The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War

By Joanne B. Freeman

We view January 6, 2021 as a shocking departure from past behavior, but this book shows that the violence exhibited is part of our history as a country. The author explores Congress during the decades leading up to the Civil War.

It is is equal parts a report of the time and the biography of Benjamin Brown French, who kept a detailed personal journal and was the recorder for congress. He was present at many of the era’s most important events.  There are other interesting observations regarding disgusting carpets, spittoons and personal hygiene, but this review will focus on the violence that existed.

Between 1830 and 1860, there were more than 70 violent incidences between congressman in the house and senate chambers or a nearby streets and dueling grounds.  It was not uncommon for representatives in Congress to take weapons such as knives into chambers with them and threaten other politicians who made comments that they felt were insulting. Caning was a regular issue, as well. Duels were not uncommon, one of which ended with a representative being killed and his opponent going to jail.

Problems at polling places are not new. For example, in Washington in 1857 three gangs join forces to terrorize immigrants who were trying to cast votes, causing a riot.

There were as many issues with “fake news” back then as we have now. There were partisan newspapers. And the telegraph was the Twitter of its day. The telegraph allowed for nearly simultaneous reports to be made around the country.

This book covers the highly politicized era with partisan politics being the order of the day. From the 1830s to the 1860s there was expulsion of Native Americans from their lands and sweeping massacres of their people. There was rampant mobbing for a whole host of reasons, including anti-abolitionism, racism, nativism, to name but a few. There were 109 riots nationwide between July and October 1835. In addition, between 1846 and 1848, the war with Mexico inflamed the slavery problem and stoked sectional passions. In the 1850s, and there was a brutal fight over slavery and statehood in what was called “bleeding Kansas”. The expansion of the nation by adding states highlighted the slavery issue.

But the lightning rod issue for violence in the House of Representatives presented in the book is the battle between the slaveholders and the abolitionists. It is also a story about how this violence caused many Northerners who were once of the mind to “live and let live” to be swayed to the cause of the abolitionists in order to represent their own constituents by standing up to the violence exhibited in an effort to silence them. Southerners would take to violence to force Northerners into silence and to back away from questioning the legitimacy of slavery. Finally, the representatives of the Northern and Western states started to fight back. And the Southerners chose to leave.