Jack of Harts

The Kansas-Nebraska Act touched off four years of bitter war between Slave State and Free State forces as they fought to drive their opponents out of Bloody Kansas.  Even the halls of power were not immune, and verbal sparring in the United States Senate turned into open violence.  A Democratic Senator incensed by Free Soil rhetoric beat his Republican opponent to the Senate floor and continued to cane him until the cane shattered.  It was only the beginning.