Politics: Are things really worse than ever?
The election is over. Some people are happy, some are not. Some people are shouting the end of America, some are celebrating the hope of America.
To be sure, civilizations of bygone eras have risen and collapsed. The United States is not immune to the patterns of history.
News pundits, politicians and others are fond of saying they never saw our country so divided, so unable to engage in civil discourse, so bent on destroying one another.
Yes, we are divided and often nasty about it. Even our leaders in Congress routinely shout one another down.
But compare that to Congress members of bygone eras.
Take 1798, for instance. Rep. Matthew Lyon of Vermont, in a fit of disrespect, spit tobacco juice at his colleague from Connecticut, Rep. Roger Griswold. Griswold, in a fit of righteous indignation, began to beat Lyon with his cane. Lyon, interestingly, found a pair of fire tongs with which to fight back. The altercation was brought under control and Congress was so unimpressed that only 21 of the 94 present voted to expel the men.
Today’s duels in Congress are all verbal. There might not be a conclusive winner, as in the past when the loser could easily end up dead or physically battered enough to wrinkle up his speech, but it’s the price of progress.
In her book, “The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War,” Joanne B. Freeman shares a litany of violent incidents from the hallowed floors of Congress.
Congressmen were known to spit upon, punch and kick each other, to beat one another with walking sticks and to pull out knives and guns with the intent to do harm.
Freeman says in her book that there were at least 70 violent interactions between and among congressmen during the 30 years leading up to the Civil War.
In 1838, Rep. Jonathan Cilley of Maine and Rep. William Graves of Kentucky, egged on by a newspaper editor who told them they must confront each other as a point of honor over something said in Congress, faced off in a duel. On the third try, Graves shot Cilley dead.
In 1856, Rep. Preston Brooks took issue with the well-known Sen. Charles Sumner. Brooks marched to the Senate chamber and beat Sumner until he was unconscious.
In 1858, two representatives, Republican Galusha Grow of Pennsylvania and Democrat Laurence Keitt of South Carolina, got into a little tiff that turned physical and eventually degenerated into a gang war of 30 members.
Most state legislatures had their problems, too. In 1937, Arkansas Speaker of the House John Wilson became so angry with Rep. J.J. Anthony that he jumped from behind the podium and stabbed him to death.
Maybe things have improved a little and we can still have hope for ever more civil discourse.