History of the United States I / Unit 14 USH1 1958 short lesson, about 20 seconds
A Pistol on the Senate Floor
Captions available
The idea
In April eighteen fifty Missouri's Thomas Hart Benton, an enslaver who had grown critical of slavery, quarrelled with Mississippi's Henry S. Foote.
In practice
Foote drawing a pistol on the Senate floor as Benton advanced on him.
Where people slip
A print of that year has Benton saying: get out of the way, and let the assassin fire, let the scoundrel use his weapon.
Your place on the trail
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Builds on
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