C. Edwards Lester, Life and public services of Charles Sumner: Born Jan. 6, 1811. Died March 11, 1874.

[256] their ‘able and justly honored representative,’ adds: ‘I know of none whose public career I hold more worthy the full and cordial approbation of his constituents than his.’ Jefferson Davis, on the same occasion, wrote: ‘I have only to express to you my sympathy with the feeling which prompts the sons of Carolina to welcome the return of a brother who has been the subject of vilification, misrepresentation, and persecution, because he resented a libellous assault upon the representative of their mother.’ Nor were they alone Southern men who joined in this formal indorsement. Mr. Buchanan, the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, referring to Mr. Sumner's speech, characterized it as ‘the most vulgar tirade of abuse ever delivered in a representative body;’ and added that though ‘Mr. Brooks was inconsiderate, * * * Senator Butler was a very mild man.’

Mr. Savage of Tennessee, in a eulogy in the House, said: ‘To die nobly is life's chief concern. History records but one Thermopylae; there ought to have been another, and that one for Preston S. Brooks. * * * So shall the scene in the Senate chamber carry the name of the deceased to all future generations, long to be remembered after all men are forgotten and until these proud walls crumble into ruins.’ So unmistakably did the leading minds of the South indorse the deed and make it their own.

Nor, on the other hand, were the men of the North silent. The thrill of horror and alarm which ran through the free States found expression, as with fitting phrase and indignant emphasis men characterized and denounced the diabolical and cowardly assault. On the floor of Congress were those found who, at much personal hazard, denounced both the assault and the assailant. In the House, John Woodruff of Connecticut, a man proverbial for moderation of temper and deportment, said: ‘If honorable gentlemen cannot wholly rid themselves of an unwelcome presence, they can, at least, show their appreciation of an action wanting few of the elements of the most audacious crime and of a spirit equal to deeds that I will not name. With an endeavor always to cultivate courtesy, I shall not hesitate, here in my place or elsewhere, to freely characterize as they deserve any lofty assumption of arrogance or any mean achievement of cowardice.’ For these words he was waited upon and interrogated whether he would receive a challenge from Mr. Brooks. He, however, declined to receive it.