Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1856-07-26


with the bereaved, and expressing determine
ton to relieve the distresses incident to the
lamity rs far rs was in their power. subscrip-
ton has been started to contribute to this end.
THE CASE OF BROOKS.
We gave yesterday the synopsis of debate
in the House Of Representatives, on the expul-
sion of the Bully of South Carolina, and to.
day we give his speech in full, that our read
ers may peruse both sides. The House has
manfully sustained itsdignity by plainly telling
Mr.. Brooks that his presence in that Chamber
was no longer wanted. Yeas l2l-nays IS.
Majority for expelllng 26! He took the hint
and very magnanimously informed the House
that he was " olongera member of the Thr-
ty-Fourth Congress" whereupon no tears were
shed and no signs breathed. He retires,
doubtless, in order that the Governor of South
Carolina can appoint him to fill the place in
the Senate, of his honorable uncle, Butler, }
who, it is alleged, will resign his position for
that purpose. South Carolina n,ay'exalt him,
but millions of freemen will curse him. He
can never wipe out the stigma of Bully
Brooks" 1t should be written in history and
engraved on his epitaph. We commend the
following article on the subject, which we clip
from the N. Y. Tribune -
The Brooks case is at length settled, so far
as the action of the House can dispose of it,
A decided majority OF the House--though less
than the constitutional requisilion Of two-thrds
having voted his expulsion, he has waived
| the technical acquittal and resigned his seat, in
a speech repete with bad taste and il-lilned
conceit, yet not so emphatically unworthy of the
place and the occasion as was his harangue in
court, in response TO Judge Crawford's fine Of
$500. The worst feature OF it is his unequv-
ocal bravado that he might then and there. by
simply striking blow produce revolution
that Is, Southern revolt against the Union
vaunt which, to the credit of the South, we
are confident is Untrue, and which, for the rred-
| it OF the South, even if true, this convicted
ca!prt should not have uttered. A man has no
moral right thus to expose the weakness OF his
best friends. The South may be ever so ready
| to dissolve the Union, but it cannot afford TO
have every Southern bully who may be disc.
plned for breaking laws or breaking heads,
boast OF this readiness as though ii were hi,
own private fatrlmony, ready TO be uncorked
at his will or ancled need.
The pretense for Brooks savage attack
on Sumner is the severity of the personal and
local illusions in Mr.. Summers great speech
on Kansas; yet no journal published out of
| this country, so far as we have seen. has pro-
nouaced those illusions unwarrantably harsh
or personal On the contrary. the London Star
says expressly that they would not be deemed
| indecorous in the British Parliament; while it
is abundaptly demonstrable that they were pro-
voked by far severer attacks Oh M. Sumner
and his supporters by Southern Senators thro'
several years past. If there had been undue
severity in Mr.. Summers structures, his adver-
saries were estopped from complaint of il by
the contumely they had unprovokedly heaped
on him through series OF years.
But none can fail to remember that, before
Mr.. Summers speech could have been read at the
South, so as to afford opportunity for judging of
its character. the telegraphic report of Brooks
savage assault was gloated over from the Poto-
dum-H IS SeUdrd'S turn merit" Yet Gov. Sew
ard never uses any but the gentlest terms, never
returns railing for railing, but insists on being
! courteous and conciliatory to men who are brutal
and ruf6anly to hun. SO the prctense that it was
the harshness of Mr.. Summers structures that
provoked Brooks's assault is utterly without foun-
dation.
Ou INC OIuer manu. OeuatOr Wdue, senator
Wilson, MIR. Burlingalne, Mr.. Woodruff, and 9TH
ers, have spoken of the Southrons, including
Brooks himself, in the most unmincing terms
terms far more severe than any used by Mr.. Sum-
ner yet neither of these has been aSsaled. 1t
is perfectly we'll understood at Washington that
some of the Free Soil members will fight if chal-
lenged and, though others are cha.leng ed, these
never are. And Of all who have given notice that
they shall defend themselves ii attacked, and
mean not tn he attack ed upu varex uono has hnor
even threatened as vet.
We detest dueling, and could wish that no rep
resentative of Free Labor would ever stoop to
trke part in a duel. 1t is a remnant of barbar-
ism-Of the reign of brute force and mufderous
dexterity. (. It requires far more true courage to
decline challenge than to accept one. But the
fact is nevertheless palpable that slaveholdng
chivalry expends itself on the surprised, non
combatant and defenseless, while it walks warily
by those whom it knows to be ready and willing
to tight. Bully Brooks, attacking an unarmed
man In his seat, and beating him blind and bloody
before he could extricate himself from his entan-
clement under his desk, but with pistol in his
pocket ready to shoot his victim to the heart in
case he should nevertheless prove too strong or
too active to be caned, is far sample of the ruff
hanly crew which indorses and jastlies him.
Before dismissing the subject, there Is one
part of Brooks's speech which merits a moments
careful reflection. Ii is that in which he declared
that when he went to beat Mr.. Sumner he was
ready, in case Mr.. Sumner should wrest the cane
from him, to do "what he would have regretted
for the remainder Of his life" In other words
he was determined, if he should not succeed in
stunning and disabling Mr.. Sumner at the FIRST
blow, SO far as to render resistance from him out
of the question, to kill him at once with pistol,
bowie-knife, or some other murderous weapon,
which he mad, of course, provided for such con-
tlngency. The regret which he says he should
have felt for the remainder Of his life REFERS no
doubt, to the time that would have elapsed be-
tween the commission of the murder and his exc
cution on the gallows for it would be impossi-
bic even for q Washington Jury, with Judge
Crawford on the bench, to pronounce the act so
committed anything but murder, and even Presi-
dent Pierce would not dare to pardon such .
criminal.
1t is clear, then, from Brooks's own statement.
that he was fully prepared and resolved to COM
NIT murder in case the stealth and cunning should
prove vain, with which, with the aid of his friend
Edmundson, he had contrived to take Mr.. Sum-
ner unawares and at disadvantages. Such is the
chivalry South Carolina delights to honor! It is
. chivalry which shuns fair contest, which
sneaks and lies in wait, and takes its victim by
surprise and when his limbs are fastened and
useless, and which is ready to commit murder In
case of need! It is such chivalry Is Is professed
by midnight robbers and . State which glories
in enriching one-third of its inhabitants BY the
unpaid and compulsory labor of the other two