2-982-323 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Hon. Charles Sumner, U.S. Senator for Massachusetts, 1858. Engraving after an etching by Schoff, from a painting by Wight. 'Mr. Sumner...is now travelling in Europe for the benefit of his health, which has never completely recovered from the effects of the dastardly assault committed upon him in the Senate by the infamous Mr. Brooks...the Fugitive Slave Act, which punished the instincts of common humanity as crimes, and was in all respects one of the most odious statutes which has dishonoured the legislation of a free commonwealth in modern times...[was] denounced by Mr. Sumner in an earnest and eloquent speech...two days [later] and all unconscious of the presence of any person with violent purpose, without warning or any means of defence, he was struck upon the head with a heavy bludgeon by a representative of South Carolina, the first stroke producing unconsciousness, and that followed by murderous blows in rapid succession, under which he fell senseless and bleeding upon the floor of the Senate...The assassin, Preston S. Brooks, was expelled from Congress...The injury which Mr. Sumner received was, by a narrow chance, saved from proving fatal. It was followed by a severe and long disability, and a slow convalescence, not yet complete'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.