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Brooks-Sumner-Affäre

Am 22. Mai 1856 schlug der demokratische Kongressabgeordnete Preston Brooks aus South Carolina im Senat der Vereinigten Staaten mit einem Gehstock auf den republikanischen Senator Charles Sumner aus Massachusetts ein und verletzte diesen schwer
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Vorlage:Events leading to US Civil War

On May 22, 1856, in the United States Congress, Representative Preston Brooks attacked Senator Charles Sumner with his walking cane in retaliation for a speech given by Sumner two days earlier. The beating nearly killed Sumner and it drew a sharply polarized response from the American public on the subject of the expansion of slavery in the United States. It has been considered symbolic of the "breakdown of reasoned discourse"[1] that eventually led to the American Civil War.

Background

Wikisource: The Crime against Kansas – Quellen und Volltexte

In 1856, during the "Bleeding Kansas" crisis, Sumner denounced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in his "Crime against Kansas" speech, delivered on May 19 and May 20. The long speech argued for the immediate admission of Kansas as a free state and went on to denounce the "Slave Power"—the political arm of the slave owners:

"Not in any common lust for power did this uncommon tragedy have its origin. It is the rape of a virgin Territory, compelling it to the hateful embrace of slavery; and it may be clearly traced to a depraved desire for a new Slave State, hideous offspring of such a crime, in the hope of adding to the power of slavery in the National Government."[2]

Sumner then attacked the authors of the Act, Senators Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina, saying,

"The senator from South Carolina has read many books of chivalry, and believes himself a chivalrous knight with sentiments of honor and courage. Of course he has chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight -- I mean the harlot, slavery. For her his tongue is always profuse in words. Let her be impeached in character, or any proposition made to shut her out from the extension of her wantonness, and no extravagance of manner or hardihood of assertion is then too great for this senator."

According to Manisha Sinha (2003), Sumner had been ridiculed and insulted by both Douglas and Butler for his opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law and the Kansas Nebraska Act earlier, with Butler even crudely race baiting Sumner. Butler made sexual allusions to black women and like many slaveholders accused abolitionists of promoting racial intermarriage.[3]

According to Hoffer (2010), "It is also important to note the sexual imagery that recurred throughout the oration, which was neither accidental nor without precedent. Abolitionists routinely accused slaveholders of maintaining slavery so that they could engage in forcible sexual relations with their slaves."[4] Douglas said to a colleague during the speech that "this damn fool Sumner is going to get himself shot by some other damn fool."[5]

Representative Preston Brooks, Butler's cousin, was infuriated. He later said that he intended to challenge Sumner to a duel, and consulted with fellow South Carolina Representative Laurence M. Keitt on dueling etiquette. Keitt told him that dueling was for gentlemen of equal social standing, and that Sumner was no better than a drunkard, due to the supposedly coarse language he had used during his speech. Brooks said that he concluded that since Sumner was no gentleman, it would be more appropriate to beat him with his cane.[6]

The day of the attack

 
Congressman Laurence Keitt advised Brooks and was with him when he assaulted Sumner.

Two days later, on the afternoon of May 22, Brooks entered the Senate chamber with Keitt and another ally, Congressman Henry A. Edmundson. They waited for the Senate galleries to clear, especially concerned that there be no ladies present to witness what Brooks intended to do.[7] He confronted Sumner as he sat writing at his desk in the almost empty Senate chamber: "Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine." As Sumner began to stand up, Brooks beat Sumner severely on the head before he could reach his feet, using a thick gutta-percha cane with a gold head.[8]

 
Congressman Henry A. Edmundson also advised Brooks and was with him during the assault on Sumner.
 
Lithograph of Preston Brooks' 1856 attack on Sumner; the artist depicts the faceless assailant bludgeoning the learned martyr

Sumner was knocked down and trapped under the heavy desk (which was bolted to the floor), but Brooks continued to strike Sumner until Sumner ripped the desk from the floor in an effort to escape.[9] By this time, Sumner was blinded by his own blood, and he staggered up the aisle and collapsed into the arms of Representative Edwin B. Morgan, and lapsed into unconsciousness.[10] Brooks held Sumner up by the lapel of his jacket and continued to beat him until the cane broke.[11] Several other Senators and Representatives attempted to help Sumner, but were blocked by Edmundson, who yelled at the spectators to leave Brooks and Sumner alone,[12] and Keitt, who brandished his own cane and a pistol, and shouted, "Let them be!" and "Let them alone, God damn you!"[13][14]

Senator John J. Crittenden attempted to intervene, and pleaded with Brooks not to kill Sumner. Senator Robert Toombs interceded for Crittenden, telling Keitt not to attack someone who was not a party to the dispute, though Toombs also indicated later that he had no issue with Brooks beating Sumner, and in fact approved of it.[15]

Representative Ambrose S. Murray was finally able to intervene and restrain Brooks, at which point Brooks left the chamber. Murray obtained the aid of a Senate page and the Sergeant at Arms, and as Sumner regained consciousness they were able to aid him to walk to a cloakroom.[16] Sumner received medical attention, including several stiches.[17] With the aid of Nathaniel P. Banks, the Speaker of the House, and Senator Henry Wilson, Sumner was able to travel by carriage to his lodgings, where he received further medical aid.[18]

Brooks also required medical attention before leaving the Capitol; he had hit himself above his right eye with one of his backswings.[19]

The cane Brooks used was broken into several pieces, which he left on the floor of the Senate chamber. Brooks later wrote that he had saved the portion of the cane which contained the gold head.[20] This portion of the cane was worked to smooth the edges and finish, and eventually ended up at the Old State House Museum in Boston, where it is on display.[21]

Aftermath

 
The walking cane used to attack Charles Sumner on exhibit at the Old State House in Boston.

The episode revealed the polarization in America, as Sumner became a martyr in the North and Brooks a hero in the South. Northerners were outraged. The Cincinnati Gazette said, "The South cannot tolerate free speech anywhere, and would stifle it in Washington with the bludgeon and the bowie-knife, as they are now trying to stifle it in Kansas by massacre, rapine, and murder."[22] William Cullen Bryant of the New York Evening Post, asked, "Has it come to this, that we must speak with bated breath in the presence of our Southern masters?... Are we to be chastised as they chastise their slaves? Are we too, slaves, slaves for life, a target for their brutal blows, when we do not comport ourselves to please them?"[23]

The outrage in the North was loud and strong. Thousands attended rallies in support of Sumner in Boston, Albany, Cleveland, Detroit, New Haven, New York, and Providence. More than a million copies of Sumner's speech were distributed. Two weeks after the caning, Ralph Waldo Emerson described the divide the incident represented: "I do not see how a barbarous community and a civilized community can constitute one state. I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom."[24] Conversely, Brooks was praised by Southern newspapers. The Richmond Enquirer editorialized that Sumner should be caned "every morning", praising the attack as "good in conception, better in execution, and best of all in consequences" and denounced "these vulgar abolitionists in the Senate" who "have been suffered to run too long without collars. They must be lashed into submission." Southerners sent Brooks hundreds of new canes in endorsement of his assault. One was inscribed "Hit him again." Southern lawmakers made rings out of the cane's remains, which they wore on neck chains to show their solidarity with Brooks.[25]

Representative Anson Burlingame publicly humiliated Brooks by goading him into challenging Burlingame to a duel, only to set conditions designed to intimidate Brooks into backing down. (As the challenged party, Burlingame, who was a crack shot, had the choice of weapons and dueling ground. He selected rifles on the Canada side of Niagara Falls, where U.S. anti-dueling laws would not apply. Brooks withdrew his challenge, claiming that he did not want to expose himself to the risk of violence by traveling through northern states to get to Niagara Falls.)[26]

Historian William Gienapp has concluded that Brooks' "assault was of critical importance in transforming the struggling Republican party into a major political force."[27]

Sumner suffered head trauma that caused him chronic pain and symptoms consistent with what is now called traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, and spent three years convalescing before returning to his Senate seat. He suffered chronic pain and debilitation for the rest of his life.[28]

Brooks claimed that he "meant no disrespect to the Senate of the United States" by attacking Sumner. He added that he had not intended to kill Sumner, or else he would have used a different weapon. Brooks was tried in a District of Columbia court for the attack. He was convicted of assault and was fined $300 ($11,450 in today's dollars), but received no prison sentence.[29] A motion to expel Brooks from the House of Representatives failed, but he resigned on July 15 in order to permit his constituents to ratify or condemn his conduct via a special election. They approved; Brooks was quickly returned to office in the August 1 special election, and then re-elected to a new term of office later in 1856, but he died before the new term began.

Keitt, who facilitated Brooks' attack, was censured by the House. He resigned in protest over his censure, but his constituents ratified his conduct by overwhelmingly re-electing him to his seat within a month. In 1858, he attempted to choke Representative Galusha Grow of Pennsylvania (Republican) for calling him a "negro driver".[30]

An effort to censure Edmundson failed to obtain a majority of votes in the House.[31]

During the 1856 lame duck session of Congress, Brooks made a speech calling for the admission of Kansas "even with a constitution rejecting slavery". His conciliatory tone impressed Northerners and disappointed slavery's supporters.[32]

References

Vorlage:Reflist

  1. ↑ The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner. United States Senate, abgerufen am 15. Februar 2013.
  2. ↑ Michael William Pfau, "Time, Tropes, and Textuality: Reading Republicanism in Charles Sumner's 'Crime Against Kansas'", Rhetoric & Public Affairs vol 6 #3 (2003) 385-413, quote on p. 393 online in Project MUSE
  3. ↑ Manisha Sinha, "The Caning of Charles Sumner: Slavery, race and Ideology in the Age of the Civil War," Journal of the Early Republic 23 (Summer 2003): 233-262.
  4. ↑ William James Hoffer, The Caning of Charles Sumner: Honor, Idealism, and the Origins of the Civil War (2010) p. 62
  5. ↑ Donald, 1:286
  6. ↑ Donald, 1:290-91
  7. ↑ Eric H. Walther: The Shattering of the Union: America in the 1850s. Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham, MA 2004, ISBN 0-8420-2799-8, S. 98 (google.com).
  8. ↑ Michael S. Green: Politics and America in Crisis: The Coming of the Civil War. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, CA 2010, ISBN 978-0-313-08174-3, S. 94 (google.com).
  9. ↑ Henry David, author Thoreau, Lewis, editor Hyde: The Essays of Henry D. Thoreau: Selected and Edited by Lewis Hyde. North Point Press, New York, NY 2002, ISBN 978-0-86547-585-4, S. xliii (google.com).
  10. ↑ Proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives In: The Congressional Globe, June 2, 1856, S. 1357 
  11. ↑ Civil War Times Illustrated, Volume 11. Historical Times Incorporated, Harrisburg, PA 1972, S. 37 (google.com).
  12. ↑ Eric H. Walther: The Shattering of the Union: America in the 1850s. Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham, MD 2004, S. 99 (google.com).
  13. ↑ Donald, 1:293-96
  14. ↑ Neil Kagan: Eyewitness to the Civil War: The Complete History from Secession to Reconstruction. National Geographic, Washington, DC 2006, ISBN 978-0-7922-6206-0, S. 21 (google.com).
  15. ↑ Mark Scroggins: Robert Toombs: The Civil Wars of a United States Senator and Confederate General. McFarland & Company, Jefferson, NC 2011, ISBN 978-0-7864-6363-3, S. 91 (google.com).
  16. ↑ Williamjames Hull Hoffer: The Caning of Charles Sumner: Honor, Idealism, and the Origins of the Civil War. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD 2010, ISBN 978-0-8018-9468-8, S. 9 (google.com).
  17. ↑ A. J. Langguth: After Lincoln: How the North Won the Civil War and Lost the Peace. Simon & Schuster, New York, NY 2014, ISBN 978-1-4516-1732-0, S. 13 (google.com).
  18. ↑ Cahrles A. Phelps: Life and Public Services of Ulysses S. Grant. Lee and Shepard, New York, NY 1872, S. 362 (google.com).
  19. ↑ Williamjames Hull Hoffer: The Caning of Charles Sumner: Honor, Idealism, and the Origins of the Civil War. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD 2010, ISBN 978-0-8018-9468-8, S. 8–11 (google.com).
  20. ↑ J.D. Dickey: Empire of Mud: The Secret History of Washington, DC. Globe Pequot Press, Guilford, CT 2014, ISBN 978-0-7627-8701-2, S. 141 (google.com).
  21. ↑ #7 Raising Cane. In: Military History in 100 Objects – A Farewell to Arms (and Legs). MHN: Military History Now, 5. Mai 2015;.
  22. ↑ James M. McPherson: Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford University Press, 2003, S. 150 (google.com).
  23. ↑ William E. Gienapp: The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852-1856. Oxford University Press, 1988, S. 359 (google.com).
  24. ↑ Puleo, 36-7
  25. ↑ Puleo, 102, 114-115
  26. ↑ Ovando James Hollister: Life of Schuyler Colfax. Funk & Wagnalls, New York, NY 1886, S. 98 (google.com).
  27. ↑ William E. Gienapp, "The Crime Against Sumner: The Caning of Charles Sumner and the Rise of the Republican Party", Civil War History, 25 25 (1979): 218-45
  28. ↑ Mitchell, Thomas G. Anti-slavery politics in antebellum and Civil War America (2007) p. 95
  29. ↑ Hoffer, p 83
  30. ↑ Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society, Volume 7. W. Y. Morgan, Topeka, KS 1902, S. 424 (google.com).
  31. ↑ Charles Sumner: The Works of Charles Sumner, Volume IV. Lee & Shepard, Boston, MA 1873, S. 266 (google.com).
  32. ↑ Puleo, p. 204
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