Jerks in History

[Linda Anderson]

Newspapers of the time called the assault "deadly" and "murderous."

"The Great Trials of History" (Lexington Herald, Feb 10., 1914), says that "so great were his injuries that he did not fully recover for four years: and, indeed, never after this assault was he the powerful robust athlete that he had been before. The physical condition of Sumner and the masses of his full head of hair, which he wore long at the time, probably saved his life."

Brooks resigned and was promptly reelected. Sumner filed a complaint and Brooks was indicted by a grand jury. Brooks "appeared in Washington in court attended by a coterie of Southern friends, admitted the assault and justified himself in a speech likening himself to husbands who defend their wounded honor. [Sounds like what Dan Sickles did a few years later.] The judge fined him three hundred dollars and discharged him without imprisonment...

"During Sumner's long years of suffering following the attack, it is said that he never spoke unkindly of Brooks. It is related that years after, when one day walking in thee Congressional Cemetery in Washington, George William Curtis called his attention to a cenotaph of Brooks which Sumner had not noticed before, his only remark was: "Poor fellow. Poor fellow!" To the question then asked by Curtis, "How do you feel about Brooks?" he replied, "Only as to a brick that should fall upon your head from a chimney. He was the unconscious agent of another power."