This article is missing information about the many antebellum brawls in Congress detailed in the Freeman book. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (May 2023)
John L. Magee's lithography demonstrating Northern outrage over Brooks's attack on Sumner
Since the United States Congress was established with the 1st Congress in 1789, fifteen of its members have been killed while in office, and fourteen have suffered serious injuries from attacks. The members of Congress were either injured or killed by someone intending serious harm, or there is evidence of lethal intent by an unknown assailant (such as the two congressmen who died of the National Hotel disease). The first member of Congress to be killed or wounded in office was Henry Wharton Conway who was killed in a duel in 1827. The most recent death occurred in 1983 when Korean Air Lines Flight 007, carrying Larry McDonald, was shot down over the Pacific Ocean. The most recent Congress member to be injured was Angie Craig who was assaulted in 2023.
All of the 15 Congressmen killed in office were male and 10 were Democrats, four were Republicans, and one was a Democratic-Republican. Four members died in duels, and a total of ten (three senators, six members of the House of Representatives, and one territory delegate to the House) died from gunshot wounds.
Fourteen Congress members have been wounded while in office. Six of the wounded were Republicans, six were Democrats, and one member each from the Anti-Jacksonian and Whig parties. Two were women, and four were senators. Five of those injured were wounded during the 1954 United States Capitol shooting incident.
Several people staying at the National Hotel in Washington, D.C., died of National Hotel disease during this time period. It is disputed whether the "disease" was due to deliberate poisoning or accidental food poisoning.[2]
Killed in Indian Bays in Monroe County, Arkansas, after being shot in the back by George A. Clark, a member of the Ku Klux Klan and the secretary of the Democratic committee of the county[2][6][7]
At a speech by Haughey in Courtland, Alabama, he and Collins got into an argument. This escalated into a fist fight and ended with Collins shooting Haughey in the stomach. Haughey died five days later.[8]
A political event in Hempstead, Texas, turned violent when one of the participants, J. N. Brown, began shooting. Other attendees began to shoot as well and a riot broke out. Pinckney, his brother Tom, and Brown were all killed at the scene.[2][9]
While on an official visit to Guyana to investigate the activities of the Peoples Temple group led by Jim Jones, Ryan was shot multiple times while boarding an airplane leaving Jonestown.[12]
After Stanbery accused Houston of profiteering off Andrew Jackson's forced relocation of Native Americans, Houston confronted Stanbery in Washington, D.C., and beat him repeatedly with a hickory walking stick. During the fight Stanbery pulled a gun, placed it on Houston's chest, and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired.[14]
Francis Cone, an Associate Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, called Stephens a "traitor to the South" due to Stephens's move to table the Clayton Compromise. When confronted about this in front of Atlanta's Thompson Hotel, Stephens struck Cone with his walking stick and Cone responded by stabbing Stephens six times in the hand and chest.[15]
Grinnell was assaulted with an iron-tipped cane by Rousseau, an Unconditional Unionist Congressman from Kentucky's 7th district, on the east portico of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., in retaliation for derogatory statements he made earlier. Grinnell was pummeled on the "head and face until the cane broke," and was heavily bruised.[17]
Paul was tackled from behind by his neighbor, Rene Boucher, during an altercation. Paul sustained five fractured ribs, including three displaced fractures, as well as "cuts around his mouth".[23][24]
Craig was punched and grabbed by the neck by Hamline in the elevator of her Washington, D.C., apartment. Craig defended herself from Hamline and sustained cuts and bruising.[25]
^Stanton, Amanda. "James Hinds (1833–1868)". The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. The Central Arkansas Library System. Archived from the original on June 15, 2010. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
^"Huey Long's Assassination". Huey Long: The Man, His Mission, and Legacy. Long Legacy Project. Archived from the original on August 8, 2016. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
^United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Staff Investigative Group (1979) "The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana, Tragedy. Report of a Staff Investigative Group to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives", U.S. Government Printing Office.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
