The Attack on Mr. Sumner.--Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Gazette [Republican](24 May 1856)
The news of the cowardly attack on Mr. Sumner by a
villainous South Carolinian, stirred up a deeper indignation among our
citizens, yesterday, than we have ever before witnessed. It was an
indignation that pervaded all classes and conditions of men. The assault
was deliberately planned, being made in the presence and under the
encouragement of a crowd of bullies, when Mr. Sumner was
alone, unarmed and defenceless, and it was conducted so brutally -- fifty
blows being inflicted upon an unresisting victim, until the weapon of
attack was used up, and not one hand raised among the bystanders to stay
the fury of the perfidious wretch, that every feeling of human nature
revolts at the exhibition. Barbarians and savages would not be guilty of
such unmanliness; and even the vulgar blackguards who follow the business
of bruisers and shoulder-hitters would have a far higher sense of fair
play than was shown by these patterns of chivalry. A universal cry of
"Shame!" would go up from the lips of the people, if, unfortunately, the
people did not, in view of this and similar outrages, feel a bitter
shamefacedness at their own degradation in having to submit to them.
It is time, now, to inaugurate a change. It can no longer be permitted
that all the blows shall come from one side. If Southern men will resort
to the fist to overawe and intimidate Northern men, blow must be given
back for blow. Forbearance and kindly deportment are lost upon these
Southern ruffians. It were as well to throw pearls before swine as turn
one cheek to them when the other is smitten. Under the
circumstances now prevailing, neither religion nor manhood requires
submission to such outrages. Northern men must defend themselves; and if
our present representatives will not fight, when attacked, let us find
those who will. It is not enough, now, to have backbone; there must be
strong right arms, and a determination to use them. The voters of the Free
States, in vindication of their own manliness will, hereafter, in addition
to inquiring of candidates. Will you vote so-and-so, have to enlarge the
basis of interrogation, and demand an affirmative answer to the question,
Will you fight? It has come to that, now, that Senators and
Representatives cannot enjoy the right of free speech or free discussion,
without being liable to brutal assaults; and they must, of necessity, arm
themselves with sword-canes or revolvers. To think of enduring quietly
such attacks as that upon Mr. Sumner, is craven and
pusillanimous. -- These cut-throat Southrons will never learn to respect
Northern men until some one of their number has a rapier thrust through
his ribs, or feels a bullet in his thorax. It is lamentable that such
should be the case; but it is not in human nature to be trampled
on.
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