How many of us remember Charles Sumner from our American history courses? (Assuming those courses included information about Sumner and his principled opposition to slavery…)
The author of “Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation,” Zaakir Tameez, wrote a recent essay in the Washington Post, reminding us that the violent opposition Sumner faced is still with us.
On May 13, a man who made death threats against Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada) for her foreign policy views was sentenced to nearly four years in prison. Last month, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she was “afraid” of using her voice to speak about political controversies. A month before that, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) released audio recordings of death threats he received while he was considering how to vote on Pete Hegseth’s nomination as defense secretary.
At least one senator made light of the threats. In April, Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) joked on X about “bringing back caning to settle political disputes.” It was a reference to the caning of Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, 169 years ago.
Tameez recounted the attack for readers unaware of that bit of American history.
Sumner had taken two days — May 19 and May 20 in 1856 — to deliver a passionate anti-slavery speech on the Senate floor. Among other things, he accused Southern leaders of undermining democracy. That set off Senator Preston Brooks of South Carolina, who wielded his gold-tipped cane to beat Sumner so badly that the cane shattered. Sumner barely survived.
News of the assault reinvigorated the antislavery movement. Tameez tells us that voters recognized a “parallel between Sumner’s beating and the beatings that those enslaved in the South experienced daily” and In the next election, outraged Northerners elected scores of anti-slavery politicians.
Today, as threats of political violence rise, Tameez counsels us to revisit the caning and to learn “three lessons that most history textbooks overlook.”
Lesson number one: many pro-slavery politicians rejected America’s founding texts. John Pettit of Indiana belittled the immortal words that Thomas Jefferson wrote into the Declaration of Independence: the phrase “all men are created equal.” A committed White supremacist, Pettit scorned the Jeffersonian ideal of human equality as “a self-evident lie.” (Unfortunately, Pettit’s ideological descendants still populate Red Indiana.)
Brooks, Sumner’s assailant, faced few consequences; he became a celebrity at proslavery rallies across the South, and once declared that “the Constitution of the United States should be torn to fragments.”
Tameez’ second lesson is that such anti-constitutional rhetoric can prompt political violence–not to mention actual election “rigging.”
Only weeks before the caning, David Rice Atchison of Missouri — the former president pro tempore of the Senate — led an armed gang into the territory of Kansas. With bowie knives and guns, Atchison’s men seized polling locations, intimidated voters and stuffed thousands of fraudulent ballots into the voting boxes. Their goal was to ensure that Kansas voted to become a slavery state, even if it required violence and election fraud to make it happen. “If we win,” Atchison told his thugs, “we can carry slavery to the Pacific Ocean.”
Some states simply ignored the constitution. Maryland and Tennessee banned abolitionist newspapers, and Virginia made it a crime to criticize slavery. North Carolina imposed the death penalty on anyone found to have encouraged enslaved people to revolt. In 1860, Southern states outraged by Lincoln’s modestly anti-slavery platform refused to put his name on the ballot.
Nevertheless,
Through grassroots programs, tens of thousands of people gathered in “indignation meetings” to lament Sumner’s assault and strategize political responses. The Republican Party — founded on the idea that slavery should be abolished in federal territories — passed out as many as 3 million copies of the speech that led to the caning. Sumner’s near-martyrdom energized the Northern public so much that it probably contributed to Lincoln’s epic victory in the 1860 presidential election.
Lesson number three is one that fearful senators today would do well to consider. “To galvanize a public that had been asleep to democratic slippage, Sumner believed that politicians like him needed to be brave. If they had to risk their physical safety to speak their conscience, so be it.”
Personal courage is necessary in order to resist assaults on constitutional democracy. Sumner knew that courage, not concession, was the key to defeating autocracy–while stumping for Lincoln, he even quoted Jonathan Swift, who wrote “And know that to be brave is to be wise.”
The GOP cowards who control Congress today are neither brave nor wise, leaving it up to an awakened grassroots to once again save the American Idea.
Gosh, all those right-wing ravings from boneheads in our past are reminiscent of what we have now. Some things never change. You simply can’t grow brain cells in a shallow gene pool. Stephen Miller would probably have been elected as a Confederate – over and over.
The point, obviously, is that we haven’t figured out how to be a not hateful people. Oh, 75% of us are doing our best, but the 25% who are institutionalized haters will never really change for the betterment of our ideals or our democracy.
I like the idea of “indignation meetings”, and maybe what we need are Peace and Reconciliation tribunals, not unlike what happened in South Africa after apartheid was ended.
A good reminder for all of us – whether we are opposed to living under MAGA rule or are part of the MAGA mob, our country and polity has been in some pretty dire straits in the past and gotten to the other side – with the immoral, cruel, greedy, corrupt, bigoted and dishonest voices taking the loss. Certainly we can do so again. It’s also a reminder, though, that when we get to the other side, it will be like waking up in a different land. I have a hard time envisioning what that will look like, but I don’t think it will look like the Democratic party debating governing ideologies with a Republican party that looks anything like Dole/Reagan/Bush/Lugar/Daniels.
It’s very obvious that trump and his cult would cheerfully ban free speech which contradicts their plans. It’s my belief that those who swarmed voting polls this past week are those who treasure our first Amendment.
Did Jefferson really believe that “all men are created equal” when he was a slave owner and stated that only land-owning men could vote, and blacks were a fraction of a human being? Didn’t our Founders acknowledge and set up a class system?
Given the prevalence of multicultural relationships in the past several generations, younger people are increasingly accepting of the ideal of “we the people.” My daughter doesn’t see colors, but at the same time, I can hear her mother’s voice, who is a MAGA cult member. I think that in time, she will choose wisely, but while under control, she doesn’t have much of a choice.
I know MAGA is having a meltdown over Zohran Mamdani, and they are sharing memes that he will bring the Nation of Islam into his mayorship. Are they really concerned about Islam, or is it the fact that he’s a brown Muslim?
Trump is throwing all kinds of adjectives toward Mamdani, hoping to raise the ire of his cult. He’s even called him a “terrorist,” which is ironic since Trump installed an al-Qaeda terrorist to lead Syria, and has invited him to the White House. Also, there are rumors that the new branch of al-Qaeda is granting the US access to a military base in Damascus. To be clear, the US has declared the group leading the country a terrorist organization. LOL
This is why bigots like Trump and his loyal cult are so inconsistent. One of the MAGA bigots who claimed Mamdani has declared his Islamic religion will be a centerpiece of his mayorship and was melting down. I told her that now you know how I feel about seeing Christians in the White House.
More meltdown pursued…LOL
I bet that there are more than a few Senators and Representatives who would love to bring out canes to discipline other members. Think the Speaker vs MTG. The problem for Republicans is that, after the battle they would need to elect a new Speaker, which they don’t do well.
Clearly, the only Republicans with any hint of courage have resigned from congress, which is something of a major change in their lives, I will venture to guess. Ms. Cheney continues yes to be out there, taking sense.
McConnell has finally announced that Trump is not fit to be president, though only after creating the conditions inimical to his rise, but also screwing the country out of a reasonably functioning Supreme Court.
Mike Johnson, despite all his blather about being some kind of wonderful Christian, is nothing but a sniveling manipulator, shutting down congress to protect his Dear Leader” form the Epstein issue.
Those who would use violence to enforce servitude on others should be careful what they wish for. History proves that every one of those violent efforts will eventually come back on them, sometimes with a different kind of oppression for sure, but in recent history there have been significant instances of successful resistance and steps toward free voices/choices.
Somehow, I am not surprised that a man representing Indiana showed his racist ideology in Sumner’s time. That ideology is alive and well in current Indiana government. It has always been here, taught at kitchen tables, social clubs, church meetings and business conferences. It is not always blatant but subtle, dressed in rectitude and superiority.
Believing that you have to right to own another human being, to profit from their labor while dismissing their humanity strikes me as delusion, maybe even certifiably insane. Sociopaths and psychopaths find each other in every generation, greedy and cruel in their lust for power and absolute control, enriching themselves while believing that divine will has put them in place. Then they die, just like everyone else. The destruction they leave as their legacy lives on in the lives of their successors and the memories of those left behind by thier murderous actions.
We are living through a time in this country where the despots are running rampant. The only things that might deter them might be the willingness of their victims to fight back. After all, at some point the victims will have nothing to lose by resisting in any way they can. History rhymes. RESIST.
I believe the most applicable lesson from the past is that it is cyclical. What has gone around comes around again and again.
Humanity carries the full range of emotions in our chemistry, and our recall of past events manages chemistry. The difference between AI and our remember-and-repeat neuronal net is that we have our chemistry to augment our actions. That can be good and bad, functional and dysfunctional.
But there are both long- and short-term cycles that define our collective behavior, and an entire symphony of cultures that compete for our attention.
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”.
This is why it is so important to read history. I just finished Jon Meacham’s book “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power” and found that it actually helped to lessen some of my anxiety around the events in our country now. His political journey
included an act of treason by his own vice-president and yet the country survived. I am in the latter part of my life and just wish I could be around in another 20 or 30 years to see how this all turns out.
Republican Congress putting party and loyalty to trump, over their oath of office to uphold the Constitution, is at the core of the overreach and corruption that the trump regime is imposing on the country. No matter what kind of threats he’s making to Senators and Representatives they have freedom of speech and the power to resist him, especially in mass, and need to be held accountable to American people.
Spot on, Rose!
Our Governor Braun is a Koch shill, and therefore, his current allegiance is with Trump. He is a MAGA pigeon. Instead of JD Vance calling him on the phone or sending an email, he flew to Indy to talk with Braun personally (no record of their conversation). Trump wants Braun to redistrict badly, especially after Tuesday’s poor election results for MAGA.
Former NYPD says in New York cops that have 20 years and get even one complaint know its an uphill battle and will leave. They will protect their pension.
The phones are ringing off the hook for more people leaving to Florida from New York, they are calling real estate agents.
Hundreds of flights are cancelled so they cant leave. Ha 754 cancellations 413 delays
Healthcare companies are being subsidized and running to the bank.
Its 14 -15 years since the ACA was voted in is Republican by Dems Still a bad deal