Preston Brooks

Early life

Brooks was born in Edgefield County, South Carolina, on August 5, 1819, the son of Whitfield Brooks and Mary Parsons Carroll Brooks. Of English descent, his great-great-grandfather John Brooks was the first in the Brooks family present in the Americas, settling in the Province of North Carolina from England around the early 18th century.

He attended South Carolina College (now known as the University of South Carolina) but was expelled just before graduation for threatening local police officers with firearms. After leaving college, he studied law, attained admission to the bar, and practiced in Edgefield.

In addition to practicing law, Brooks owned a plantation located in Cambridge, between Edgefield and Ninety-Six. In 1840, Brooks fought a duel with future Texas Senator Louis T. Wigfall and was shot in the hip, forcing him to use a walking cane for the rest of his life. He was admitted to the Bar in 1845. Brooks served in the Mexican–American War as Captain of Company D of the Palmetto Regiment. South Carolina in the Mexican War notes the service of both Brooks and 4th Corporal Carey Wentworth Styles (who later founded The Atlanta Constitution) in Co. D, the "Old 96 Boys" of the Edgefield District.

Family

Brooks' first wife was Caroline Harper Means (1820–1843). They had one child, Whitfield D. Brooks, who was born in 1843 and died that same year. Brooks was widowed upon Caroline's death.

His second wife was Martha Caroline Means (1826–1901), his first wife's cousin. They had three children, Caroline Harper Brooks (1849–1924), Rosa Brooks (1849–1933), and Preston Smith Brooks (1854–1928). Martha outlived her husband.

Political career

Brooks was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1844. Brooks was elected to the 33rd United States Congress in 1853 as a Democrat. Like his fellow South Carolina Representatives and Senators, Brooks took an extreme pro-slavery position, asserting that the enslavement of Black people by whites was right and proper, that any attack or restriction on slavery was an attack on the rights and the social structure of the South.

During Brooks' service as representative, there was great controversy over slavery in the Kansas Territory and whether Kansas would be admitted as a free or slavery state. He supported actions by pro-slavery men from Missouri to make Kansas a slave territory. In March 1856, Brooks wrote: "The fate of the South is to be decided with the Kansas issue. If Kansas becomes a hireling [i.e., free] state, slave property will decline to half its present value in Missouri ... [and] abolitionism will become the prevailing sentiment. So with Arkansas; so with upper Texas."

Sumner assault

Main article: Caning of Charles Sumner

On May 20, 1856, Senator Charles Sumner made a speech denouncing "The Crime Against Kansas" and the Southern leaders whom he regarded as complicit, including Brooks's first cousin once removed, Senator Andrew Butler. Sumner compared Butler with Don Quixote for embracing a prostitute (slavery) as his mistress, saying Butler "believes himself a chivalrous knight".

Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, who was also a subject of criticism during the speech, suggested to a colleague while Sumner was orating that "this damn fool [Sumner] is going to get himself shot by some other damn fool."

Sumner's language was intentionally inflammatory; Southerners often claimed that abolition would lead to intermarriage, arguing that abolitionists opposed slavery because they wanted to have sex with and marry black women. Abolitionists reversed the argument by accusing Southerners of supporting slavery so they could make sexual use of slave women. As Hoffer (2010) says, "It is also important to note the sexual imagery that recurred throughout the oration, which was neither accidental nor without precedent. Abolitionists routinely accused slaveholders of maintaining slavery so that they could engage in forcible sexual relations with their slaves."

Brooks thought of challenging Sumner to a duel. He consulted with Representative Laurence M. Keitt (also a South Carolina Democrat) on dueling etiquette. Keitt said that dueling was for gentlemen of equal social standing. In his view, Sumner was no gentleman, no better than a drunkard due to his supposedly coarse and insulting language toward Butler. Brooks then decided to "punish" Sumner with a public beating.

On May 22, two days after Sumner's speech, Brooks entered the Senate chamber in company with Keitt. Also with him was Representative Henry A. Edmundson (Democrat-Virginia), a personal friend with his own history of legislative violence. In May 1854, Edmundson had been arrested by the House Sergeant at Arms after attempting to attack Representative Lewis D. Campbell of Ohio during a tense debate on the House floor.

Brooks confronted Sumner, who was seated at his desk, writing letters. He said, "Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine." As Sumner began to stand up, Brooks hit Sumner over the head several times with his cane, made of thick gutta-percha with a gold head. Sumner was trapped under the heavy desk (which was bolted to the floor), but Brooks continued to strike Sumner until Sumner wrenched the desk from the floor in an attempt to escape. By this time, Sumner was blinded by his own blood. He staggered up the aisle and collapsed unconscious. Senator John J. Crittenden, Representative Ambrose Murray (R-NY), and others attempted to restrain Brooks before he killed Sumner but were blocked by Keitt, who brandished a pistol and shouted at the onlookers to leave Brooks and Sumner alone. Brooks continued beating Sumner until the cane broke, then quietly left the chamber with Keitt and Edmundson. Brooks required medical attention before leaving the Capitol, because he had hit himself above his right eye with one of his backswings.

Sumner suffered head trauma that would cause him chronic pain and symptoms consistent with what would now be called traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, and spent three years convalescing before returning to his Senate seat. He suffered chronic pain and debilitation for the rest of his life.

After the attack

The national reaction to Brooks' attack was sharply divided along regional lines. In Congress, members in both houses armed themselves when they ventured onto the floor. Brooks never apologized for the attack. In his speech to the House of Representatives announcing his resignation on June 14, 1856, Brooks insisted that he had behaved honorably and condemned any efforts to censure or punish him for his behavior. Brooks was widely cheered across the South, where his attack on Sumner was considered legitimate and socially justifiable. South Carolinians sent Brooks dozens of new canes, with one bearing the phrase, "Good job"; another cane was inscribed "Hit him again." The Richmond Enquirer wrote: "We consider the act good in conception, better in execution, and best of all in consequences. These vulgar abolitionists in the Senate must be lashed into submission." The University of Virginia's Jefferson Literary and Debating Society sent a new gold-headed cane to replace Brooks' broken one. Southern lawmakers made rings out of the original cane's remains, which they wore on neck chains to show their solidarity with Brooks.

In contrast, Northerners, even those previously opposed to Sumner's extreme abolitionist invective, were universally shocked by Brooks' violence. Anti-slavery men cited it as evidence that the South had lost interest in national debate, and now relied on violence to express themselves. John L. Magee's political cartoon famously expressed the general Northern sentiment that the South's vaunted chivalry had degenerated into "Argument versus Clubs".

American Party Congressman Anson Burlingame publicly humiliated Brooks in retaliation by goading Brooks into challenging him to a duel, accepting, and then watching Brooks back out. After Burlingame made provocative remarks, Brooks challenged Burlingame, stating he would gladly face him in any "Yankee mudsill" of his choosing. Burlingame, a well-known marksman, eagerly accepted, choosing rifles as the weapons and the Navy Yards in the border town of Niagara Falls, Canada, as the location to circumvent the U.S. ban on dueling. Brooks, reportedly dismayed by both Burlingame's enthusiastic acceptance and reputation as a crack shot, backed out by citing unspecified risks to his safety if he was to cross "hostile country" (the Northern states) to reach Canada.

Brooks claimed that he "meant no disrespect to the Senate of the United States" by attacking Sumner, and also that he had not intended to kill Sumner, or else he would have used a different weapon. Brooks was tried in a District of Columbia court for the attack. He was convicted of assault and was fined $300, though he was not incarcerated.

A motion to expel Brooks from the House failed, but he resigned on July 15 to allow his constituents to ratify or condemn his conduct. They approved, returning him to office in the special election held on August 1 and then electing him to a new term in November 1856.

Death

Brooks died unexpectedly from a violent attack of croup on January 27, 1857, a few weeks before the March 4 start of the new congressional term to which he had been elected. He was buried in Edgefield, South Carolina. The official telegram announcing his death stated "He died a horrid death, and suffered intensely. He endeavored to tear his own throat open to get breath." Despite terrible weather, thousands went to the Capitol to attend memorial services. After his body was transported back to Edgefield, another large crowd took part in funeral ceremonies before he was buried.

Legacy

The city of Brooksville, Florida (created from the merger of the towns of Melendez and Pierceville), and Brooks County, Georgia, are named after Brooks, as was present-day Big Bend, West Virginia, which was previously known as Brooksville, Virginia. All were named shortly after his caning of Sumner.

In popular culture

Preston Brooks was portrayed by Johnny Knoxville in the 2014 "Charleston" episode of the TV series Drunk History. Patton Oswalt played Charles Sumner, and Seth Weitberg told the story.

Notes

References

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References

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