The following is the statement of Mr. Sumner, under oath, in regard to the assault upon him by Mr. Brooks:
[statement omitted by transcriber]
Mr. Sumner's own account makes the outrage lighter than did the first dispatches. Mr. Brooks was the only one who knew of the attack beforehand, -- contrary to first reports, which represented that this mode of punishment was agreed on by southerners in caucus, -- and he was promptly arrested by the by-standers, Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, grasping Brooks round his waist; and the instrument used on Mr. Sumner was a limber and hollow gutta percha walking stick.
We observe the Abolition papers are
disposed to use this incident to promote their
peculiar views. They speak of it as "another
outrage" of slavery against freedom;
whereas it is a personal affair entirely, for
which Mr. Brooks is alone responsible. It
is an incident, we agree, which has resulted
from the angry passions this slavery
controversy has infused throughout the whole
Union; and the lesson it teaches with most
clearness, is the folly and madness of any
word or act which
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