The Assault in the Senate.Baltimore, Maryland, Sun [American](24 May 1856)
It is seldom,
perhaps, that a more general feeling of disapprobation
has been felt and expressed in regard
to a circumstance of the kind, than is called forth
on all hands by the outrage and descration
commited by the Hon. Mr. Brooks, of S. C., in his
recent assault upon Senator Sumner, in the
Senate Chamber, on Thursday last. It was bad
enough that that hall should have been permitted
to become the theatre of venomous invective
and personal defamation between members, and
that the tone of the public discussions there held
should have been so lowered as we find
them of late, (and in which, it must be conceded,
Mr. Sumner appears as one of the adepts;)
but it is indeed a humiliation and a degradation --
an offence, too, as it were to the whole country --
that its sanctity should have been so ruthlessly
violated by such a scene as that enacted by Mr.
Brooks.
As a matter of course, an occurrence of this
kind was not to be lightly passed over, and it is
gratifying to observe that both houses of Congress
are promptly taking action on the subject,
and have appointed special committees to inquire
into the transaction, while Mr. Stuart, of Mo.,
has proposed a new rule for the Senate, prohibiting
reflections upon the motives of members,
etc., in the debates of that body. Mr. Cass is at
the head of this special committee in the Senate,
and Mr. Campbell, of Ohio, is chairman of the
House committee. The telegraph informs us,
also, that the Massachusetts Legislature has
appointed a special committee to consider what actions
shall be taken by that body on the subject,
and a meeting of the citizens of Boston was
called last evening to consider the matter.
Mr. Wilson, of Mass., the colleague of Mr.
Sumner, made a statement of the affair to the
Senate yesterday, which represents that Mr. S.
was taken at very great disadvantage by his assailant. The Washington Star, however, has an
account of the assault, said to be from an eye-witness,
in whose judgment and in the integrity
of whose statements it says it can rely, which is
as follows:
On Thursday, after he had sought Mr. Sumner
elsewhere without finding him, Mr. Brooks went
to the Senate chamber, (the Senate having adjourned,)
and Mr. S. being there, Mr. Brooks
sat near Mr. Sumner until a few ladies who
were on the floor had retired. He then went
up to Mr. Sumner, who was at his desk writing,
and said:
"I have read your speech carefully and with
as much disposition to do you justice as I could
command; and I have deliberately come to the
conclusion that you were guilty of a gross libel
upon my State, and of a wanton insult to my
absent and grey-haired relative, Judge Butler, and
I feel myself under obligations to inflict on you
a punishment for this libel and insult."
Mr. Sumner thereupon essayed to rise from his
seat, as though to resist what Mr. Brooks had
said, when he (Mr. Brooks) struck Mr. S. with
rapid and repeated blows about the head with a
gutta-percha cane, and continued his blows in
spite of Mr. Sumner's efforts to ward them off
and seize the cane, until Mr. S. fell. AsMr.
Brooks was suspending his blows (which he did
the instant Mr. Sumner fell) Mr. Crittenden
came up and interposed, saying "don't kill,
&c. Mr. Brooks thereupon left the spot and
remained with his friends in the Senate chamber,
until Mr. Sumner's friends, several of whom
were present, (Mr. Morgan, of New York, and Mr. Foster, of Connecticut, among them,) lifting
him up, bore him into one of the ante-rooms of
the Senate.
The Star also states that Mr. Brooks with his
friends, after the police officer, who had served
the warrant on him, had retired, went to the office
of Justice Hollingshead and offered security
for court. The Justice did not think it proper to
take security for court until he knew the condition
of Mr. Sumner, and therefore held Mr.
Brooks to security in $500 for his appearance at
the office on the 24th inst., (to-day,) at 4 o'clock
P. M., for a further hearing.
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