Debate concerning the Kansas-Nebraska Act in Congress became so intense that?

Question

A the Whig Party resigned in protest.


B the Senate chamber was closed to the public.


C an antislavery congressmember was beaten with a cane.


D the act was repealed.

Answer 1

A & D are impossible, I find no evidence for D. The BEST answer here is C, but it is misleading.

Not A - the Whig Party never "resigned in protest", but it began to fall apart at that point, with the split between the pro-slavery southern faction (which supported the act) and northern faction (against the act)

Definitely not D (and of course repeal would not be the normal result of an intense debate/struggle). The wording on this might fool people in that this particular act DID repeal the old "Missouri Compromise" (which particularly angered northern Whigs)

B is tempting, but everything I find about the matter refers to the LARGE public turnout for these debates, and their reactions to it [I'd check further on this]

C is about something that happened TWO years after the act passed! It also involved the beating of a SENATOR (Charles Sumner of Massachusetts) -- 'congressmember' suggests "Congressman", which better applies to a Representative in the House
... but even though it happened later, this beating WAS, in fact, RELATED to the Kansas-Nebraska debate. It came in response to remarks by Chase in a speech AGAINST the act and its results... called "The Crime against Kansas"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Brooks#Sumner_incident

Here's the speech itself:
http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/crime.html