"The Harlot, Slavery" Senator Charles Sumner May 19th, 1856

Compromise of 1850 and Bleeding Kansas

On May 19th, 1856, Senator Charles Sumner began delivering his infamous speech, "Crimes Against Kansas." It would take him five hours over two days to deliver the entire 112 pages, but the reverberations of the speech would be felt for years across the country, as well as in the Longfellow household.

In this speech, Sumner took up the crusade for abolition in earnest. He charged his fellow senators with allowing the extension of slavery into the territory of Kansas, causing fighting there and undermining the nation's democratic institutions. He also personally attacked Senators Stephen Douglas and Andrew Butler. Sumner used his oratorical wit to call Douglas a "noise-some, squat, and nameless animal," and to mock Butler's sense of chivalry in the speech's most famous quote. He charged Butler with taking: "a mistress . . . who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight—I mean, the harlot, Slavery."

Two days later, a member of the House and relative of Butler, Preston Brooks, beat Sumner with a cane for the speech.

Back in Cambridge, Sumner's close friend, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, wrote in his journal: "Was walking in the garden, when Owen arrives, and in a voice broken by sobs tells me that Sumner has been brutally beaten in the Senate house by a Mr. Brooks…. O Southern 'chivalry!'" Sumner would spend part of his convalescence in western Massachusetts, Europe – and at the Longfellow house. It took Sumner three years to return to the Senate, though he never fully recovered from his injuries. This incident was a symptom of the larger debate over the institution of slavery in the United States and did much to further polarize the North and South. Sumner and Brooks became martyrs for their respective political causes. The event helped to push the country down the path to civil war five years later.

- Ranger Anna

[1856 lithograph cartoon depicting Preston Brooks' attack on Charles Sumner in the U.S. Senate chamber by John L. Magee. Courtesy Boston Athenæum]

The Compromise of 1850

The plan was set forth. The giants — Calhoun, Webster, and Clay — had spoken. Still the Congress debated the contentious issues well into the summer. Each time Clay's Compromise was set forth for a vote, it did not receive a majority. Henry Clay himself had to leave in sickness, before the dispute could be resolved. In his place, Stephen Douglas worked tirelessly to end the fight. On July 9, President Zachary Taylor died of food poisoning. His successor, MILLARD FILLMORE, was much more interested in compromise. The environment for a deal was set. By September, Clay's Compromise became law.

The "Great Compromiser," Henry Clay, introduces the
Compromise of 1850 in the Senate.

California was admitted to the Union as the 16th free state. In exchange, the south was guaranteed that no federal restrictions on slavery would be placed on Utah or New Mexico. Texas lost its boundary claims in New Mexico, but the Congress compensated Texas with $10 million. Slavery was maintained in the nation's capital, but the slave trade was prohibited. Finally, and most controversially, a FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW was passed, requiring northerners to return runaway slaves to their owners under penalty of law.

North Gets	South Gets
California admitted as a free state	No slavery restrictions in Utah or New Mexico territories
Slave trade prohibited in Washington D.C.	Slaveholding permitted in Washington D.C.
Texas loses boundary dispute with New Mexico	Texas gets $10 million
	Fugitive Slave Law

Who won and who lost in the deal? Although each side received benefits, the north seemed to gain the most. The balance of the Senate was now with the free states, although California often voted with the south on many issues in the 1850s. The major victory for the south was the Fugitive Slave Law. In the end, the north refused to enforce it. Massachusetts even called for its nullification, stealing an argument from John C. Calhoun. Northerners claimed the law was unfair. The flagrant violation of the Fugitive Slave Law set the scene for the tempest that emerged later in the decade. But for now, Americans hoped against hope that the fragile peace would prevail.