History of the United States from the earliest discovery of America to the end of 1902 . use was adopted, but onlybecause the free-state men would not Topeka Legislature submitted thewhole constitution to popular vote, whenit was overwhelmingly rejected. The Pres-ident and Senate, however, urged state-hood under the Lecompton constitution,although popular votes in Kansas twicemore, April, 1858, and March, 1859, hadadopted constitutions prohibiting slavery,the latter being that of Wyandotte. Butthe House still stood firm. Kansas wasnot admitted to the Union till January 29,1861, when h
History of the United States from the earliest discovery of America to the end of 1902 . use was adopted, but onlybecause the free-state men would not Topeka Legislature submitted thewhole constitution to popular vote, whenit was overwhelmingly rejected. The Pres-ident and Senate, however, urged state-hood under the Lecompton constitution,although popular votes in Kansas twicemore, April, 1858, and March, 1859, hadadopted constitutions prohibiting slavery,the latter being that of Wyandotte. Butthe House still stood firm. Kansas wasnot admitted to the Union till January 29,1861, when her chief foes in the UnitedStates Senate had seceded from the came in with the Wyandotte constitu-tion and hence as a free State. It was during the debate upon Kansasaffairs in 1856 that Preston S. Brooks, amember of the House from South Carolina, 1856] THE FIGHT FOR KANSAS 227 made his cowardly attack upon CharlesSumner. Sumner had delivered a powerfulspeech upon the crime against Kansas,worded and delivered, naturally but unfortu-nately, with some asperity. In this speech. Charles Sumner. he animadverted severely upon South Caro-lina and upon Senator Butler from thatState. This gave offence to Brooks, a rel-ative of Butler, and coming into the SenateChamber while Sumner was busy writing athis desk, he fell upon him with a heavy 228 THE YEARS OF SLAVERY [1856 cane, inflicting injuries from which Sumnernever recovered, and which for four yearsunfitted him for his senatorial duties. Sum-ners colleague, Henry Wilson, in an ad-dress to the Senate, characterized theassault as it deserved. He was challengedby Brooks, but refused to fight on theground that duelling was part of the bar-barism which Brooks had shown in caningSumner. Anson Burlingame, representa-tive from Massachusetts, who had publiclydenounced the caning, was challenged byBrooks and accepted the challenge, but, ashe named Canada for the place of meeting,Brooks declined to fight him for the osten-sible reason
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