Plus ça change...

From an article on censure in today's NYT:

Violence was hardly routine in 19th-century Congressional disputes, but there was enough to make it interesting. In 1856*, as divisions over slavery intensified, Representatives Preston S. Brooks and Laurence M. Keitt, Democrats of South Carolina, strode to the Senate, and Mr. Brooks severely caned Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, an anti-slavery Republican.

When other senators tried to intervene, Mr. Keitt brandished a pistol and shouted: “Let them be.” Mr. Brooks survived an expulsion vote and resigned his seat. Mr. Keitt resigned to protest his censure. Both were re-elected — Mr. Brooks with a supply of new canes sent by constituents.

In 1858, Mr. Keitt started a donnybrook on the House floor. After an exchange of insults in a debate over the admission of Kansas as a slave state, he leaped up and tried to throttle Representative Galusha A. Grow, Republican of Pennsylvania. Supporters on both sides jumped into the fray, and a melee involving dozens of congressmen broke out.

The speaker shouted in vain for order. The sergeant-at-arms rushed in. Representative Cadwallader Washburn of Wisconsin tried to grab Representative William Barksdale of Mississippi by the hair, but came away with a toupee. Mr. Barksdale retrieved his wig, but put it on backward, and the fighting ended as both sides dissolved in laughter.

* the year of the consecration of the church building where I formerly served...