This event has startled the whole nation. The surprise is not that Mr. Sumner was beaten — our wonder is that half the Northern members have not long since been caned over the head and branded with red-hot irons. Hell itself could not produce such a school as this.
Original passage & context
"This event has startled the whole nation. [...] the surprise has not been that Mr. Sumner was beaten, but our wonder is that half the Northern members have not long since been, not only caned over the head, but branded on their cheeks with red-hot irons, by the Southern members. [...] Hell itself could not produce such a school as this. How could any plant grow, in such a community, except a ruffian or an assassin?"
Douglass's editorial frame is mock-exculpation: Brooks deserves 'great allowance' because slavery's schooling could produce nothing but ruffians — 'the Colonel, no doubt commenced when he was a boy, by beating the negro children... until he beat a Senator.' The editorial runs across two pages of the issue: the first two excerpts are on p. 2, the final one on p. 3. Open scan in LoC's Frederick Douglass Newspapers collection — not paywalled after all. OCR scannos corrected. Fragments joined with [...].
Read it in the original — LoC scan, Frederick Douglass' Paper, June 6, 1856 ↗