Now, how do we get to

我们要怎么理解这一场景
a scene in the U.S. Senate of a southern congressman

在美国议会上一个南方的国会议员
beating the hell out of a massachusetts senator,

殴打一名马萨诸塞州的议员
Beating him literally unconscious,

打到不省人事
bloodying him on the floor of the senate,

将其打倒在地血流满面
While his fellow senators look down, and some of them in glee?

有些议员嗤之以鼻有些却拍手叫好
There were ninety-one northern democrats in the house of representatives

在投票表决堪萨斯州-内布拉斯加州法案时
when they voted on the kansas-nebraska act.

当时的众议院有91名北方的民主派代表
After the fall elections of 1854

在1854年的秋季选举后
there were only twenty-five left.

只留下了25名
This is a political sea change happening

那是一场政治大换血
and no one quite knows where it's going yet.

而无人知道最终将如何发展