You think politics is uncivil today? Take a look back:
Judah Benjamin (photo courtesy wikipedia)
Things got testy in the U. S. Congress in the years before the war. Most of us know about Preston Brooks caning Charles Sumner in the Senate chamber. Maybe less known is when South Carolina Representative Lawrence Keitt called Galusha Grow of Pennsylvania a “Black Republican puppy.” Grow knocked Keitt down, and a free-for-all erupted on the House floor.
Which brings up the subject of political insults. My favorite comes from an account from Burton Hendrick, Statesmen of the Lost Cause (1939), about Judah P. Benjamin.
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