Caning of Charles Sumner

The caning of Charles Sumner, or the Brooks–Sumner Affair, occurred on May 22, 1856, in the United States Senatechamber, when Representative Preston Brooks, a pro-slavery Democrat from South Carolina, used a walking cane to beat Senator Charles Sumner, an abolitionistRepublican from Massachusetts, nearly to death. Although Sumner was unable to return to the Senate until December 1859, the Massachusetts legislature refused to replace him, leaving his empty desk in the Senate as a public reminder of the attack.

Brooks' violence 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 event contributed significantly to the country's polarization over the issue of slavery. It is considered symbolic of the "breakdown of reasoned discourse" and willingness to resort to violence that led to the American Civil War.