This slide show is subtitled "Pistols, canes, bowie knives, and fireplace tongs: a brief history of congressional violence." Read 14 accounts of our representatives in Washington acting in ways that we don't expect.
Upset with Massachusetts Sen. Charles Sumner's abolitionist rhetoric, South Carolina Rep. Preston Brooks approached him on the Senate floor and beat him unconscious with his cane in 1856. Brooks later told the House he "meant no disrespect" by the assault, and mused about his choice of weaponry in a floor speech: "[I] speculated somewhat as to whether I should employ a horsewhip or a cowhide; but knowing that the senator was my superior in strength, it occurred to me that he might wrest it from my hand."
Link -via Everlasting Blort
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