rictly
party character. As no Democratic Senator proposed an inquiry, Mr.
Seward moved for a committee of investigation; upon which James M.
Mason, of Virginia, proposed that the committee should be elected by
ballot. The result was that no Republican was chosen upon it; and the
committee reached the conclusion that it had no power in the premises,
except to report the occurrence to the House. In the House the usual
committee from the three parties was raised, resulting in two reports.
The minority, sustained by the vote of sixty members, pleaded a want
of jurisdiction. The majority recommended the expulsion of Brooks, and
expressed disapprobation by the House of the course of his colleague,
Edmundson, in countenancing the assault, and of the act of Keitt in
his personal interference. But the necessary two-thirds vote for the
expulsion of Brooks could not be obtained; a vote of censure was
therefore passed by a large majority. The discussion of the report and
resolutions occupied the House several days, and whatever effort
members made to disguise their motives, their actions, either of
condemnation or of excuse, arose in the main clearly enough from their
party relations. Under the forms of parliamentary debate, the South
and the North were breathing mutual recrimination and defiance.

The public of both sections took up the affair with equal party zeal.
From the North came resolutions of legislatures, outbursts of
indignation in meetings and addresses, and the denunciation of Brooks
and his deed in the newspapers. In the South the exactly opposite
sentiment predominated. Brooks was defended and eulogized, and
presented with canes and pitchers as testimonials to his valor. When
the resolution of censure had been passed, he at once resigned his
seat in the House, and going home to his constituents, was immediately
reelected. Within three weeks he reappeared at the bar of the House,
with a new commission from his Governor, and was sworn in and
continued his service as before. The arrogant address which preceded
his resignation contained the remarkable intimation that much more
serious results might have grown out of the incident. "No act of
mine," he said, "on my personal account, shall inaugurate revolution;
but when you, Mr. Speaker, return to your own home, and hear the
people of the great North--and they are a great people--speak of me as
a bad man, you will do me the justice to say that a blow struck by me
at this