn Crop *296,035.552
*• Wheat •• .moooimn
Aitiii In'r « f Slate Holders. 98.903.730
• 96.870.494
The Ileal KaUlenf the S.,uth eoinnrye. 258.-
911 i*|U» re i.-.:!,. mure than the area .4 ihe
North— an exee** eaual l<> the Easo-m aiul
-Middle State* and Ohio — while it* value is
*1.010,526,711 l.vi*.

P rop crlt laliiaiiuu

tali*.)
Slave State*. (Total Val-ie.) S2.:i:«
S22 .<m*.7.k»
4.102.1« *_\<***
Kalktr.) • 1.430,SHI. K»
2.447.115.871

tera» e i.tli.'t* -r Lnrunn* I

Slave Stale,
Free

Posl IHlicr 'till'.!:

Ilepresenlnlitm
Receipts in Slave Stales,
Senator* of Fifteen S low .sinto*. - 30
Sixteen P n o “ 32 Vole in 18U2. P u blic Libraries.
“ FW
e-n« - in Slav
TraR*p..rt oxi.*n*-- Slave States, 2.‘W7.2<5*
One Slave Slate Senator represent* 3*5,176 con In Slave States, 713Lihrarie*. 6S1.1M Voia Free •• 2,381,60.
st ituenla. Slave Stales. 305,280 440 446JM In Free “ 14.893 “ 3.883.017 *•
Free •• 1.007,069 118,871 1.195208 Slav e Slat.M, - 600.285 99
One Free State Senator represent* 413,813 con
stituent*. eStaten, - 2.01O.253 61
S ch ool Allendance o r Children. Vnlne o f Churches.
Member? Houae of HeimtH-iilative* (slave) f>» la Slave States, f211.038.5l I
' •• (free) 144 Slave Sulea, • 50.09 f> cent. In Free “ - - 08,773,517. \o. Wiles o f Canals and Kailroads.
One Southern M. 0. represents (18.725 eonstit- Free “ • • - . 90.90 «

Ono Northern M. C. represent* 91,'.tS8 constit* W hile ,W a lls unable lo Head o r W rile. N ew spapers and Periodicals.
Slave state., • 17.23 7ft eon: Slave Stairs 7tH— Ctreulathm. - 81.(i39,093
Free •• • - 4.12 “ Free •• 1800— ••334.146,281