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Savage of Tennessee claimed that Brooks, ‘instead of deserving punishment, merited the highest commendation;’ that Sumner ‘did not get a lick more than he deserved;’ that he as well as some members of the house deserved a ‘good whipping;’ and he accused Republican members of holding their positions by the tenure ‘of falsehood, calumny, and slander.’1 Brooks's supporters labored hard to defend his taking Sumner at a disadvantage, surprising him and rendering him senseless, with no opportunity to defend himself,—a mode of warfare congenial to cowards, but not to brave and honorable men.2
Three Southern men, though apologizing for Brooks, and disapproving some parts of Sumner's speech, escaped the madness of their section, and maintained the jurisdiction of the House,— Etheridge of Tennessee,3 who, however, voted against Brooks's expulsion, and also Cullen4 of Delaware and Hoffman of Maryland; the former voting to censure Keitt, and the latter to expel Brooks.
Even Henry Winter Davis voted against the expulsion of Brooks, and withheld his vote as to the censure of Keitt.
The report and resolutions were defended by the Republican members,—by Bingham and Giddings of Ohio, Pennington of New Jersey, Simmons of New York, Woodruff of Connecticut; and by Massachusetts members, Comins, Damrell, and Hall.
They, maintained the power of the House to punish Brooks, and denounced the assault fearlessly.
Giddings, the veteran antislavery leader, spoke temperately, and avowed a certain sympathy for the offender on account of his education and surroundings.5 He contrasted the indulgence of the House to Brooks with the injustice which in other days had been done to John Quincy Adams and himself by a pro-slavery majority, denying a hearing, threatening assassination, and displaying bludgeons, bowie-knives, and pistols.
He justified fully Sumner's speech as strictly parliamentary, and responsive to Butler's thirty-six pro-slavery speeches and interruptions,
1 Congressional Globe, App. p. 913.
2 Clingman. Congressional Globe, App. p. 736.
3 Congressional Globe, App. p. 822.
4 Congressional Globe, App. p. 1053.
5 Congressional Globe, App. pp. 1117-1121. Giddings, who was at home when he heard of the assault, being informed of it, drew a deep sigh; a shade of sadness overspread his face, his head dropped forward on his chest, and the tears flowed from his eves. ‘I will go back,’ said he; ‘I ought not to have left at all, though urged to do so by friends on account of my health. I know how Mr. Sumner would act were I in his place. I will return, and move Brooks's expulsion from the House.’ Mr. Giddings fell in the House Jan. 17, 1857. It was the second attack of heart disease; and though he lived till 1864 he did not resume his former activity.
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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