use this language I mean what I say.
But others must not suffer for me. I have felt more on account of my two
friends who have been implicated,than for myself, for they have proven
that "there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." I will
not constrain gentlemen to assume a responsibility on my account, which
possibly they would not run on their own.

Sir, I cannot, on any own account, assume the responsibility, in the
face of the American people, of commencing a line of conduct which in my
heart of hearts I believe would result in subverting the foundations of
this Government, and in drenching this Hall in blood. No act of mine,
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 time would
be followed by revolution--and this I know. (Applause and hisses in the
gallery.)

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,