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Charles Sumner's speech, delivered in May 1856, vehemently criticized the Kansas-Nebraska Act and its proponents, particularly Senator Andrew Butler. As a result, Butler's cousin, Congressman Preston Brooks, attacked Sumner on the Senate floor, severely beating him with a cane. This incident heightened tensions in the already polarized atmosphere over slavery and further illustrated the violent divisions in American politics leading up to the Civil War. Sumner's brutal caning became a symbol of the intense conflict surrounding the issue of slavery in the United States.

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2mo ago

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