Indeed, and for a little further detail about something I didn’t realize when I learned about this in school … Brooks nearly killed Sumner, beating him savagely with a gold topped cane after cold cocking him. An accomplice held off senators who were tried to come to Sumner’s rescue.

The cane snapped in two halfway through the attack, but Brooks continued using the heavy gold end to beat Sumner.

Sumner languished in bed for months, doctors unsure if he would live. When he eventually returned to the Senate, Southern lawmakers had taken bits of Brooks' cane and and fabricated them into jewelry which they hung about their necks in celebration of the beating.

Talk about division.