The 1856 Caning of Charles Sumner in the United States Senate
It has been considered symbolic of the “breakdown of reasoned discourse” and the use of violence that eventually led to the Civil War. Introduction The Caning of Charles Sumner, or the Brooks–Sumner Affair, occurred on May 22, 1856, in the United States Senate chamber, when Representative Preston Brooks, a pro-slavery Democrat from South Carolina, used[…]