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For those who think our current lack of civility is unprecedented, think again. Our Republic has survived worse, and will survive our present difficulties. Btw, the Congressman got away with it, as you'll see in the article.
Philemon T. Herbert sauntered into the Willard Hotel in search of breakfast. Then things got weird.
It was a little after 11 a.m. on May 8, 1856, when the famished congressman, a first-term Democrat from California, strolled into the hotel’s dining room. After ordering breakfast, Herbert left to buy a couple of newspapers. When he returned, he found part of the meal he ordered but was told the hotel office would have to approve serving a complete breakfast at that hour, according to the Washington Evening Star.
Described by a San Francisco newspaper as a gambler who turned to politics “to better his position,” the compact, muscular Herbert exuded menace. On this day, hunger apparently pushed him over the edge. Infuriated, Herbert launched a stream of invective at the lad who served him.
“Clear out, you Irish son-of-a-b—-,” Herbert yelled, according to the Star. Then he turned and challenged Thomas Keating, one of the waiters in the dining room. “And you, you damned Irish son-of-a-b—-, clear out too!”
Name-calling quickly gave way to violence. Fists and plates flew as Herbert’s companion struck Keating’s brother, who also worked at the hotel, with a chair. Herbert grabbed Keating by the collar, produced a Derringer and held the gun at Keating’s chest.
The lawmaker pulled the trigger. The bullet pierced Keating’s lungs, and the waiter died within minutes as Herbert and his fellow diner fled out the hotel’s 14th Street exit, the Star reported.
Political tension is particularly taut these days on Capitol Hill, but it is nothing like the volatile world of pre-Civil War Washington, where lawmakers routinely dueled and brawled. Even then, the shooting of a waiter by a member of Congress was regarded as beyond the pale. “Of course there is no excuse for the murder in the circumstances of the case,” the New York Tribune declared.
It may have been inexcusable, but it was a sign of the times. The incident occurred weeks before a more notorious confrontation in which South Carolina Rep. Preston Brooks beat Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts senseless on the Senate floor after Sumner called Southerners flocking to support slaveholders in Kansas the “drunken spew and vomit of an uneasy civilization.” Anti-immigrant sentiment, manifested in a secret society whose members pledged to say they “know nothing” about its activities, was rampant. . . . .
Philemon T. Herbert sauntered into the Willard Hotel in search of breakfast. Then things got weird.
It was a little after 11 a.m. on May 8, 1856, when the famished congressman, a first-term Democrat from California, strolled into the hotel’s dining room. After ordering breakfast, Herbert left to buy a couple of newspapers. When he returned, he found part of the meal he ordered but was told the hotel office would have to approve serving a complete breakfast at that hour, according to the Washington Evening Star.
Described by a San Francisco newspaper as a gambler who turned to politics “to better his position,” the compact, muscular Herbert exuded menace. On this day, hunger apparently pushed him over the edge. Infuriated, Herbert launched a stream of invective at the lad who served him.
“Clear out, you Irish son-of-a-b—-,” Herbert yelled, according to the Star. Then he turned and challenged Thomas Keating, one of the waiters in the dining room. “And you, you damned Irish son-of-a-b—-, clear out too!”
Name-calling quickly gave way to violence. Fists and plates flew as Herbert’s companion struck Keating’s brother, who also worked at the hotel, with a chair. Herbert grabbed Keating by the collar, produced a Derringer and held the gun at Keating’s chest.
The lawmaker pulled the trigger. The bullet pierced Keating’s lungs, and the waiter died within minutes as Herbert and his fellow diner fled out the hotel’s 14th Street exit, the Star reported.
Political tension is particularly taut these days on Capitol Hill, but it is nothing like the volatile world of pre-Civil War Washington, where lawmakers routinely dueled and brawled. Even then, the shooting of a waiter by a member of Congress was regarded as beyond the pale. “Of course there is no excuse for the murder in the circumstances of the case,” the New York Tribune declared.
It may have been inexcusable, but it was a sign of the times. The incident occurred weeks before a more notorious confrontation in which South Carolina Rep. Preston Brooks beat Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts senseless on the Senate floor after Sumner called Southerners flocking to support slaveholders in Kansas the “drunken spew and vomit of an uneasy civilization.” Anti-immigrant sentiment, manifested in a secret society whose members pledged to say they “know nothing” about its activities, was rampant. . . . .
