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to rise. On the 26th and 28th of June, of the same year, Mr. Sumner, on the Boston memorial for the repeal of the Fugitive Slave law, replied with severity and eloquence to Messrs. Jones of Tennessee, Butler of South Carolina, and Mason of Virginia, displaying in the most commanding way his power as a debator. Mr. Sumner never relaxed his exertions in the cause of his choice a moment. In Congress or out of it, in debates on the floor of the Senate or in addresses, he continued to denounce the evil of slavery, the tyranny of its advocates, and to urge on the free people of the North the duty of its suppression. He became the recognized leader of the Anti-slavery Party in the Senate, and Massachusetts had reason to be proud of her talented and gifted son, whose name was in every one's mouth. In May, 1856, occurred the great debate on the admission of Kansas as a state. In the course of his speech on this question which has been esteemed one of his best oratorical efforts, Mr. Sumner denounced the crime of slavery with such unsparing severity, and exposed its manifold evils and degrading influence with so keen sa arcasm, that the Southern members in Congress became furiously incensed. The speech has a sad celebrity from what followed it. Two days after its delivery, while Mr. Sumner was seated in his chair in the Senate, after adjournment, busy writing, he was suddenly attacked by Preston S. Brooks, a member of the House from South Carolina, and a nephew of Senator Butler, to whom Mr. Sumner had replied. Armed with a heavy cane, Brooks struck his unconscious victim a powerful blow on the head, felling him unconscious to the floor, and then continued his blows, while Mr. Kitt, another South Carolina Congressman stood ready, pistol in hand, to prevent interference. Messrs. Morgan and Murray, of New York, and Mr. Chittendon, who were in the Chamber, recovering from their sudden horror, rushed forward and dragged off the would be assassins before they had completed their work. The effect of this occurrence on the country was startling. From east to west one universal cry of indignation arose, and the attack probably did more damage to the Democratic Party than even the Fugitive Slave bill. It gave a degree of concentration and intensity to the antipathy of the Northern people to slavery and its advocates which it had never before known. The Democracy rallied somewhat to the defense of their men, but not all the power of hot party spirit could so overcome the common feelings of humanity, as to make them regarded with anything else than universal repugnance. Both Preston Brooks and Keitt died miserable and dishonored deaths.
