Reaction to Senator Charles Sumner in 1857:
This event happened on May 22, 1856. Two days before which Charles Sumner had given a speech against slaveholders and criticizing then heavily publicly, which also included a relative of Brooks.
So, taking this as an insult, Preston Brooks in retaliation beat Sumner with a Walking cane, and this incident significantly contributed to the country’s polarization toward the issue of slavery. There was a lot violence that followed the event and was eventually one of the reasons for the American Civil War.
