Brooks was the representative for New York’s 6th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1873 to 1875.
He was previously the representative for New York’s 8th congressional district as a Democrat from 1865 to 1873; the representative for New York’s 8th congressional district as a Democrat from 1863 to 1865; the representative for New York’s 6th congressional district as a Whig from 1851 to 1853; and the representative for New York’s 6th congressional district as a Whig from 1849 to 1851.
Misconduct
Brooks faced an allegation of soliciting and accepting 50 shares of Credit Mobilier stock at undervalued price. On Feb. 13, 1873, a special committee recommended expulsion. On Feb. 27, 1873, the House of Representatives censured him, 174-32.
| Feb. 13, 1873 | Special committee recommended expulsion. |
| Feb. 27, 1873 | House of Representatives censured, 174-32 |
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Dec 1849 to Mar 1873, Brooks missed 1,320 of 3,644 roll call votes, which is 36.2%. This is worse than the median of 24.6% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Mar 1873. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
- Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
