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• Collection: Cartoon Prints, American

• Title: Arguments of the chivalry
• Related Names:
     Bufford, John Henry, 1810-1870.
     Homer, Winslow, 1836-1910.
• Date Created/Published: 1856.
• Medium: 1 print : lithograph on wove paper ; 36.9 x 51.8 cm. (image)
• Summary: A dramatic portrayal, clearly biased toward the northern point of view, of an incident in Congress which inflamed sectional passions in 1856. The artist recreates the May 22 attack and severe beating of Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner by Representative Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina. Brooks's actions were provoked by Sumner's insulting public remarks against his cousin, Senator Andrew Pickens Butler, and against Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas, delivered in the Senate two days earlier. The print shows an enraged Brooks (right) standing over the seated Sumner in the Senate chamber, about to land on him a heavy blow of his cane. The unsuspecting Sumner sits writing at his desk. At left is another group. Brooks's fellow South Carolinian Representative Lawrence M. Keitt stands in the center, raising his own cane menacingly to stay possible intervention by the other legislators present. Clearly no help for Sumner is forthcoming. Behind Keitt's back, concealed in his left hand, Keitt holds a pistol. In the foreground are Georgia senator Robert Toombs (far left) and Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas (hands in pockets) looking vindicated by the event. Behind them elderly Kentucky senator John J. Crittenden is restrained by a fifth, unidentified man. Above the scene is a quote from Henry Ward Beecher's May 31 speech at a Sumner rally in New York, where he proclaimed, "The symbol of the North is the pen; the symbol of the South is the bludgeon." David Tatham attributes the print to the Bufford shop, and suggests that the Library's copy of the print, the only known example, may have been a trial impression, and that the print may not actually have been released. The attribution to Homer was first made by Milton Kaplan.
• Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-38851 (b&w film copy neg.) LC-USZC4-12985 (color film copy transparency)
• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
  
• Call Number: PC/US - 1856.H644, no. 1 (B size) [P&P]
• Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
• Notes:
  • Caption label from exhibit "American Treasures Memory": Arguments of the Chivalry. This dramatic print shows a violent incident that occurred in Congress on May 22, 1856, which inflamed sectional passion. The artist recreates the severe beating of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner by Representative Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina. Brooks (right) is standing over Sumner (seated), and Rep. Lawrence M. Keitt stands (center) raising his cane against possible intervention, while holding a pistol. In the foreground are Georgia Senator Robert Toombs (far left with hat) and Illinois Senator Stephen A Douglas (hands in pockets), looking vindicated by the event.
  • Probably printed by John H. Bufford, Boston.
  • Signed with monogram: WH (Winslow Homer).
  • Title appears as it is written on the item.
  • Tatham, "Pictorial Responses to the Caning of Senator Sumner," p. 15-16.
  • Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)
  • Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1856-1.
  • Exhibited: American Treasures of the Library of Congress.
• Subjects:
  • Beecher, Henry Ward,--1813-1887.
  • Brooks, Preston S.--(Preston Smith),--1819-1857.
  • Crittenden, John J.--(John Jordan),--1787-1863.
  • Douglas, Stephen A.--(Stephen Arnold),--1813-1861.
  • Keitt, Lawrence M.--(Lawrence Massillon),--1824-1864.
  • Sumner, Charles,--1811-1874.
  • Toombs, Robert Augustus,--1810-1885.
  • United States.--Congress.--Senate--1850-1860.
  • Beating--1850-1860.
• Format:
  • Lithographs--1850-1860.
  • Political cartoons--1850-1860.
• Collections:
  • Cartoon Prints, American
• Part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)
• Bookmark This Record:
     https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661576/

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• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
• Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-38851 (b&w film copy neg.) LC-USZC4-12985 (color film copy transparency)
• Call Number: PC/US - 1856.H644, no. 1 (B size) [P&P]
• Medium: 1 print : lithograph on wove paper ; 36.9 x 51.8 cm. (image)

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• Call Number: PC/US - 1856.H644, no. 1 (B size) [P&P]
• Medium: 1 print : lithograph on wove paper ; 36.9 x 51.8 cm. (image)

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