by injuries to his spine for nearly
five years. Brooks, with a virtuous air, explained in Congress that he
had caught Sumner in a helpless attitude because if Sumner had been
free to use his superior strength he, Brooks, would have had to shoot
him with his revolver. It seems to be hardly an exaggeration to say
that the whole South applauded Brooks and exulted. Exuberant
Southerners took to challenging Northern men, knowing well that their
principles compelled them to refuse duels, but that the refusal would
still be humiliating to the North. Brooks himself challenged
Burlingame, a distinguished Congressman afterwards sent by Lincoln as
Minister to China, who had denounced him. Burlingame accepted, and his
second arranged for a rifle duel at a wild spot across the frontier at
Niagara. Brooks then drew back; he alleged, perhaps sincerely, that he
would have been murdered on his way through the Northern States, but
Northern people were a little solaced. The whole disgusting story
contains only one pleasant incident. Preston Brooks, who, after
numbers of congratulations, testimonials, and presentations, died
within a year of his famous exploit, had first confessed himself tired
of being a hero to every vulgar bully in the South!

Now, though this dangerous temper burned steadily in the South, and
there were always sturdy Republicans ready to provoke it, and questions
arising out of slavery would constantly recur to disturb high political
circles, it is not to be imagined that opinion in the North, the
growing and bustling portion of the States, would remain for years
excited about the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. In 1857 men's
minds were agitated by a great commercial depression and collapse of
credit, and in 1858 there took place one of the most curious (for it
would seem to have deserved this cold description) of evanescent
religious revivals. Meanwhile, by 1857 the actual bloodshed in Kansas
had come to an end under the administration of an able Governor; the
enormous majority of settlers in Kansas were now known to be against
slavery and it was probably assumed that the legalisation of slavery
could not be forced upon them. Prohibition of slavery there by
Congress thus began to seem needless, and the Dred Scott judgments
raised at least a grave doubt as to whether it was possible. Thus
enthusiasm for the original platform of the Republicans was cooling
down, and to the further embarrassment of that pa