Page:The Slave Struggle in America.djvu/36

 In 1836 Charles Sumner delivered his immortal speech in Congress, on "The Crime against Kansas." Whittier said it was "a grand, a terrible phillippic, worthy of the great occasion; the severe and awful truth which the sharp agony of the national crisis demanded." Two days afterwards, while Sumner was writing at his desk in the Senate Chamber, Preston S. Brooks, of infamous memory, a representative of South Carolina, came up to him and said: "I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine." Thereupon he struck Charles Sumner on the head with a stick again and again—a dozen or twenty blows—until his victim lay on the floor bleeding and insensible. So seriously was Sumner injured that despite the utmost care it was four years before he was pronounced convalescent. Mr. Slidell, of Louisiana, who was in the anteroom with some other Senators, when a messenger rushed through, crying out that some one was beating Mr. Sumner, said: "We heard the remark without any particular emotion. I remained quietly in my seat, and the other gentlemen did the same." He saw the wounded man carried out, but "did not think it necessary to express any sympathy." Mr. Keitt, of South Carolina, stood by, urging Brooks on. Henry Wilson denounced the assault as "brutal, murderous and cowardly," and was accordingly challenged by Brooks. A motion was made for the expulsion of Brooks, but failed. A vote of censure was then passed by a vast majority. Brooks made a most insolent speech to the House, resigned his seat, and went back to his constituents, only to be returned again in two weeks triumphantly re-elected.

In 1859 it was the turn of the pro-slavery men to quail, and it was one man alone—John Brown, of Osawatomie—who spread the direst terror and confusion all through the Slave States. John Brown was a Puritan, descended in a straight line from Peter Brown, one of the Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock on December 22nd, 1620. He was born in Connecticut in 1800, and taken at the age of five to Hudson, Ohio. As became his ancestry, he grew up into a sternly conscientious man: the great object of his life was to relieve the suffering and advocate the rights of the injured and oppressed. He was a most energetic and efficient agent of the Underground Railroad. Osawatomie was a town of Kansas; and in 1856, when the Kansas struggle was agitating the length and breadth of the land, the most revolting crimes were committed within the territory by Southerners and pro-slavery men. John Brown had a small force at his command, and had utterly routed one lot of marauders. This so exasperated the Missourians that they issued a violent appeal, calling upon the "young men and old" to be ready to go to Kansas. Accordingly a force of 500 men advanced on Osawatomie; they were arrested in their