Democratic (constitutionalist) Representative Preston S. Brooks, of South Carolina, using a cane, severely beats Republican (nationalist) Charles Sumner, of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for making a personal attack against his uncle Democratic Senator Andrew Pickens Butler, also of South Carolina.
Postscript: Sumner’s beating was so intense that he was unable to return to the Senate for three years.
[added 9/26/2026]
Subsequent Events:
References:
Paul Johnson, A History of the American People, (New York: HarperPerennial, 1997), 429.
Current U.s. National Debt:
