Carry A Big Stick

     The United States is now a melting pot of cultures but was initially settled by the English. The huge size of the colonized area, variation in climate and geography, and cultural backgrounds of the settlers provided an array of diversity to Britain's American colonies. The cold, rocky New England colonies relied on fishing and trade, established large cities along the coast that held major populations, industrial centers, and wealth. The warm, sunny weather and fertile soil throughout the South established a strewn farming population. Over the course of two-hundred years, each region bred an individual culture derived from its heritage, immigrants, and climate. Between the divide of these two major regions sat the new capitol, Washington, District of Columbia.
     During the Antebellum Period (1815-1860), the Industrial Revolution took hold of Europe starting in Britain. The textile factories of the British Isles required thousands of tons of cotton which were provided by the expansive, fertile soils of the American South. Because slaves provided most large-scale farm labor and were valuable commodities to keep production maximized to fulfill the demands of Britain's factories, the number of slaves in the South rapidly re-expanded despite a decrease in overall numbers at the end of the eighteenth century. The abysmal conditions the slaves lived in were justified by a vast majority throughout the South due to the considerable amount of the economy derived from the export of agricultural goods. The dependency on "King Cotton" forced the South to maintain large slave plantations.
     The balance of power in the United States federal government held a rough equality between free and slave-owning states. New state admissions were voted on by Congress, but states had to choose between being a free or slave state before ratification. Meticulous politics, compromises, and several instances of states being accepted in pairs retained the status quo. As America expanded westward and the arid environments proved to be unsustainable for large scale slave plantations, the balance of power, already tentative, tipped slightly. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, later referred to as "Bloody Kansas," saw civilian fighting between abolitionists and pro-slavery groups.
     In response to the horrendous, increasingly violent debate of the morality and economic output of the slavery model, a New England abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner addressed Congress in outrage and insulted the South and many of its outspoken representatives. The code of honor bred into the Southern elite demanded a reaction.
     Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina conferred with friends about requesting a duel. His consultants concluded that the Northerner was not a gentlemen and should not be addressed as one. On May 22, 1956, Rep. Preston Brooks approached Sen. Charles Sumner and addressed him, "You've libeled my state and slandered my white-haired old relative . . . and I've come to punish you for it." Brooks beat Sumner with his cane, broke it, and continued until physically restrained.

     The cane was the weapon of choice because it was a similar model used by Southerns to train dogs. This communicated to the Southern population that its leaders would stand up for them. The North understood this language and rallied support against being beaten down like a slave. During a Congressional hearing weeks later, Brooks said that if he had wished to kill Sumner, he would have used a different weapon. Brooks resigned from his position in Congress after the hearing but was reelected by his constituents in a special election a month later. The incident is the most violent in United States Congress' history but not the only. Several months after the beating, a friend of Brooks attempted to strangle another outspoken abolitionist though no public attention was drawn to the event.
     Sen. Sumner became a martyr for the North abolitionist movement and a hero among later Republicans. Rep. Brooks enjoyed incredible popularity through the South and was sent hundreds of canes to replace the one broken defending the South's pro-slavery stance. Fragments of the broken cane were carved into rings and worn by Southern congressmen as a sign of solidarity with Brooks.
     Tensions continued to spread as the growing nation strove to maintain a balance of power between slave and free states. With the 1860 election of Republican President Abraham Lincoln, the South succeeded starting with Rep. Preston Brooks' South Carolina. After five years of civil war and 650,000 causalities, the victorious Union, composed of the abolitionist North, outlawed slavery throughout the reunited nation.
     Interestingly as the South vehemently defended its agricultural culture, British imports of cotton had been decreasing for decades. By the end of the nineteenth century, most cotton production was sent to New England textile factories. The American Civil War began after many years of aggressive posturing and threats but ended with the United States embracing the Industrial Age and becoming a powerhouse of industry supplied by products of a hardworking, free population. In that new era, President Theodore Roosevelt altered American foreign policy from strict isolationism to a new strategy summed up: "Speak softly and carry a big stick." A native of the North, Roosevelt pushed the United States to global influence and used the words reminiscent of a ferocious act that provoked a civil war to carry a reunited country into the twentieth century.
The American Century.


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Agatha Tyche