Preston Brooks, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Preston Brooks

American politician

Date of Birth: 05-Aug-1819

Place of Birth: Edgefield, South Carolina, United States

Date of Death: 27-Jan-1857

Profession: lawyer, politician

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Leo


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About Preston Brooks

  • Preston Smith Brooks (August 5, 1819 – January 27, 1857) was an American politician and Member of the U.S.
  • House of Representatives from South Carolina, serving from 1853 until his resignation in July 1856 and again from August 1856 until his death. Brooks, a Democrat, was a strong advocate of slavery and states' rights.
  • He is most remembered for his May 22, 1856, attack upon abolitionist and Republican Senator Charles Sumner, whom he beat nearly to death; Brooks beat Sumner with a cane on the floor of the United States Senate in retaliation for an anti-slavery speech in which Sumner verbally attacked Brooks's second cousin, South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler.
  • Brooks's action received "widespread adoration in South Carolina and other Southern states"—the city of Brooksville, Florida named itself for him immediately afterwards, as did Brooks County, Georgia—and abhorrence in the North.
  • An attempt to oust him from the House of Representatives failed, and he received only token punishment in his criminal trial.
  • He resigned his seat in July 1856; his constituents reelected him in a special election, held in August to fill the vacancy created by his resignation.
  • He was re-elected to a full term in November 1856, but died in January 1857, five weeks before the new term began in March.Sumner was seriously injured by Brooks's beating, and was unable to resume his seat in the Senate for three years, though eventually he recovered and resumed his Senate career.
  • The Massachusetts Legislature reelected Sumner in 1856, "and let his seat sit vacant during his absence as a reminder of Southern brutality"."The caning had an enormous impact on the events that followed over the next four years....
  • As a result of the caning, the country was pushed, inexorably and unstoppably, to civil war."

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