In response, Preston Brooks, Butler's first cousin once-removed, caned Sumner on the Senate floor, nearly killing him.

Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, during his "Crime Against Kansas" speech in May 1856, denigrated South Carolina and abused Butler personally in terms considered to exceed parliamentary propriety.

"[4] South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks, the first cousin once removed of Butler, considered Sumner's speech an attack on his family honor.

Two days after the speech, Brooks brutally beat Sumner on the Senate floor with a gutta-percha cane, while fellow South Carolina Rep. Laurence Keitt brandished a pistol to prevent other senators from intervening, even as Sumner lay defenseless on the floor and Brooks continued to beat him.

[6] U. R. Brooks noted that biographical material to write from was scanty and that Butler's power lay in his own presence with "grand gifts of eloquence, action, pathos, and convincing argument."

His face, though not handsome, was sturdily expressive, with massive features and "troubled, streaming, silvery hair, that looked as though it had been contending with the blasts of winter".... His power as a speaker stood acknowledged in the admiration of both Houses... Like all men of impetuous impulse, he was very restless; one moment pacing to and fro the space behind the Speaker's desk, another giving the grasp of his hand to some younger Senator, the next taking active part in the debates of the day....