With unfeigned regret I find my act construed as a breach of the privilege of the Senate. I intended only the redress of a personal wrong. I read the Senator's speech carefully. I found language unjustly reflecting upon South Carolina — and upon a friend and a relative.
Original passage & context
"It is with unfeigned regret I find in the report that what I had intended only as a redress of a personal wrong had been construed into or must necessarily be held as a breech of privilege of the Senate. [...] I had read attentively and carefully the speech delivered in the Senate on the 19th and 20th instant by the Senator from Massachusetts, and found therein language which I regarded as unjustly reflecting, not only upon the history and character of South Carolina, but also upon a friend and a relative."
Brooks in his own words, framing a near-fatal beating as mere 'redress of a personal wrong'; the Mercury's editors call the letter 'written in an admirable spirit.' Period spelling 'breech' preserved in the excerpt. Fragments joined with [...].
Read it in the original — Charleston Mercury, June 6, 1856 (Furman transcription) ↗