This week in state history

According to the U.S. House of Representatives archives, the most infamous floor brawl in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives erupted as members debated Kansas Territory's pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution late into the night of February 5-6, 1858. Minnesota and Kansas were slated to become states in tandem that year, so the debate held up Minnesota's bill for statehood. Shortly before 2 a.m., Pennsylvania Republican Galusha Grow and South Carolina Democrat Laurence Keitt exchanged insults, then blows. "In an instant the House was in the greatest possible confusion," the Congressional Globe reported. More than 30 members joined the melee. Northern Republicans and Free Soilers joined ranks against Southern Democrats. Speaker James Orr, a South Carolina Democrat, gaveled furiously for order and then instructed Sergeant-at-Arms Adam J. Glossbrenner to arrest noncompliant members. Wading into the "combatants," Glossbrenner held the House mace (a symbolic rod) high to restore order. Wisconsin Republicans John "Bowie Knife" Potter and Cadwallader Washburn ripped the hairpiece from the head of William Barksdale, a Democrat from Mississippi. The melee dissolved into a chorus of laughs and jeers, but the sectional nature of the fight powerfully symbolized the nation's divisions. When the House reconvened two days later, a coalition of Northern Republicans and Free Soilers narrowly blocked referral of the Lecompton Constitution to the House Territories Committee. The Minnesota bill went through anyway and statehood was achieved in May. Kansas entered the Union in 1861 as a free state.