Brooks, Preston Smith

Brooks, Preston Smith,

1819–57, U.S. Congressman (1852–57), b. Edgefield District, S.C. A lawyer and the nephew of Senator Andrew Pickens Butler, he is remembered as the man who in 1856 caned Charles SumnerSumner, Charles,
1811–74, U.S. senator from Massachusetts (1851–74), b. Boston. He attended (1831–33) and was later a lecturer at Harvard law school, was admitted (1834) to the bar, and practiced in Boston. He spent the years 1837 to 1840 in Europe.
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 after Sumner had bitterly criticized Senator Butler. The slander in Sumner's speech and the brutality in Brooks's action showed how the rift was widening between North and South. Resigning, Brooks was promptly reelected.