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Page 28
Mr. Brooks (resuming):--If I desired to kill the Senator, why did not I
do it? You all admit that I had him in my power. Let me tell the member
from New Jersey that it was expressly to avoid taking life that I used
an ordinary cane, presented to me by a friend in Baltimore, nearly three
months before its application to the "bare head" of the Massachusetts
Senator. I went to work very deliberately, as I am charged--and this
is admitted,--and speculated somewhat as to whether I should employ a
horsewhip or a cowhide; but knowing that the Senator was my superior
in strength, it occurred to me that he might wrest it from my hand, and
then--for I never attempt anything I do not perform--I might have been
compelled to do that which I would have regretted the balance of my
natural life.
The question has been asked in certain newspapers, why I did not invite
the Senator to personal combat in the mode usually adopted. Well, sir,
as I desire the whole truth to be known about the matter, I will for
once notice a newspaper article on the floor of the House, and answer
here.
My answer is, that the Senator would not accept a message; and having
formed the unalterable determination to punish him, I believed that the
offence of "sending a hostile message," superadded to the indictment
for assault and battery, would subject me to legal penalties more severe
than would be imposed for a simple assault and battery. That is my
answer.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I have nearly finished what I intended to say. If
my opponents, who have pursued me with unparalleled bitterness, are
satisfied with the present condition of this affair, I am. I return
my thanks to my friends, and especially to those who are from
nonslave-owning States, who have magnanimously sustained me, and felt
that it was a higher honor to themselves to be just in their judgment
of a gentleman than to be a member of Congress for life. In taking my
leave, I feel that it is proper that I should say that I believe that
some of the votes that have been cast against me have been extorted by
an outside pressure at home, and that their votes do not express the
feelings or opinions of the members who gave them.
To such of these as have given their votes and made their speeches
on the constitutional principles involved, and without indulging in
personal vilification, I owe my respect. But, sir, they have written me
down upon the history of the country as worthy of expulsion, and in no
unkindness I must tell them that for all future time my self-respect
requires that I shall pass them as strangers.
And now, Mr. Speaker, I announce to you and to this House, that I am no
longer a member of the Thirty-Fourth Congress.
(Mr. Brooks then walked out of the House of Representatives.)
JUDAH P. BENJAMIN,
OF LOUISIANA. (BORN 1811, DIED 1864.)
ON THE PROPERTY DOCTRINE, OR THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY IN SLAVES;
SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, MARCH 11, 1858.
MR. PRESIDENT, the whole subject of slavery, so far as it is involved
in the issue now before the country, is narrowed down at last to a
controversy on the solitary point, whether it be competent for the
Congress of the United States, directly or indirectly, to exclude
slavery from the Territories of the Union. The Supreme Court of the
United States have given a negative answer to this proposition, and
it shall be my first effort to support that negation by argument,
independently of the authority of the decision.
It seems to me that the radical, fundamental error which underlies the
argument in affirmation of this power, is the assumption that slavery
is the creature of the statute law of the several States where it is
established; that it has no existence outside of the limits of those
States; that slaves are not property beyond those limits; and
that property in slaves is neither recognized nor protected by
the Constitution of the United States, nor by international law. I
controvert all these propositions, and shall proceed at once to my
argument.
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