Senate Fistfights
Earlier this week Senator Elizabeth Warren was silenced during her sly attack on Senator Jeff Sessions (sly because she chose to use words from ANOTHER individual) during hearings for Mr. Session’s Attorney General confirmation. Some felt that this was going overboard with an archaic Senate rule that should be repealed or, at least, ignored. It turns out, however, there are some very good (and surprising) reasons to keep this rule in place and enforced.
The reasons? Amazingly, it’s to prevent violence in the Senate! That’s right: to prevent VIOLENCE IN THE Senate. Now, the reader might think that such a rule would hardly be necessary in an august body like the Senate. Surely, such learned and sophisticated members would not be in need of a RULE to prevent violence, right?…Wrong!
There have actually been multiple episodes of violence IN the Senate! The incident that prompted the rule invoked for Ms. Warren (Senate Rule Number XIX) was an actual fistfight that broke out ON THE SENATE FLOOR in 1902. During the altercation, the junior senator from North Carolina, John McLaurin, insulted the senior senator from the same state, Ben Tillman, who promptly PUNCHED MCLAURIN IN THE NOSE! Pandemonium, of course, broke out and several Senators were required to restore order. Hence Senate Rule XIX.
Surprisingly, that episode PALES in comparison to an altercation which occurred on May 22, 1856, again ON THE SENATE FLOOR. This time an antislavery REPUBLICAN, Charles Sumner, was viciously attacked with a metal topped walking stick wielded by PRO slavery Democrat, Preston Brooks, two days after Sumner gave an impassioned address against slavery. Mr. Books repeatedly struck Mr. Summer in the head even AFTER he was unconscious. He broke the stick into several pieces, and was arrested for assault. Mr. Sumner almost died, but, with medical treatment, did survive.
So, ladies and gentlemen, rules promoting respect and decorum in the Senate would appear to be a VERY good idea! And, knowing what we know about human nature, those rules are as necessary today as they would have been in 1856 and 1902.