James
Brooks was born in Portland, Maine. His father was killed at sea in the War of 1812,
leaving the family in poverty. Young Brooks had to quit public school to work for a
storekeeper, but the man soon helped the lad get an education. In 1831, he graduated from
Waterville College (now Colby College). He worked as a schoolteacher as he studied law and
began writing for the Portland Advertiser. He passed the bar, but decided on a career in
journalism. He gained public renown as a correspondent covering national politics in
Washington, D. C., and for his sketches of Southern life, especially of the Creek,
Cherokee, and Choctaw tribes. In 1835, Brooks was elected to the Maine state legislature
as a Whig, but failed the next year in his bid to enter Congress. He moved to New York
City and in 1836 established the New York Express, described as a commercial not a
political newspaper, although it backed the Whig cause. Brooks worked on William Henry
Harrisons Log Cabin campaign in 1840, was elected to the New York state assembly in
1847, and served two terms in Congress as a Whig, 1849-1853. He supported the Compromise
of 1850 and in 1854 briefly identified with the Native American party before switching his
allegiance to the Democratic party. He endorsed Buchanan in 1856, Douglas in 1860, and
vigorously urged that the South be allowed to "depart in peace" in early 1861.
During the Civil War, Brooks was a Peace (Copperhead) Democrat and was elected to
Congress in 1863. He was reelected in 1865, but his opponent successfully challenged the
election, forcing Brooks to resign in early 1866. He was reelected in the fall of 1866 and
remained in Congress until his death in 1873. Brooks served on the powerful House Ways and
Means Committee and was twice nominated by the Democrats as Speaker. As a member of the
Reconstruction Committee, he condemned Republican "carpetbag" state governments
in the South and insisted on a quick, lenient return of the former Confederate states to
the Union. He was a leading opponent of the effort to impeach President Johnson. Brooks
was appointed by Johnson as a government director of the Union Pacific Railroad, but he
became involved in the Credit Mobilier scandal and was censured by the House for accepting
a bribe. In 1872, while touring the world, he contracted a fever in India. The added
stress of the Credit Mobilier scandal further undermined his health. Brooks died in
Washington, D. C.
Robert C. Kennedy, HarpWeek
Source consulted: Dictionary of American Biography |
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James Brooks
(10 November 1810 - 30 April 1873)
Source: History of Congress, 1867-69, Vol. I
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