and
had been prepared with his usual industry. In character it was a
philippic rather than an argument, strong, direct, and aggressive, in
which classical illustration and acrimonious accusation were blended
with great effect.

It described what he called "The Crime against Kansas"; and the
excuses for the crime he denominated the apology tyrannical, the
apology imbecile, the apology absurd, and the apology infamous.
"Tyranny, imbecility, absurdity, and infamy," he continued, "all unite
to dance, like the weird sisters, about this crime."

In the course of his speech he alluded, among others, to A.P. Butler,
of South Carolina, and in reply to some severe strictures by that
Senator during preceding debates, indulged in caustic personal
criticism upon his course and utterance, as well as upon the State
which he represented.

With regret [said Sumner], I come again upon the Senator from
South Carolina [Mr. Butler], who, omnipresent in this debate,
overflowed with rage at the simple suggestion that Kansas had
applied for admission as a State; and with incoherent phrases
discharged the loose expectoration of his speech, now upon her
representative and then upon her people. There was no extravagance
of the ancient parliamentary debate which he did not repeat; nor
was there any possible deviation from truth which he did not make,
with so much of passion, I am glad to add, as to save him from the
suspicion of intentional aberration. But the Senator touches
nothing which he does not disfigure--with error, sometimes of
principle, sometimes of fact. He shows an incapacity of accuracy,
whether in stating the Constitution or in stating the law, whether
in details of statistics or the diversions of scholarship. He
cannot open his mouth but out there flies a blunder.

[Illustration: CHARLES SUMNER.]

Butler was not present in the Senate on either day; what he might have
said or done, had he been there, can only be conjectured. The immediate
replies from Douglas and others were very bitter. Among pro-slavery
members of both Houses there was an under-current of revengeful
murmurs. It is possible that this hostile manifestation may have
decided a young member of the House, Preston S. Brooks, a nephew of
Senator Butler, to undertake retaliation by violence. Acquainting
Henry A. Edmundson, another member, with his design, he waited on two
different occasions at the western