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The World’s Famous Orations, Vol 9
Preston S. Brooks
In Defense of his attack on Sumner*
(1856)
If I desired to kill the senator why did I not do it? You all admit that I had him in my power. It was expressly to avoid taking life that I used an ordinary cane, presented to me by a friend in Baltimore nearly three months before its application to the "bare head" of the Massachusetts senator. I went to work very deliberately, as I am charged—and this is admitted—and speculated somewhat as to whether I should employ a horsewhip or a cowhide; but knowing that the senator was my superior instrength, it occurred to me that he might wrest it from my hand, and then—for I never attempt anything I do not perform—I might have been compelled to do that which I would have regretted the balance of my natural life.
My answer is, that the senator would not accept a message; and having formed the unalterable determination to punish him, I believed that the offense of "sending a hostile message," superadded to the indictment for assault and battery, would subject me to legal penalties more severe than would be imposed for a simple assault and battery. That is my answer.
To such as have given their votes and made their speeches on the constitutional principles involved, and without indulging in personal vilification, I owe my respect. But, sir, they have written me down upon the history of the country as worthy of expulsion, and in no unkindness I must tell them that for all future time my self-respect requires that I shall pass them as strangers. And now, Mr. Speaker, I announce to you and to this House, that I am no longer a member of the Thirty-fourth Congress.
*Delivered in the House of Representatives on July 14, 1856. Abridged. The assault occurred on May 22.
Chicago: Preston S. Brooks, The World’s Famous Orations, Vol 9 in The World’s Famous Orations, ed. William Jennings Bryan (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, December, 1906), 176–177. Original Sources, accessed February 1, 2025, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=W3C2KYMRA7LYPIP.
MLA: Brooks, Preston S. The World’s Famous Orations, Vol 9, in The World’s Famous Orations, edited by William Jennings Bryan, Vol. The World#8217;s Famous Orations, New York, Funk and Wagnalls, December, 1906, pp. 176–177. Original Sources. 1 Feb. 2025. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=W3C2KYMRA7LYPIP.
Harvard: Brooks, PS, The World’s Famous Orations, Vol 9. cited in December, 1906, The World’s Famous Orations, ed. , Funk and Wagnalls, New York, pp.176–177. Original Sources, retrieved 1 February 2025, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=W3C2KYMRA7LYPIP.
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