It is possible that this hostile manifestation may have decided a young member of the House, Preston S.Brooks, a nephew of Senator Butler, to undertake retaliation by violence.

Acquainting Henry A.Edmundson, another member, with his design, he waited on two different occasions at the western entrance to the Capitol grounds to encounter Mr.Sumner, but without meeting him.
[Sidenote] 1856.
On the 22d of May, two days after the speech, Brooks entered the Senate Chamber on the same errand.

The session had been short, and after adjournment Sumner remained at his desk, engaged in writing.

The sessions were at that time held in the old Senate Chamber, now occupied by the Supreme Court.

The seats were arranged in semicircles, with a railing to separate them from a narrow lobby or open space next the wall; a broad aisle ran from the main door to the desk of the presiding officer.