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Page 26
MR. SUMNER: Mr. President, To the Senator from Illinois, I should
willingly leave the privilege of the common scold--the last word; but I
will not leave to him, in any discussion with me, the last argument, or
the last semblance of it. He has crowned the audacity of this debate by
venturing to rise here and calumniate me. He said that I came here, took
an oath to support the Constitution, and yet determined not to support a
particular clause in that Constitution. To that statement I give, to his
face, the flattest denial. When it was made on a former occasion on this
floor by the absent Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Butler), I then
repelled it. I will read from the debate of the 28th of June, 1854, as
published in the Globe, to show what I said in response to that calumny
when pressed at that hour. Here is what I said to the Senator from South
Carolina:
"This Senator was disturbed, when to his inquiry, personally, pointedly,
and vehemently addressed to me, whether I would join in returning a
fellow-man to slavery? I exclaimed, 'Is thy servant a dog, that he
should do this thing?'"
You will observe that the inquiry of the Senator from South Carolina,
was whether I would join in returning a fellow-man to slavery. It was
not whether I would support any clause of the Constitution of the United
States--far from that. * * *
Sir, this is the Senate of the United States, an important body, under
the Constitution, with great powers. Its members are justly supposed,
from age, to be above the intemperance of youth, and from character to
be above the gusts of vulgarity. They are supposed to have something of
wisdom, and something of that candor which is the handmaid of wisdom.
Let the Senator bear these things in mind, and let him remember
hereafter that the bowie-knife and bludgeon are not the proper emblems
of Senatorial debate. Let him remember that the swagger of Bob Acres and
the ferocity of the Malay cannot add dignity to this body. The
Senator has gone on to infuse into his speech the venom which has been
sweltering for months--ay, for years; and he has alleged facts that
are entirely without foundation, in order to heap upon me some personal
obloquy. I will not go into the details which have flowed out so
naturally from his tongue. I only brand them to his face as false. I
say, also, to that Senator, and I wish him to bear it in mind, that no
person with the upright form of man can be allowed--(Hesitation.)
MR. DOUGLAS:--Say it.
MR. SUMNER:--I will say it--no person with the upright form of man can
be allowed, without violation to all decency, to switch out from his
tongue the perpetual stench of offensive personality. Sir, that is not
a proper weapon of debate, at least, on this floor. The noisome, squat,
and nameless animal, to which I now refer, is not a proper model for an
American Senator. Will the Senator from Illinois take notice?
MR. DOUGLAS:--I will; and therefore will not imitate you, sir.
MR. SUMNER:--I did not hear the Senator.
MR. DOUGLAS:--I said if that be the case I would certainly never imitate
you in that capacity, recognizing the force of the illustration.
MR. SUMNER:--Mr. President, again the Senator has switched his tongue,
and again he fills the Senate with its offensive odor. * * *
MR. DOUGLAS:--I am not going to pursue this subject further. I will only
say that a man who has been branded by me in the Senate, and convicted
by the Senate of falsehood, cannot use language requiring a reply, and
therefore I have nothing more to say.
PRESTON S. BROOKS,
OF SOUTH CAROLINA. (BORN 1819, DIED 1857.)
ON THE SUMNER ASSAULT;
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JULY 14, 1856.
MR. SPEAKER:
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