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and, a committee having been appointed, he, on the morning of the 27th, while the floor and galleries were crowded with anxious listeners, rose, and characterized the attack on
Mr. Sumner as “brutal, murderous, and cowardly.”
Mr. Butler interrupted him; and cries of “Order!
Order!”
rang through the assembly.
Two days later
Mr Wilson received a challenge from
Mr. Brooks, and in reply made use of these memorable words: “I have always regarded duelling as the lingering relic of a barbarous civilization, which the law of the country has branded as a crime.”
A resolution was introduced into the
House, “that
Preston S. Brooks be, and he is, forth — with expelled from this
House as a representative from the
State of South Carolina.”
This resolution was lost by a vote of 121 to 95.
Mr. Brooks immediately addressed the House; and on closing said, “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 in strength, 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” [a voice was heard, “He would have killed ”
