Sumner replied in a passion, “Let the Senator remember hereafter that the bowie-knife and bludgeon are not the proper emblems of senatorial debate.  Let him remember that the swagger of Bob Acres and the ferocity of the Malay cannot add dignity to this body....  No person with the upright form of a man can be allowed, without violation of all decency, to switch out from his tongue the perpetual stench of offensive personality.  Sir, that is not a proper weapon of debate, at least, on this floor.  The noisome, squat, and nameless animal, to which I refer, is not a proper model for an American Senator.  Will the Senator from Illinois take notice?” And upon Douglas’s unworthy retort that he certainly would not imitate the Senator in that capacity, Stunner said insultingly, “Mr. President, again the Senator has switched his tongue, and again he fills the Senate with its offensive odor."[566]

Two days later Brooks made his assault on Sumner in the Senate chamber.  Sumner’s recollection was, that on recovering consciousness, he recognized among those about him, but offering no assistance, Senators Douglas and Toombs, and between them, his assailant.[567] It was easy for ill-disposed persons to draw unfortunate inferences from this sick-bed testimony.  Douglas felt that an explanation was expected from him.  In a frank, explicit statement he told his colleagues that he was in the reception room of the Senate when the assault occurred.  Hearing what was happening, he rose immediately to his feet to enter the chamber and put an end to the affray.  But, on second thought, he realized that his motives would be misconstrued if he entered the hall.  When the affair was over, he went in with the crowd.  He was not near Brooks at any time, and he was not with Senator Toombs, except perhaps as he passed him on leaving the chamber.  He did not know that any attack upon Mr. Sumner was purposed “then or at any other time, here or at any other place."[568] Still, it is to be regretted that Douglas did not act on his first, manly instincts and do all that lay in his power to end this brutal assault, regardless of possible misconstructions.

Disgraceful as these scenes in Congress were, they were less ominous than events which were passing in Kansas.  Clashes between pro-slavery and free-State settlers had all but resulted in civil war in the preceding fall.  An unusually severe winter had followed, which not only cooled the passions of all for a while, but convinced many a slave-holder of the futility of introducing African slaves into a climate, where on occasion the mercury would freeze in the thermometer.  In the spring hostilities were resumed.  Under cover of executing certain writs in Lawrence, Sheriff Jones and a posse of ruffians took revenge upon that stronghold of the Emigrant Aid Society, by destroying the newspaper offices, burning some public buildings, and pillaging the town.  Three days after the sack of Lawrence, and just two days after the assault upon Sumner in the Senate, John Brown and his sons executed the decree of Almighty God, by slaying in cold blood five pro-slavery settlers on the Pottawatomie.  Civil war had begun in Kansas.[569]