Although gridlock is a constant theme in conversations surrounding today's Congress, at least the partisanship wasn't bloody between members. On May 22, 1856, Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Massachusetts' abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the old Senate Chamber.
Two days earlier, on the Senate floor, Sumner denounced the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed popular sovereignty in Kansas and Nebraska and led to violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery camps. Sumner went on to personally insult the acts' sponsors, Senators Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina. Butler had insulted Sumner for his abolitionist views, so the Massachusetts senator returned the favor by claiming Butler had a slave mistress and by mocking his speech impediment caused by a stroke.
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