Joe Wilson, Neoconfederate
By Scott Horton

Back in 1856, South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks took offense to an anti-slavery speech delivered by Massachusetts abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner. Accompanied by another congressman from the Palmetto state, Laurence M. Keitt, Brooks waited until Sumner was almost alone on the floor of the Senate and then approached him. He called Sumner’s speech a “libel on South Carolina,” and then raised a thick gold-capped cane over Sumner’s head and began to strike him. Brooks continued to deliver blows to Sumner’s head until his stout cane broke and Sumner collapsed in a pool of blood on the floor. When several senators came to Sumner’s defense, Keitt brandished a pistol in their face and warned them to keep away. Sumner barely escaped with his life and was incapacitated for a full three years.

SNIP