Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1901 — SAYING AND DOINGS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SAYING AND DOINGS

Echo of an Antt-TitHum Tiayf. The death at Columbia, 3. C., of tha widow of Preston S. Brooks recalls the sensation caused in 1856 when Brooks, then a representative in Congress from South Carolina, pounded Senator Chas. Sumner into insensibility as the latter sat in his seat in the Senate chamber. At the time the "civil war in Kansas" was at its height. Senator Sumner on May 22 delivered a speech in the Senate which deeply incensed the members of Congress from South Carolina,

from which state many of the members of the proslavery army which invaded Kansas started. After the Senate had adjourned, and while Senator Sumner still sat in his seat Congressman Brooks entered the

Senate chamber, Charles Sumner, and, approaching from the < — struck him repeatedly over the heai with a heavy cane until he fell unooo scious. Friends of Mr. Brooks from the South accompanied him, and, with drawn revolvers, prevented the other senators from protecting Mr. Sumner from the brutal assault. during a debate in the lower house of Congress, hot words passed between Brooks and Anson Burlingame of Massachusetts, as a result of which the latter was challenged to fight a duel He accepted, and Canada was chosen as the place of meeting, with rifles as weapons. Brooks failed to appear at the appointed time, and was branded as a coward by newspapers and pubMe sentiment throughout the North. As a result he resigned his seat, but was unanimously re-elected and received many testimonials from various parts of the South.