Before the Civil War, Congress Was a Hotbed of Violence

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Before the Civil War, Congress Was a Hotbed of Violence
 
By Anna Diamond
 
September 2018
 
Scuffles seem to break out in parliaments and legislatures around the world. The last few years saw a brawl in Taiwan, a face-punch in Ukraine and a mass fight in South Africa.

The floor of the U.S. Congress is home today to plenty of verbal abuse and name-calling, but rarely sees anything physical. In her new book, Field of Blood, Joanne B. Freeman, Yale professor of history and American studies, finds that violence used to be the norm in the Capitol, almost two centuries ago, when fists flew, pistols were drawn and the threat of violence was all pervasive. She writes, “The antebellum Congress had its admirable moments, but it wasn’t an assembly of demigods. It was a human institution with very human failings.”

Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/field-of-blood_article-180970043/#Zyr98PU2bmHVET7U.99
 

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I long for the good old days when sometimes one made their point at someone's throat.