=415. Assault upon Sumner.=—While the Kansas question was raising to a white heat all sections of the country, an event occurred to intensify the excitement. In the course of the long debate in Congress on the Kansas troubles, Charles Sumner,[185] on the 19th and 20th of May, 1856, delivered his celebrated speech, “The Crime against Kansas.” It was the most terrible philippic ever uttered in the Senate, and it exasperated the men of the South beyond measure. Particularly severe was Sumner’s attack on Senator Butler, of South Carolina. Two days after the delivery of this speech, Sumner was writing a letter at his desk, after the Senate had adjourned, when he was approached by Preston S. Brooks, from South Carolina, a nephew of Butler and a member of the House of Representatives. Brooks struck Sumner repeated blows on the head with a cane and felled him to the floor. The injuries Sumner received affected his spine and were so serious that it was more than three years before he could be restored to a fair amount of vigor. While, in the South, a few persons deprecated the assault, Brooks was welcomed by the masses as a hero. In the North the attack was universally condemned, and stirred the deepest indignation. An effort was made in the House of Representatives to expel Brooks, but only one Southerner voted for his expulsion, and the motion failed to receive the necessary two-thirds majority. A severe vote of censure, however, was passed by a large majority; whereupon Brooks resigned his place, and appealed to his constituents for indorsement and reëlection. In the election that followed, only six votes were cast against him. The speech, the assault, and the indorsement of Brooks inflamed every part of the country. THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.