New York Times, February 16, 2020
Mr. HICKMAN (John Hickman, see image) having practically “retired from business ” as a hero, some of the partisan Republican journals are desperately trying to set him up again as a martyr. We do not think the operation likely to prove successful. The facts in the case of Mr. EDMUNDSON’S recent assault upon the member from Pennsylvania, while they are sufficiently discreditable to the hot-headed Virginian offender, are very far from justifying the parallels which have been drawn between his conduct and that of Mr. BROOKS, of South Carolina, in the “SUMNER outrage.” Mr. Hickman, not at all in debate on the floor of the House, but simply on his private responsibility, made a speech from a hotel-window at Washington to a crowd rejoicing over the election of Mr. PENNINGTON to the Speakership. In this speech he took occasion to taunt the whole State of Virginia with cowardice, and to caricature the events of the raid at Harper’s Ferry in a way singularly offensive both to good taste and good feeling, and widely at variance with the truth. Mr. EDMUNDSON, one of the oldest members of the House from Virginia, it appears read this speech, as reported in the journals, with natural indignation, and suffered himself to be stung by it into a state of rather superfluous excitement. Meeting Mr. litmus in the Capitol grounds, he gave vent to his feelings after a very semi-civilized fashion, by slashing the offending Pennsylvanian across the face with a small twig, as little like the murderous bludgeon of gutta-percha with which the champion of South Carolina fell upon the unarmed Senator from Massachusetts, as Mr. Hickman’s reckless post-prandial provocations were like the solemn and measured denunciations of Mr. Sumner’s famous oration.
To see in such a proceeding as this a “blow aimed at representative government,” is to fall into that morbid habit of exaggeration which is the curse alike of our public and our private life. Mr. Edmunson undoubtedly merits a reprimand for violating the proprieties of the station which he holds, but as the whole matteer, from the original declamation of Mr. Hickman to his eventual chastisement in the Capitol grounds was begun, continued and ended outside of the halls of Congress, and as Mr. Edmunson’s darkest possible purpose seems to have been to punish an insult in words with insult in blows, we can really see no occasion for convulsing the nation on the subject. Let it be taken up moderately and discreetly, as the text for some rational and considerate action by Congress in condemnation of that easy resort to violence, whether on or off the floor of the House, which has grown so alarmingly upon our public men, and then dismissed for-ever, without extravagant howls or partisan misrepresentations of any kind whatever.