When was charles sumner attacked

The s saw the House bitterly divided over the issue of slavery, which led to one of the more incendiary and violent events in congressional history. The assault was in reaction to a speech in which Sumner criticized slavery and the Senators who supported it, including Andrew Butler, a relative of Brooks. The day after the attack, the House passed a resolution to establish a select committee to investigate the incident, and Speaker Nathaniel Banks of Massachusetts appointed five Members to look into the matter.

Sumner as an attrocious [sic] libel on South Carolina, and a gross insult to my absent relative Judge Butler , I determined, when it was delivered, to punish him for it. On July 15, , Brooks resigned in protest, but was quickly returned to the seat he vacated by a special election held just one month later.

Charles Sumner died of a heart attack on March 11, , and was buried in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His biographers, even when trying to be kind, describe him as an unyielding moralist with absolute confidence in his own judgment.

Whether he could have been more effective had he adopted a different style when extremism was the rule, rather than the exception, is debatable. What is certain is that at a time when most men saw black Americans as inferior, Charles Sumner fought unrelentingly for black equality long after others had grown weary of the battle.

Donald, David Hubert. Charles Sumner and the Coming Civil War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man. Foner, Eric. New York: Oxford University Press, McCullough, David. The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. Stampp, Kenneth. America in A Nation on the Brink.

Keating, Deborah. After failing to seize the fortified settlement, they began a siege of it, which lasted until their retreat on June 18, Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Sumner did not return to the Senate for three years while he recovered. Great Britain. Middle East. World War II. World War I. Sign Up. Westward Expansion. Art, Literature, and Film History. Surviving a House censure resolution, Brooks resigned, was immediately reelected, and soon thereafter died at age Sumner recovered slowly and returned to the Senate, where he remained for another 18 years.

The nation, suffering from the breakdown of reasoned discourse that this event symbolized, tumbled onward toward the catastrophe of civil war. Read the Report of the Select Committee appointed to investigate the assault.