Jerks in History

[Thomas Thorne]

I condemn both Preston Brooks and John Brown. I think Charles Sumner was a fool.

The antebellum dueling code permitted Brooks to challenge Sumner to a duel not thrash him at his desk in the United States Senate. During the hotly contested and protracted Speakership contest of 1859,many members of both sides were armed and fears were expressed that civil war might begin on the floor of the House of Representatives.

The Governor of South Carolina actually offered to send troops to Washington to prevent an election of a Republican Speaker. The House could not transact any business until a Speaker was elected. It was resolved only when the House permitted an election by a plurality.

That Preston Brooks should receive so much adulation for his act in certain Southern precincts and John Brown received as much praise as he did tells us how frayed the Americans polity had become and how emotionally prepared the country was for conflict.

John Brown's admirers would have us forget his hacking to death of five unarmed people in Kansas, his proclamation of himself as "Provisional President of the United States" and his armed seizure of a Federal installation,the armory at Harpers Ferry. The latter makes him an extremely unwelcome kindred spirit of the people who seized Fort Sumter.

Charles Sumner was certainly morally correct to attack slavery but he did his cause no good by mocking the physical infirmities of Sen. Andrew Butler. Such conduct would not persuade anyone of the error of his ways.
Tom