Beyond the Senate Assault: The Complex Legacy of Charles Sumner

Certain Americans are remembered less for their own actions and more for the events inflicted upon them. Figures like Sonny Liston, famously knocked out by Muhammad Ali’s 'phantom punch,' or Rodney King, whose beating by police sparked nationwide outrage, are often seen as symbols rather than individuals.

Charles Sumner, the Massachusetts senator and outspoken abolitionist, similarly became known primarily for the brutal attack he suffered at the hands of South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks. The term 'caned,' rarely applied elsewhere, understates the ferocity of the assault. In 1856, Brooks violently struck Sumner repeatedly with a gold-tipped cane after being provoked by a fiery speech, leaving Sumner unconscious and severely wounded. His survival was considered remarkable by his physician.

The incident intensified sectional tensions, galvanizing Northern opposition and bolstering the nascent Republican Party, while many white Southerners celebrated Brooks, signaling a troubling readiness to endorse violence in defense of slavery. Yet, beyond this infamous episode, who was Charles Sumner? What do we lose by remembering him chiefly as a victim rather than a pioneering leader?

For decades, the standard biographical account was David Herbert Donald’s two-volume work from the 1960s and 1970s. Though critically acclaimed, including a Pulitzer Prize for the first volume, Donald’s portrayal was criticized for its dismissive stance toward abolitionists, treating them with a skepticism that equated their role with that of pro-slavery advocates who sparked the conflict.

In light of ongoing political debates, new perspectives on Sumner have emerged. Stephen Puleo’s recent books revisited the caning and attempted to rehabilitate Sumner’s reputation as one of America’s most impactful legislators outside the presidency. Most recently, Zaakir Tameez, a Yale Law School graduate, has published a comprehensive biography that offers a detailed examination of Sumner’s life and legacy. While not without its imperfections, this new work stands as a definitive account unlikely to be surpassed soon.

Tameez presents Sumner as a brilliant idealist and unwavering advocate for racial equality, who tirelessly championed justice from within political institutions, often in isolation. Notably, in 1849, Sumner delivered the earliest full legal argument for 'equality before the law' in an unsuccessful case challenging school segregation. After the Civil War, he championed civil rights legislation that would have exceeded even the protections later enacted by President Lyndon Johnson a century afterward.