Background
Preston Smith Brooks was born on August 6, 1819 on the Brooks plantation at Edgefield, South Carolina and was he eldest son of Whitfield Brooks and Mary P. Carroll.
Preston Smith Brooks was born on August 6, 1819 on the Brooks plantation at Edgefield, South Carolina and was he eldest son of Whitfield Brooks and Mary P. Carroll.
Preston was educated at the South Carolina College, graduating in 1839, and practised law for a short time after his graduation.
During the Mexican War Preston Brooks served as the captain of the Ninety-six Company of the Palmetto Regiment, and was known as an admirable drill officer and an inflexible disciplinarian.
Brooks had served two years in the South Carolina legislature, previous to his war service, but after the disbanding of his regiment he engaged in his chosen work of agriculture, until 1852 when he was elected to the Thirty-third Congress. He served through this and the succeeding Congress, speaking rarely but remembered for two or three speeches of unusual oratorical ability.
On May 20, 1856, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, during the discussion of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, delivered a coarse and violent speech in the Senate, denouncing by name Brooks's uncle, Senator A. P. Butler of South Carolina, who was at the time absent from the Senate.
Two days later Brooks, who claimed to have waited for an apology from Senator Sumner and to have searched for him on the streets, found him seated at his desk in the Senate room, after the adjournment of the Senate, struck him over the head repeatedly with a gutta percha cane, which was broken by the blows, and left him apparently insensible on the floor. Senator Sumner is said never to have recovered fully from his injuries. A special investigating committee of the House reported in favor of the expulsion of Brooks, but the report on a strictly party vote failed of the necessary two-thirds majority.
Brooks, however, resigned after a speech in his own justification, and was unanimously reëlected by his constituents. The Brooks-Sumner episode created intense excitement, most of which was partisan, the North fiercely denouncing Brooks, while Southern states and communities passed resolutions approving his conduct, and presented him with a number of gold-headed canes and at least one gold-handled cowhide.
A month after the assault Brooks was charged in a speech by Anson Burlingame, representative from Massachusetts, with cowardice and lack of fair play. Brooks challenged Burlingame to a duel; the latter accepted but named as the place the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, which it was difficult, if not impossible, for Brooks to reach with safety. Brooks said Burlingame might as well have named Boston Common and refused to go. His refusal was of course capitalized in the North as revealing lack of courage.
He lived less than a year after this event, dying at Brown's Hotel, Washington, January 27, 1857.
During the Mexican War Preston Brooks was known as an admirable drill officer and an inflexible disciplinarian.
An ardent proponent of slavery, he became etched into the history of the sectional strife that led up to the Civil War when, on May 22, 1856, after the anti-Slavery "Crimes Against Kansas" speech by Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, he attacked Senator Sumner and beat him with his cane so severely that Sumner was unable to return Congress for a full three years.
Preston Smith Brooks was striking in appearance, six feet in height, said to be the handsomest man in the House, of a winning presence, and, except when under the influence of a hasty temper, gentle and gracious in manner.
He is said to have suffered in the last months of his life from the fear that his attack on Sumner had hurt the section he was trying to defend.
Preston Smith Brooks was married twice, in 1841 to Caroline H. Means, and after her death, in 1843, to her cousin, Martha C. Means.