the floor, to which it had been screwed, but before he could gain
his feet his assailant had gratified his desire to punish him.
Several persons had witnessed this murderous assault without
interfering, and when Mr. Sumner, stunned and bleeding, was led to
a sofa in the anteroom, Mr. Brooks was congratulated on what he
had done.

For two years Mr. Sumner was a great sufferer, but the people of
Massachusetts, recognizing him as their champion, kept his empty
chair in the Senate ready for him to occupy again when he became
convalescent. A chivalrous sympathy for him as he endured the
cruel treatment prescribed by modern science contributed to his
fame, and he became the leading champion of liberty in the impending
conflict for freedom. Mr. Seward regarded the situation with a
complacent optimism, Mr. Hale good-naturedly joked with the Southern
Senators, and Mr. Chase drifted along with the current, all of them
adorning but not in any way shaping the tide of events. With Mr.
Sumner it was different, for he possessed that root of statesmanship
--the power of forethought. Although incapacitated for Senatorial
duties, his earnest words, like the blast of a trumpet, echoed
through the North, and he was recognized as the martyr-leader of
the Republican party. The injury to his nervous system was great,
but the effect of Brooks' blows upon the slave-holding system was
still more injurious. Before Mr. Sumner had resumed his seat both
Senator Butler and Representative Brooks had passed away.

The debate in the House of Representatives on a resolution censuring
Mr. Brooks for his murderous attack (followed by his resignation
and unanimous re-election) was marked by acrimonious altercations,
with threats of personal violence by the excited Southerners, who
found themselves on the defensive. Henry Wilson and other Northern
Congressmen went about armed with revolvers, and gave notice that
while they would not fight duels, they would defend themselves if
attacked. Mr. Anson Burlingame, who had come from Michigan to
complete his studies at Harvard College, married the daughter of
a wealthy Boston merchant, and had been elected to Congress by the
Know-Nothings and Abolitionists, accepted a challenge from Mr.
Brooks. He selected the Clifton House, on the Canadian shore of
Niagara Falls, as the place of meeting, which the friends of Mr.
Brooks declared was done that the duel could not take place, as
Mr. Brooks could not pass