By Malcolm Macdonald on January 22, 2021
Preston Brooks entered the United States Senate chamber with a gutta percha walking cane in hand. The cane stood approximately waist high next to the thirty-six-year-old South Carolinian. The head of the cane was topped with a gold knob.
Alongside Brooks were Laurence Keitt, a fellow South Carolinian, and Henry Edmundson. Keitt possessed a pistol. They waited for the gallery to clear that afternoon. The three had decided beforehand that no ladies be present. The Senate was not in session, but some of the senators worked at their desks.
When the gallery emptied, the three men strode down the aisle to a spot slightly behind the desk of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner. The forty-five-year-old solon sat silent, absorbed in his writing. Brooks stepped alongside him. “I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine."