Assault In The Senate

The actions of Senator Sumner and Brooks really made me think about how powerful and hurtful ones words can really be. Sumner should have made his speech strictly on how he felt about Kansas becoming a free state. Sumner let his personal feelings become to involved in what he was trying to say. Politics is a hard enough thing to be involved in without purposely trying to make enemies, and that is all he was trying to do.

In those days disputes were handled differently then they are today, Brooks' actions today would leave him with lawsuits, and in more trouble then he would wish to be in. Today his job would also be lost and would never be able to be regained, no-matter how fluent of a speaker or how big of a war hero he may be. But in the 1800's, especially in the South, that was how arguments were handled. I think Sumner is lucky all he got was a cane to the head, instead of a bullet to the chest. Sumner was ignorant in his choice of words, being a veteran in the senate he should have known better to attack a fellow senator, even if it was verbally.

I do not condone what Brooks' did, but I cannot

honestly say if I was in his position, in those times I wouldn't have done the same. I know if I lived in those times and some verbally slaughtered my home, and my uncle, Sumner wouldn't have ever recovered from his injuries.

Like everything in history there is a good lesson to be learned, words are equally as powerful as actions.