Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 3

[487] was very weak, had some fever, especially when excited, and was confined mostly to his bed. He did not at that tine complain of much pain in his head; but as the wound healed after several weeks, he had neuralgic pain in the back of the head, coining on in paroxysms. As these passed away, he had a feeling of oppressive weight or pressure of the brain, which was increased when excited or engaged in conversation. He described it as a fifty-six pounds weight upon his head. At the same tine he lost flesh and strength, his appetite was irregular, and his nights wakeful, sometimes lying awake all night, or when sleeping, disturbed. He had also increased sensibility of the spinal cord, and a sense of weakness in the small of the back. These were developed by walking, and every step he took seemed to produce a shock upon the brain. His walk was irregular and uncertain, and after slight efforts he would lose almost entire control of the lower extremities.

By the advice of Dr. Lindsly, he left Washington July 7, and after stopping for a night at Baltimore with the Barclays, relatives of his brother Albert, went on to Philadelphia, where he became the guest of Rev. William H. Furness, and put himself under the medical care of Dr. Caspar Wister. His expectation when he went North was to be in his seat the next month.

In June the Democratic national convention, meeting at Cincinnati, nominated James Buchanan for President,¹ and the Republican convention meeting at Philadelphia nominated John C. Fremont. In the latter convention, Stunner, though not a candidate, received a considerable vote for Vice-President, mostly cast by delegates from New York.² The assault on him was in the front of the political agitation of that year, and appealed to popular feeling more even than the outrages in Kansas.³

Brooks appeared before the Circuit Court of the District, July 7, to answer to the charge of an assault on Sumner. The admitted the act, but justified it in an address to the court, likening it to the cases in which husbands avenge their wounded honor.⁴ Around him were Butler, Mason, and other Southern friends. The judge, Crawford by name, sentenced him to pay a fine of three hundred dollars.⁵ This paltry fine, without imprisonment, shows the pro-slavery temper of the federal courts