Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1858-06-24
The Assault on Senator Sumner.

The Frankfort, (Ky.,) Commonwealth, of
June Attn, publishes Charles Summers let
ter to his constituents with the following
remarks:
We hardly think it probable that the i'll
ness of Sumner is altogether fictitious
Cases have not unfrequently occurred in
which slight blows upon the lead have pro-
duced effects even more serious than those
complained of by the scholar of Massachu-
setts. The history Of surgery will show
that brilliant iutellects have been reduced
to the most abject idiocy by such cases, and
that the patients, although continuing to
live, have dragged along most miserable
existence, both bodily and mentally. The
case of Sidell is fair illustration of this
phen omenon, and it is unfair that Southern
journalists who believe that his death was
caused by blows inflicted upon the head,
producing nervous irritation and seftening
OF the brain-we say that it is unfair that
these Southern journalists should doubt the
reality of Summers illness, and should ac-
cuse him of feigning sickness for political
effect.
We were not sorry at the time that Sum-
ner should have been chastised for his gross
personalities and violent abuse of South
Carolina, Just as we would no: be sorry at
all if when Southern ho,heads and madcaps
indulge in abuse towards Northern men,
they should suffer for their insoence. Sum-
ner did not denounce Senator Butler one
whit more severely than Butler had de-
nounced him, the on y difference being that
the personalities of one were clothed in
scholarly diction and that of the other
smacked Of the provincialIsms of a cotton
plantation. Consequently, we say that
Sumner deserved punishment no more than
Butler and other Southern men have done
who transcribed the bounds of Senatoria
propriety with impunity. We condemned
Brooks for violating the majesty of the
United States by striking one of her Sen
ators in the Senate Chamber, for words spo-
ken in debate, and for having SO assailed
him without giving him sufficient warning.
But 80 expressed no sympathy for Sum-
ner however much we may have condemn
ed his brutal assailant. Nor should we SYM
pathize with the ruffian Green, if, when
bandying about his coarse epithets and abu-
sing far ADLER and better men than himself,
he should meet with a just and righteous
castigation; and we would not grieve very
much if simpleton Shorter had been kicked
and pummel:ed soon after his low assault
upon the memory of the Pilgrim Fathers.
But since the terrible effects o. the blows
from Brooks cane have been ascertained,
we cannot help but express our commiser-
alton and regret that SO much learning and
genius should have been so suddenly pros
trated, even though that learning and ge-
MUS were used in bad cause. 1t is per-
haps wei for the country that the hcen-
di ary speeches of Sumner no longer re-
sound in the Senate chamber. 1t is not the
politician and demagogue whose absence
from the scenes OF the conflict and debate
we regret. but i: is the polished rhetorician
the finished orator and scholar, the man OF
Ceniu and of science, and letters, whose
elegant contributions to American liter
ature we regret to lose.