Friday Morning Brawling

On this day in history, February 15, 1798, Federalist Congressman Roger Griswold of Connecticut assaulted Vermont Representative Matthew Lyon with a wooden walking stick in the chambers of the United States House of Representatives.  Griswold struck Lyon about the head, shoulders and arms, while Lyon attempted to deflect the blows as they landed.  Lyon then turned and ran to the fireplace - arming himself with a pair of metal tongs he re-engaged the conflict.  Griswold tripped Lyon and struck him in the face as he lay upon on the ground, at which point the two were separated.  After a break of several minutes, however, Lyon surprised Griswold with a new attack with the tongs and the brawl was re-ignited.  Thus began an extended period in history when governing was less genteel – at least measured by today’s standards.   

Nowadays the Congress of the United States still witnesses its share of name-calling and verbal abuse.  And it is difficult for the average political junkie to get thru his online news feeds without some reference made about the perceived hurt to some legislator’s delicate sensibilities as a consequence of a gesture, a smirk, or giving someone the hairy eyeball.  Yet we rarely witness anything physical.  By historical standards today’s Congress is a collection of wimps.  Only a couple of hundred years ago violence and physical combat was the norm in our nation’s capital – with pistols and/or knives drawn, canings, whippings, beatings and fisticuffs.  

The official history of the House of Representatives documents the most infamous floor brawl ever as Members debated the Kansas Territory’s pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution late into the night of February 5-6, 1858.   

Shortly before 2 a.m., Pennsylvania Republican Galusha Grow and South Carolina Democrat Laurence Keitt exchanged insults, then blows. “In an instant the House was in the greatest possible confusion,” the Congressional Globe reported. More than 30 Members joined the melee.  Northern Republicans and Free Soilers joined ranks against Southern Democrats.  Speaker James Orr, a South Carolina Democrat, gaveled furiously for order and then instructed Sergeant-at-Arms Adam J. Glossbrenner to arrest noncompliant Members.  Wading into the “combatants,” Glossbrenner held the House Mace high to restore order. Wisconsin Republican John “Bowie Knife” Potter and Cadwallader Washburn ripped the hairpiece from the head of William Barksdale, a Democrat from Mississippi.  The melee dissolved into a chorus of laughs and jeers, but the sectional nature of the fight powerfully symbolized the nation’s divisions. When the House reconvened two days later, a coalition of Northern Republicans and Free Soilers narrowly blocked referral of the Lecompton Constitution to the House Territories Committee.  Kansas entered the Union in 1861 as a free state.         

In her new book, Field of Blood, Joanne B. Freeman - Yale professor of history and American studies - found that violence used to be the norm in the Capitol.  Her research revealed that between 1830 and 1860, there were more than seventy violent incidents between congressmen in the House and Senate chambers or on nearby streets and dueling grounds.        

On March 4, 1985, Thomas Downey (D-NY) confronted Robert Dornan (R-CA).  Downey approached Dornan in response to a speech he had made a couple of days earlier before the Conservative Political Action Conference.  In that speech he referred to Downey as a "draft-dodging wimp" because during the Vietnam War, Downey received a medical deferment from the draft as a consequence of a perforated eardrum.  Noteworthy is the fact that Downey had been active in the anti-war movement.  In any event, Downey confronted Dornan, attracting dozens of witnesses.  Dornan claimed Downey grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around, asking if he had actually called him a wimp.  Dornan answered "I did and you are." The exchange became heated, and at some point Dornan accused Downey of having cost him a job at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency a couple of years earlier.   According to Downey, as he began to walk away, Dornan grabbed him by the tie and collar and threatened him with "bodily harm."  

That incident was three and a half decades ago – further evidence of the rarity of physical hostilities in our modern congress.  I am of the opinion that restraint is the norm.  Today's 24/7 news cycle traveling at light speed may sometimes leave you with the impression that congress is one tweet away from open warfare and civil collapse.  For sure you needn't look very far to find an ample dose of snarkiness in those hallowed chambers.  And that's OK in my view.  A handful of hurt feelings are certainly better than doing battle with a fireplace tongs and a walking stick.