Several users countered this assertion by pointing to an 1856 incident in which the pro slavery u s.
Man beaten on senate floor slavery.
And in kansas news of the savage beating on the senate floor arrived by telegraph and inflamed passions even more.
Charles sumner was sitting at his desk in the u s.
The speech sumner had given of course had been about kansas.
On may 19 massachusetts senator charles sumner an ardent abolitionist began a two day speech on the senate floor in which he decried the crime against kansas and blasted three of his.
Senate chambers when a large nearly apparitional figure appeared behind him.
The caning of charles sumner or the brooks sumner affair occurred on may 22 1856 in the united states senate when representative preston brooks a pro slavery democrat from south carolina used a walking cane to attack senator charles sumner an abolitionist republican from massachusetts in retaliation for a speech given by sumner two days earlier in which he fiercely criticized.
Preston brooks beat a senator nearly to death on the floor of the u s.
On this day in 1856 sen.