He died in office in 1873 while under scrutiny and formal censure for attempted bribery in connection to the Credit Mobilier scandal.

He served as a member of the Maine House of Representatives in 1835, introducing legislation that resulted in a survey of the future St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad.

In the 1860 U.S. presidential election, Brooks would support the Constitutional Union Party ticket of John Bell and Edward Everett, but by the outbreak of the American Civil War, he had come to align himself with Fernando Wood and his Mozart Hall faction of New York City's Tammany Hall.

Brooks was censured by the House of Representatives on February 27, 1873, for attempted bribery, in connection with the Crédit Mobilier of America scandal.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress