I’m getting in late on this one, but I’ll give my two-cents’ worth. Sen. Sumner saying that Sen. Butler had an “ugly mistress,” and then explainin his metaphor that the “mistress” was slavery, and describing the evils of the institution, was perfectly legitimate, not a personal attack upon a fellow senator, and not a violation of (the future) Rule XIX. Butler was openly and proudly supportive of the “peculiar institution” of slavery, and it was not defamatory for Sumner to point it out and explain what it implied any more than it would have been defamatory for Sen. Warren to claim that Sen. Sessions was prejudiced against blacks had Sessions been openly and proudly racist (had Coretta Scott King’s letter not told lies about Sessions then Warren’s reading it wouldn’t have violated Rule XIX).
But there was one thing about Sumner’s speech that was out of line and absolutely a violation of decorum, and something for which he deserved some form of punishment (albeit not getting caned half to death by a William Zanzinger wannabe): Sumner mocked the way that Butler spoke, not merely his accent, but his slurring after he had suffered a stroke. The Senate definitely should have reprimanded Sumner for having done so.
That being said, Brooks’s actions were absolutely out of proportion for the offense taken and Brooks should have been (i) expelled from the Senate and (ii) prosecuted for felony assault and battery and attempted murder. And the Senator that kept back those attempting to stop the assault of a man helplessly trapped under a desk also should have been reprimanded by the Senate and prosecuted criminally. The Speech and Debate Clause protecs things said in Congress, not attempted murder.
You’ve set me to googling William Zigzager or whoever. ;d
Anyway, thanks for the coin.
Keitt (the accomplice) and Brooks himself were members of the House of course and not Senators. Wikipedia mentions another rat Rep. helping keep anyone from aiding Sumter, Henry A. Edmundson of Virginia, who nearly attacked another Representative on the House floor a couple years prior.
Keitt’s Wikipedia article says Keitt was censured by the House, Edmundson’s censure resolution was voted down. Brooks himself seems to have even escaped censure. Govtrack.com has a great Congressional votes database but the older votes are a little hard to decipher sometimes.
As much as some might deserve it I’m glad there is no longer violence in Congress.