Web Document: Primary Source

Press Reaction to Sumner's Beating (1856)

Both houses of Congress yesterday had brought to its notice the cruel assault committed by Mr. Brooks, a member of Congress, upon Senator SUMNER, in the Senate Chamber. A Committee from the Senate was appointed to inquire into the facts, and to report in that body its opinion, which we presume includes the redress which is required to vindicate the law outraged by the assault, and the dignity and safety of the Senate, impaired by such disgraceful violence.

There can be but one opinion, entitled to any respect in a civilized community, upon this act. Let the circumstances be what they may, the time and place should have been a protection to the Senator, even if his constitutional right as a legislator did not secure him from violence. The constitutional privilege of Congress exempts its members from being "questioned in any place for any speech or debate in either House" and its constitutional power is to "make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested in it by the constitution." Without freedom of speech to a representative, there can be no such thing as safety to any legislator, for no man can express his opinions frankly upon any subject of popular interest or excitement without offending some one who differs from him, and any low ruffian who depends on physical strength, or any impulsive and unreflecting hot brain, armed for the encounter, who chooses to make such opinions the occasion of offence and quarrel, may hold him responsible, and proceed to inflict punishment measured by his wrath, or the malignant passions which have possession of him at the time.

The Senate has the power to punish for outrages of this kind against its members, and the question arises from the recurrences of such offences, whether public policy and security to a branch of the government acting within its constitutional rights, do not demand that it should do so without trusting to the uncertainties of the ordinary administration of justice in our courts where the disagreement of juries, partisan prejudices, incapacity of jurors, and even grosser impediments to the course of justice afford so many loopholes to dexterious offenders to escape through. The offence is more than an ordinary wrong, striking not merely at social order but at the functions of the Legislature, and through that, therefore, at the rights and liberties of the people there represented. The representative branch of the government in is the especial guardian of these rights, and should defend them whenever they are endangered. Punishment, therefore, for an offence of this character and magnitude should be both certain and exemplary. Congress could pass a special enactment to meet such cases, and the offence and penalty being known, with the moral certainty that the punishment would be inflicted, would no doubt tend to give the necessary security to legislation.

"Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice. It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine."

Charles Sumner did not libel South Carolina. Representing Massachusetts which furnished to the Revolutionary War 83,092 Continental troops and Militia, against 5,508(!) from South Carolina, it was suitable that in repelling the stale assumptions in behalf of the latter State and her sister Slave-labor communities, that Republican liberty was won by the arms and treasure, by the patriotism and good faith of the South, he should tell the truth as it is in the keeping of History. The record of the Revolutionary Struggle shows that South Carolina's Slavery, weakened South Carolina, so that she was a drag upon the fight not only, but a perpetual point of danger to the common cause,—a constantly open gate-way for invasion and general disaster. Then as now she held a foe in her bosom, which crippled her capacity for offensive war, and weakened her powers of defensive action—a foe dangerous to the Union, in its exceeding dangerousness to an assailable member of the Union.

Mr. Sumner two years ago gave the Senate proof of the imbecility of the Slave States, in that in 1778 the six South Carolina regiments, composing with the Georgia regiment, the regular forces of the Southern Department did not muster above eight hundred men. It was wholly impossible to fill their ranks. In 1779, the Governor of the State which now grows Butlers and produces Brookses and Keitts, offered to stipulate to the British Commander the neutrality of Carolina!—and leave it to the issue of the contest to settle whether she should belong to the King of Great Britain, or to the Americans. After the fatal day at Camden, there was not a single battalion in the field in the three Southern States. The exaggeration of the resources of the Slave States—their destitution—the savage animosities existing among their people—their social disorder and confusion—the want of patriotic feeling among them, constituted the themes of General Greene's bitter and almost despairing letters to members of Congress, to Northern Governors, and to Lafayette. Abundant testimony upon the incapacity and the backwardness of the Southerners in the Revolutionary conflict could be adduced from the North. Partial it will be called. But no question will be made of the veracity of Slave State witnesses called to the stand on this point.

Here they are:—

"There is not a gentleman on the floor who is a stranger to the feeble situation of our State when we entered into the war to oppose the British power. We were not only without money, without an army or military stores, but we were few in number, and likely to be entangled with our domestics in case the enemy invaded us." [Speech of Burke of S.C.—Annals of Cong:1789, Vol. 2, p. 1484.]

"The committee appointed to take into consideration the circumstances of the Southern States and the ways and means for their safety and defence, report that the State of South Carolina (as represented by the Delegates of the said State, and Mr. Huger, who has come here at the request of the Governor of the said State, on purpose to explain the circumstances thereof) is UNABLE to make any effectual effort with Militia, by reason of the great proportion of citizens NECESSARY TO REMAIN AT HOME, to prevent insurrection among the Negroes, and to prevent the desertion of them to the enemy:—That the state of the country and the great number of these people among them, expose the inhabitants to great danger, from the endeavors of the enemy to excite them to revolt or desert." [Secret Journal Continental Congress, March 29, 1779, Vol. 1, p. 105.]

"Every addition they (Georgia and South Carolina) receive to their number of Slaves, tends to weaken them, and render them less capable of self-defence." [Mr. Madison in Debate—Annals of Congress, Vol. 1, p. 348]

"But the number of negro slaves dispersed throughout these States was very great: so great, as to render it impossible for the citizens to muster freemen enough to withstand the pressure of the British arms." [Judge Johnson's (of S.C.) Life of General Greene.]

South Carolina is not peculiar in the circumstances of her slave-labor society which made her so weak during the Revolution, and her whole territory an open avenue of danger to the Americans struggling with Great Britain for their freedom. It is the inseparable and inevitable incident of Slavery. The Hon. Philip A. Bolling of Buckingham, spoke in the Virginia House of Delegates on the 11th of January 1832, the consciousness of every Southern man in respect to the social insecurity resulting from the unnatural relation of Master and Slave: "Nor does this want of confidence and feeling of insecurity, result from any craven fear. No Sir! It results from the noblest feelings of the human heart, and is no partial feeling, but is felt by all. Who, that has a mother, wife, sister or child, that has not felt when seriously reflecting upon this subject, pangs little short of death!"

Liberty is only desirable so long as it is enjoyed without abuse. It is the highest evidence of the morality, piety, intelligence and general well-being of peoples and of individuals, that they require but little legal restraint. The continual enjoyment of national and individual liberty is the noblest of distinctions and greatest of blessings, because such continued enjoyment can only proceed from the habitual exercise of every virtue. But, whilst to such peoples and individuals, liberty is a good, it is an unmitigated evil to the vicious, who use their privileges to injure themselves, and to annoy and disturb society. Despotism of some sort is just as necessary for this latter class as for madmen, thieves and murderers. The Northern Abolitionists do not let a day pass without showing to the world that they are as little fitted to be trusted with liberty as thieves with keys or children with firearms. Their daily abuse of liberty of speech and of the press, and of freedom of religion, are but the means which they habitually employ for greater mischief and crime. The disgusting proceedings of their men, women and negroes, in their infidel, agrarian and licentious conventions, the [illegible] and destructive doctrines emanating from their press, and their lecture rooms, and the unfeminine bearing of their women, would justify and require an immediate and despotic censorship, if it were possible to take away their liberties without invading those of other people. A community of Abolitionists could only be governed by a penitentiary system. They are as unfit for liberty as maniacs, criminals, or wild beasts. The worst aspect of their case, is, that they are endangering the liberties of the people. Just such conduct as theirs induced the despotism of Cromwell and the two Bonapartes, and of all other usurpers who have destroyed their country's liberty. All men prefer despotism to anarchy, the rule of a single man to the mad riot and misrule of infidels, criminals and agrarians. These men complain that liberty of speech has been violated in the person of Mr. Sumner. This is but the beginning of the end. They will soon destroy all liberty of speech, if they employ it only to teach heresy, infidelity, licentiousness, and to stir up to deeds of violence. Better, far better, that man were without the gift of speech, than to use it as they do. Better that he could neither read or write, than have his head and heart perverted, by the foul and filthy stuff that oozes from the abolition press. Better, that his religion were prescribed by a priest and enforced by an inquisition, than that he should become an habitue of Greeley's philansteries, of Andrew's gorgeous saloons of Free Love, of Mormon dwellings, or of Oneida dens. Better that the cut of his coat and the number of his buttons were fixed by statute and enforced by penalties, than that women should defy public opinion and parade the streets in unfeminine apparel. The liberties of America are safe so long as they are not abused. They are not worth preserving when abuse becomes general. If the noxious heresy of abolition and its kindred isms are not arrested; if a salutary reaction does not take place, ere long, even good men, religious men and patriots, would prefer the quiet of despotism, to the discord, licentiousness, the anarchy and the crime, which those men practice and invoke. Yet, we neither fear nor tremble for the future. These wretches are more noisy than numerous. The edifice of American liberty, the most glorious structure of freedom the world has ever seen, is not destined to be sapped and undermined by pismires, nor carried by the assaults of crazy lilliputians. These creatures will be soon driven from their places, and lashed into obscurity by an indignant people, whose confidence they have betrayed and abused. All the elections at the North for the last twelve months, show that the storm is gathering that is to sweep these noxious insects from the hearts of men and the face of day.

Copyrighted by Hugh Dubrulle, 2002
For questions, comments, or problems with this web site, please contact the webmaster.