A lessoned learned from THE GREAT ABOLITIONIST: CHARLES SUMNER AND THE FIGHT FOR A MORE PERFECT UNION, by Stephen Puleo
Answering
political disagreements with political violence poisons the entire system.
We
live in a time when political violence is greatly feared across the country,
and we especially feel it weigh down upon us with a presidential election
imminent. From one side’s candidate getting shot at, to another side
remembering the trauma of the January 6th Riot, the national mood
right now is sour and fearful, with many people believing a victory by the
other side will result in permanent national degradation. It is a climate very similar
to the 1850’s, when the growing power of the free North over national politics
terrified and enraged the slaveholding South, and eventually the nation tore
itself apart and embraced a bloody Civil War. One of the defining acts of that
era was The Caning of Charles Sumner, an event that author Stephen Puleo wisely
makes as the centerpiece of his excellent new book The Great Abolitionist: Charles Sumner and the Fight for a More Perfect
Union. Historians have flagged numerous events as the most important ones
leading up to the Civil War, but Puleo sees the caning as an embrace of
violence to political disagreements, as the moment which America was incapable
of returning from.
Charles Sumner was a fascinating 19th
century politician, at different turns inspiring and beloved, and odd and unlikable.
Born into a cold, Puritanesque New England family, Sumner bonded little with
his parents or many siblings, and was a man of deep emotion who often seemed to
have difficulty expressing it—Puleo compellingly argues there is solid evidence
that Sumner, by our modern definitions, would have been somewhere “on the
spectrum.” He was deeply uncomfortable in the presence of women, and only married
late in life (and it ended in disaster). He bonded deeply with a small circle
of close friends, and felt increasingly alone as they married and eventually
died off (this being the 1800’s and all that). However, one of Sumner’s
defining traits was a passionate hatred of slavery, which at the time was
generally accepted across the nation, and was openly embraced by presidents and
politicians from across the political spectrum. He convinced the people of
Massachusetts to elect him a senator in 1852 largely on a platform of resisting
the national influence of slaveowners, who in response to a growing North had
become increasingly angry and militant in their defense of white supremacy.
The defining event of Sumner’s life
was in response to crimes slaveowners committed in an effort to violently seize
control of the free territory of Kansas, and enable the further expansion of
slavery. At the peak of the conflict, Sumner delivered a speech on the floor of
the Senate, where he nobly begged the government to intervene to prevent the
spread of slavery and protect the people of Kansas from their aggression. Less
nobly, he personally insulted the state of South Carolina and its slavery-loving
senator Andrew Butler, going so far as to mock his physical disabilities and to
suggest that slaveowners loved their system so much so they could assault their
female slaves (a charge which was true on a wide scale, even if not for Butler
personally). With such rhetoric, Sumner alienated even some of his allies, and
he generated seething contempt from the Southern slaveowners. This culminated
later in the week with Butler’s cousin Preston Brooks walking up to Sumner as
he worked at his Senate desk, taking out a wooden cane, and violently striking
Sumner dozens of times on the floor of the Senate. The surprised and unarmed
Sumner collapsed helplessly and was quickly drenched in a puddle of blood; he
was so unpopular that it was a minute before people finally rushed to his aid.
The event had a permanent impact,
both on Sumner and on the nation. Sumner himself struggled with health problems
for the rest of his life (Puleo argues an element of PTSD was likely at play),
but more stunning was the national reaction—the North responded with shock and
horror, while the South celebrated the event and declared Brooks a hero (Brooks
died horribly not long after of a bacterial throat infection, in perhaps an event
of poetic justice). People began to contemplate the point of remaining in the
same nation with those who could react to the same event in such radically
different ways, and the nation continued its grim march toward Civil War; all
an act of political violence did, was to beget yet more spectacular violence,
and history eventually remembered Sumner as a martyr of political expression.
Sumner himself remained a Senator
for the rest of his life, and did his best to fight for the cause of justice
after the horrific event. His hatred of slavery eventually morphed into a fight
for racial equality, once President Abraham Lincoln embraced Sumner’s abolitionist
vision and made it a cornerstone of national policy during the Civil War. As is
the fate of so many of us, Sumner became increasingly prickly and inflexible as
he aged, and eventually voiced serious objections to the pivotal achievements
of the 14th and 15th Amendments (putting civil rights
into the Constitution and attempting to open up voting to black men
respectively), on the grounds they did not go far enough to ensure racial
equality. Sumner died in 1874 while passionately fighting for national civil
rights protections for African-Americans across the nation, a cause that would not
be fully realized until nearly a century after his death.
Sumner’s story shows both the
dangers of political violence, and everything that people can still accomplish
when they keep fighting for what they believe through the proper channels. As
frustrating and unsatisfactory as it often is, the peaceful battles of the
democratic process are the only productive way in which lasting positive change
can be brought to the country, and acts of angry violence can only ever bring
more destruction down upon us. As odd and unlikable as he could be, America
needs more Charles Sumners and fewer Preston Brooks.
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