Caning of Charles Sumner

Caning of Charles Sumner
Political caricature of the caning, depicting Sumner on the floor holding a pen and his "Crime against Kansas" speech as Brooks lunges at him
Location	Old Senate Chamber, United States Capitol, Washington, D.C.
Date	May 22, 1856; 168 years ago (1856-05-22)
Target	Charles Sumner
Attack type	Assault by caning
Perpetrator	Preston Smith Brooks
Motive	Retaliation to an anti-slavery speech by Sumner
Verdict	Guilty
Convictions	Assault
Sentence	Brooks fined $300 ($10,170 in today's dollars)

The caning of Charles Sumner, or the Brooks–Sumner Affair, occurred on May 22, 1856, in the United States Senate chamber, 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. The attack was in retaliation for an invective-laden speech given by Sumner two days earlier in which he fiercely criticized slaveholders, including pro-slavery South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, a relative of Brooks. The beating nearly killed Sumner and contributed significantly to the country's polarization over the issue of slavery. It has been considered symbolic of the "breakdown of reasoned discourse"^[1] and willingness to resort to violence that eventually led to the Civil War.

Although Sumner was unable to return to the Senate until December 1859,^[2] the Massachusetts legislature refused to replace him, leaving his empty desk in the Senate as a public reminder of the attack.