Southern Chivalry—Argument Versus Clubs

This political cartoon by J.L. Magee depicts the caning of Senator Charles Sumner by Representative Preston Brooks on the Senate floor, May 22, 1856. Sumner, a Massachusetts Republican, had delivered a fierce abolitionist speech attacking pro-slavery senators including Andrew Butler of South Carolina. Brooks, Butler's cousin, responded with physical violence—beating Sumner with a cane while spectators watched. The image shows Brooks mid-attack, his coat-tails flying, while Sumner falls backward; onlookers react with shock. The title sarcastically invokes Southern honor code, contrasting Sumner's words with Brooks's brutality. The cartoon circulated as a woodcut, reaching thousands through newspapers and prints. This incident crystallized sectional tensions before the Civil War and became iconic imagery in the visual language of political satire.