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"B" is for Brooks, Preston Smith (1819-1857)

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

"B" is for Brooks, Preston Smith (1819-1857). Congressman. Brooks attended Moses Waddel’s academy and the South Carolina College. In 1844 Edgefield District elected him to the General Assembly. During the Mexican War he served as a captain in the Palmetto Regiment. In 1852 Brooks, as a States’ Rights Democrat, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1856, during a debate, U.S. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts denigrated South Carolina’s role in American history and insulted Senator Andrew P. Butler of South Carolina. In defense of South Carolina’s honor, Brooks entered the Senate chamber and beat Sumner senseless with a cane. A special House committee recommended Brooks’ expulsion, but the measure failed. Denying the committee’s authority, Preston Smith Brooks resigned his seat and subsequently was unanimously re-elected by the voters of his district.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.