He pointed out that Congress has often been a far more contentious place, especially in the 1850s, when Rep. Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts on the Senate floor over antislavery remarks.

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Whereas most of America North and South was more moderate on the issue, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts represented the abolitionist point of view, which called for the immediate and uncompsensated end to slavery, which the South feared greatly.

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