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Speaker 1: Yeah, we're getting pretty close to the next presidential election.

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Speaker 1: Is it going to be the current president Joe Biden

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Speaker 1: or the former president Donald Trump. Now you may think

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Speaker 1: the politics, the emotions, and the hostility around this election

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Speaker 1: seem kind of unprecedented, but that's where you're wrong. Imagine

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Speaker 1: senators and congressmen regularly carrying weapons into the Capitol simply

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Speaker 1: to do their job. A congressman being beaten almost to

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Speaker 1: death on the House floor, or another being murdered by

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Speaker 1: a colleague, all because a guy on the other side

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Speaker 1: of the aisle doesn't agree with his politics. It all

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Speaker 1: happened in the eighteen hundreds. I'm Patty Steele, Bloody Politics.

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Speaker 1: Next on the backstory, We're back with the backstory. Pretty

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Speaker 1: much every day we hear folks ranting about how nasty

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Speaker 1: our political scene is. There's talk of violence, even civil war.

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Speaker 1: But in our almost two hundred and fifty year history,

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Speaker 1: there have been some pretty savage moments. In the election

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Speaker 1: of eighteen hundred, when President John Adams was running against

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Speaker 1: challenger Thomas Jefferson, all kinds of claims were made. One

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Speaker 1: journalist supporting Jefferson wrote that John Adams was a hermaphrodite. Meantime,

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Speaker 1: newspaper supporting Adams accused Jefferson of maintaining a harem for

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Speaker 1: himself at Monticello, his estate. The ensuing election became so

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Speaker 1: convoluted that Adams was knocked out of the running and

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Speaker 1: Aaron Burr slipped into the race. Alexander Hamilton got involved

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Speaker 1: and lobbied hard and loud for Jefferson, who finally won.

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Speaker 1: Four years later, Hamilton again spoke out against Burr in

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Speaker 1: his failed attempt to become governor of New York. Burr

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Speaker 1: challenged Hamilton to a duel, feeling his honor and career

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Speaker 1: had been dragged through the mud, and he eventually shot

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Speaker 1: and killed Hamilton in that duel. But no time in

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Speaker 1: US history saw more violence and anger in the House

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Speaker 1: and Senate than and in the decades that led up

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Speaker 1: to the Civil War. The intense abolitionists of the North

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Speaker 1: and those in the South intent on protecting their right

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Speaker 1: to own slaves led to some ferocious battles. In the

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Speaker 1: thirty years leading up to the war, there were more

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Speaker 1: than seventy violent incidents between congressmen. One that really shocked

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Speaker 1: folks happened in May of eighteen fifty six, Congressman Preston

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Speaker 1: Brooks walked into the chamber carrying a cane. He always

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Speaker 1: used one since he'd been injured several years earlier in

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Speaker 1: another political confrontation. The pro slavery Southerner walked over to

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Speaker 1: Senator Charles Sumner, whacked him on the head with his cane,

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Speaker 1: and then proceeded to beat Sumner, a powerful abolitionist, until

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Speaker 1: he was unconscious. Brooks then walked out without anybody stopping him.

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Speaker 1: It took Sumner three years to recover. Brooks, meantime, was

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Speaker 1: considered a hero in the South. Can you imagine going

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Speaker 1: into the supposedly respectable congressional chambers and being scared out

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Speaker 1: of your wits for your well being and maybe even

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Speaker 1: your life, not from outsiders but guys working side by

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Speaker 1: side with you. But that attack on Charles Sumner wasn't

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Speaker 1: the start of it. Starting in the early eighteen hundreds,

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Speaker 1: senators and congressmen pretty regularly carried pistols or booie knives

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Speaker 1: when in session. In fact, as a civil war approached,

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Speaker 1: some constituents actually sent their congressmen guns to protect themselves.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty eight, Congress was wildly divided between the

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Speaker 1: Whigs and the Democrats. An insult against congressman was considered

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Speaker 1: an insult against his whole party, and they believed that

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Speaker 1: challenging someone to a duel was the proper way to

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Speaker 1: defend the honor of the party. So while Congressmen Jonathan

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Speaker 1: Silly and William Graves didn't have any personal disagreement, they

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Speaker 1: got strong armed into a duel that neither wanted. Silly,

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Speaker 1: a Democrat, said something on the house floor that ticked

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Speaker 1: off a Whig newspaper editor. The editor then asked Graves,

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Speaker 1: a Whig, to deliver a letter to Silly demanding an apology,

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Speaker 1: but Silly refused to accept it, and before you know it,

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Speaker 1: the two had a duel date. They met for a

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Speaker 1: rifle duel, but problem is, neither one was very good

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Speaker 1: with a rifle, and they missed each other on the

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Speaker 1: first two shots. So they tried again a third time,

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Speaker 1: and Graves wound up shooting and killing Silly. Congress responded

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Speaker 1: to Silly's murderer with an anti dueling law in eighteen

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Speaker 1: thirty nine, but as the tensions between the North and

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Speaker 1: the South ramped up, the violence in Congress continued. In

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Speaker 1: another case, in the Arkansas State legislature, a House member

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Speaker 1: insulted the speaker during debate, and the speaker responded by

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Speaker 1: pulling out a bowie knife and murdering him right there

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Speaker 1: on the House floor. The killer congressman was expelled and

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Speaker 1: tried for murder, but was acquitted for what they called

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Speaker 1: excusable homicide. He was even re elected. Now, the problem

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Speaker 1: is that guy later pulled his knife on another legislator,

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Speaker 1: who was saved by all the other politicians who simply

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Speaker 1: started cocking their pistols, which they conveniently had on hand.

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Speaker 1: By eighteen fifty eight, tensions over slavery erupted into a

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Speaker 1: full fledged ideological and physical combat on the floor. This

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Speaker 1: happened just a year after abolitionists were enraged by the

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Speaker 1: Supreme Court ruling in the dread Scott case, which said

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Speaker 1: that black people couldn't be citizens and the federal government

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Speaker 1: couldn't ban slavery in western territories. A huge fight broke

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Speaker 1: out around two o'clock in the morning during an overnight session.

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Speaker 1: A Southern congressman grabbed a Northern representative by the throat

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Speaker 1: and said he would teach quote this black Republican puppy

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Speaker 1: a lesson. As the two white men fought, their colleagues

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Speaker 1: ran over and a full on group fistfight broke out.

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Speaker 1: As one historian put it, the end result was a

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Speaker 1: free for all fight in the open space in front

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Speaker 1: of the speaker's platform, featuring about thirty sweaty, disheveled, mostly

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Speaker 1: middle aged congressman in a no holds barred brawl North

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Speaker 1: against South. Two years later came the Civil War. So

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Speaker 1: when you ask yourself how bad could this election cycle get?

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Speaker 1: Remember the anger is not without precedence, and just maybe

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Speaker 1: the passion has something to teach us about listening to

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Speaker 1: another point of view. Hope you're enjoying the Backstory with

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Speaker 1: Patty Steele and that you will subscribe. And if you'd

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Speaker 1: like me to dig into a story, just DM me

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Speaker 1: on Facebook at Patty Steele or on Instagram at real

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Speaker 1: Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a production

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Speaker 1: of iHeartMedia, Premier Networks, the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel

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Speaker 1: Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner.

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Speaker 1: We have new episodes free Tuesday and Friday. Feel free

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Speaker 1: to reach out to me with comments and even story

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Speaker 1: suggestions on Instagram at real Patty Steele and on Facebook

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Speaker 1: at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the backstory with

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Speaker 1: Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't know you

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Speaker 1: needed to know