Preston Brooks

Preston Brooks

Preston Smith Brooks (born August 6, 1819 in Edgefield , South Carolina , †  January 27, 1857 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician ( Democratic Party ).

Brooks was the first son of one of South Carolina's most influential planter families. He attended the Moses Waddel School in Willington and then the South Carolina College , which he was expelled from prison in 1839 because he had tried to free his brother from prison by force of arms. In 1840 he was involved in a duel with the future Senator Louis Wigfall , in which he was wounded in the hip, which meant that he had to rely on a stick as a walking aid throughout his life. In 1841 he married Caroline H. Means, who died that same year. The following marriage to her cousin Martha C. Means resulted in four children.

In 1845 Brooks was admitted to the bar and, with his election to the South Carolina House of Representatives , the beginning of his political career. When the Mexican-American War broke out in 1846, he enlisted as a captain in the Palmetto Regiment, but a typhoid disease prevented his participation in the fight. Brooks was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1853 .

The attack on MP Sumner

Caricature JL Magees on the attack

On May 20, 1856, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts delivered a speech in Congress in connection with the violent events in Kansas , in which he sharply attacked conditions in the south and insulted Senator Andrew Butler , Brooks' cousin. Senator Butler was absent at the time, and Brooks, as a relative and compatriot, felt it was his duty to avenge the insult. On May 22, 1856, Brooks entered the Senate and struck Sumner up to 30 times with his walking stick, breaking his walking stick. The incident was viewed as barbarism in the north, while the south declared Brooks a hero for restoring the honor of the south. So some admirers from the southern states sent him new walking sticks with the inscription "Hit him again". In the 1856 election, however, the outrage over the incident should benefit the Republicans .

A committee set up to investigate the incident submitted a report, on the basis of which a vote was taken to remove Brooks from Congress. Although the necessary majority was not achieved, Brooks resigned and ran again in a special election for his own seat. Shortly after his return, he succumbed to the effects of a cold.

Brooks is buried in Edgefield, where a memorial was erected to him in the cemetery.

Brooks County in Georgia and the city of Brooksville in Florida were named after Preston Brooks .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wyatt, Bertram: The Shaping of Southern Culture. Honor, Grace, and War, 1760s – 1890s. Chapel Hill and London 2001. p. 196.

literature

• Patricia Ann O'Connor: Members of Congress since 1789. Washington 1977.
• David C. Roller, Robert W. Twyman (Eds.): The Encyclopedia of Southern History. Baton Rouge and London 1979.
• Bertram Wyatt: The Shaping of Southern Culture. Honor, Grace, and War, 1760s-1890s. Chapel Hill and London 2001.

Web links

Wikisource: Sumner's speech  - sources and full texts

Wikisource: Brooks' Post Incident Statement  - Sources and Full Texts

• Preston Brooks in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Preston Brooks in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Description of the incident (English)