The Portland daily press., 1874-03-17
Brooks and Sumner.
THE GRAFTON THAT LED TO THE ASSAULT.

Although the fact of the assault made on
Senator Sumner in the Senate Chamber by |
Preston s. Brooks, member of Congress from
South Carolina, is well-known to our readers,
very many of them have doubtless forgotten
the Grafton of May 10Th and Goth which led to
that assault. This will he read with interest
at this time aud we produce that portion of
Mr.. Sumner remarks to which Mr.. Brooks
took exception. Mr.. Sumner said:
Before entering upon the argument must
say something of a general character, particu-
larry in response to what has fallen from Sena
tors who have raised themselves to eminepce on
this floor in championship Of human wrongs.
mean the Senator from South Carolina (Mr.
Butler) and the Senator from Illinois (Mr
Dougasl who, though as unlike as Don Quix-
ote and Sancho Panza. yet, like this couple,
sally forth together in the same adventure [
regret much to miss the elder Senator from his
seat; but the cause against which he has run
tilt with such activity of luminosity, demands
that the opportunity of exposing him should
not ba lost; and it is for the cause that speak
'.The Senator from South Carolina has read
many books of chivalry, and believes himself a
chivalrous knight, with sentiments of honor
and courage. Of conrse he has chosen a mis-
tress to whom he has made his vows, and who,
though ugly to Others is always lovely to him;
| though polluted in the sight of the world, is
| chaste in his sight, mean the Larlot slavery.
For her his tongue is always profuse with
| words. Let her be impeached in character. or
| any proposition made to shut her out from the
| extension of her wantonness, and no extrava-
| gance of manner or hadrihood of assertion is
| then too great for this Senator The frenzy of
Don Quixote in behalf of his wench, Dulcnea
Del Tobosc, is all surpassed. The asserted
| rights of slavery, which shock equality of all
kinds, are cloaked by fantastic claim of
equality. If the slave States cannot enjoy
what, in I1Ockery of the great fathers of the
republic, he misnames equality under the Con
sttution-n other words the full power in the
| national Territories to compel fellow-men to
unpaid toll, to separate husband and wife, and
to sell little children at the auction block-then
sir, the chivalric Senator will conduct the State
of South Carolina out of the Union. Heroic
knight! Exalted Senator! A second Moses
come for a second exodus!
At its close he said: i
with regret come again upon the Senator
from South Cardinal Mr.. Butler,) who, omnip'
otent in this debate, overhOwed with rage at
the simple suggestion that X ansas nad appneo
for admission as State, and, with lncohefent
phrases, discharged the loose expectorations OF
his speech, now upon her representative, and
| then upon her people. There was no extrava-
gance of the ancient parliamentary DEBATE
which he did not repeat; nor was there any pos
sible deviation from truth that he did not make,
with SO much of passion, am glad to add, as
| to save him from the suspicion OF intentional
! alteration. But the Senator touches nothing
which he does not disfgure-with error some
times of principal. sometimes OF tact. He
shows an incapacity of accuracy, whether in
stating the Constitution or in stating the law,
whether in the details of statistics or the diver
sions of scholarship. He cannot ope his
mouth but out there flies blunder. Surely he
ought to be familiar with the life of Fronklin
and vet he referred to this household character
while acting as the agent eff our fathers in Eng
land as above suspicion, and this was done that
he might give point to a false contrast with the
agent of Kansas, not knowing that however
they may differ in genius and fame, in this ex-
perience they are alike that Franklin, when in
trusted with with the petition of Massachusetts
Bay, was assaulted by the foul mouthed speak
or where he could not be heard in defence, and
denounced as a thief even as the agent Of
denounced as 'forger.' And let not the van
ity of the Senator be inspired BY the parable
with the British statesmen of that day, for it il
only in hostility to freedom that any parallel
can be recognized But it is against the people
of Kansas that the sensibilites of the Senator
are particularly aroused. Coming, as he an
| nounced, from State'-ay, sir from South
Carolina-he turus with lordly disgust from the
newly formed community, which he will no
recognize even as "a body polite Pray, SIR by
what title does he indulge in this egotism. Ha
he read the history of the State which he rep
resents? He cannot surely have forgotten its
shameful imbecility from slavery. confessed
throughout the Revolution, followed by its NOR
| Sudmclui doouuptlUuc slavery Siuce. 1e
cannot have forgotten its wretched persistence
in the slave trade, as the very apple Of its eye,
and the condition of its participation in th,
Union. He cannot have forgotten its constitn
ton, which is Republican only in name, con-
firu,ing power in the hands of the few. and
founding the qualifications of its legislators "a
settled freehold estate and ten negroes And
yet the Senator, to whom that 'State has in
part committed the guardianship of its good
name, instead of moving with backward. tread
| ING stems tn ifs uakQdnaSa for
ward, in the very ecstacy of madness, to expose
| it." -