Disunion Feed

"The particulars show that Mr. Sumner was struck unawares over the head by a loaded cane and stunned, and then the ruffianly attack was continued with many blows, the Hon. Mr. Keitt of South Carolina keeping any of those around, who might be so disposed, from attempting a rescue. No meaner exhibition of Southern cowardice -- generally miscalled Southern chivalry -- was ever witnessed."

Printed two days after the sack of Lawrence; the same editorial page (LoC scan sn83030213, p. 4) fuses the two events: 'The acts of violence during this session -- including one murder -- are simply overtures to the drama of which the... war upon the Free-State men in Kansas, constitute the first act. We are either to have Liberty or Slavery.' The germ of 'Bleeding Kansas and Bleeding Sumner.'

Read it in the original — Furman Secession Era Editorials transcription ↗

"The speech of Mr. Sumner was exceedingly insulting towards some gentlemen who sit with him upon the Senate floor. [...] When Mr. Sumner compares Senator Butler of South Carolina and Senator Douglas of Illinois to Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, assimilating one to the character of a crazy man and the other to that of a fool, he takes a ground which Massachusetts, in her dignity and her ability, never presented before."

The civility-discourse pivot in its purest form, from Sumner's own state the day after: opens by calling the attack 'unmanly' and 'brutal,' then turns to indicting Sumner's rhetoric. Closes: 'a different man takes his place, with only the memory of an insulting speech and a broken head.' Fragments joined with [...].

Read it in the original — Furman Secession Era Editorials transcription ↗