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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Every effort has been made to replicate this text asfaithfully as possible; please see detailed list of corrections at theend of the text (after the index). 

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ROBERT TOOMBS

[Illustration: ROBERT TOOMBS, AT THE AGE OF 75 YEARS. ]

ROBERT TOOMBS

_STATESMAN, SPEAKER, SOLDIER, SAGE_

HIS CAREER IN CONGRESS AND ON THE HUSTINGS--HIS WORK INTHE COURTS--HIS RECORD WITH THE ARMY--HIS LIFE AT HOME

BY

PLEASANT A. STOVALL

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 "The blood which mingled at Cowpens and at Eutaw cannot be kept at enmity forever. "--_Toombs. _

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 NEW YORK CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY 104 & 106 FOURTH AVENUE

 Copyright, 1892, BY CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 

_All rights reserved. _

THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, RAHWAY, N. J. 

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Dedication. 

TO ROBERT TOOMBS DU BOSE, WHOSE INTEREST AND AID WERE INVALUABLE, ANDWITHOUT WHOSE COÖPERATION THE BIOGRAPHY COULD NOT HAVE BEEN PREPARED, THIS WORK IS DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. 

 "There are courageous and honest men enough in both sections to fight. There is no question of courage involved. The people of both sections of this Union have illustrated their courage on too many battlefields to be questioned. They have shown their fighting qualities shoulder to shoulder whenever their country has called upon them; but that they may never come in contact with each other in fratricidal war, should be the ardent wish of every true man and honest patriot. "--_Robert Toombs, Speech in U. S. Senate_, 1856. 

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CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE

 I. Family, Boyhood, Life at College, 1

 II. At the Bar, 13

 III. In the Legislature, 29

 IV. Elected to Congress, 43

 V. In the Lower House, 56

 VI. The Compromise of 1850, 67

 VII. The Georgia Platform, 83

 VIII. The Campaign of 1852, 97

 IX. Toombs in the Senate, 107

 X. The "Know-nothing" Party, 121

 XI. Toombs in Boston, 129

 XII. Buchanan's Administration, 140

 XIII. "On the Stump" in Georgia, 144

 XIV. The Campaign of 1856, 155

 XV. John Brown's Raid, 169

 XVI. The Charleston Convention, 175

 XVII. Toombs as a Legislator, 186

 XVIII. Election of Lincoln, 199

 XIX. Farewell to the Senate, 205

 XX. Toombs and Secession, 209

 XXI. Toombs as Premier of the Confederacy, 222

 XXII. Brigadier-General in Army of Northern Virginia, 236

 XXIII. With the Georgia Militia, 277

 XXIV. Toombs as a Fugitive, 286

 XXV. Without a Country, 308

 XXVI. Commencing Life Anew, 315

 XXVII. Days of Reconstruction, 324

 XXVIII. His Last Public Service, 337

 XXIX. Domestic Life of Toombs, 353

 XXX. His Great Fault, 364

 XXXI. His Last Days, 369

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ROBERT TOOMBS. 

CHAPTER I. 

FAMILY, BOYHOOD, LIFE AT COLLEGE. 

Gabriel Toombs was one of General Braddock's soldiers who marchedagainst Fort DuQuesne in 1755. He was a member of the sturdy Virginialine which protested against the dangerous tactics of the Britishmartinet, and when the English regulars were ambushed and cut to pieces, Gabriel Toombs deployed with his men in the woods and picked off thesavages with the steady aim and unerring skill of the frontiersman. Overone hundred years later Robert Toombs, his grandson, protested againstthe fruitless charge at Malvern Hill, and obliquing to the left with hisbrigade, protected his men and managed to cover the retreat of hisdivision. 

This was a family of soldiers. They were found in the old countryfighting Cromwell's army of the rebellion. 

Robert Toombs of Georgia was fond of tracing his lineage to thechampions of the English king who defended their sovereign at Boscobel. But the American family was made up of lovers of liberty rather thandefenders of the King. It was one of the anomalies in the life of theGeorgia Toombs, who resisted all restraint and challenged authority inevery form, that he should have located his ancestry among the swornroyalists of the seventeenth century. 

William Toombs, the great-grandfather of Robert, was the first of theEnglish family to come to America, about 1650. He settled in Virginia. Gabriel, who fought with Braddock, was the son of William. Major RobertToombs, the father of the Georgia statesman, commanded a Virginiaregiment during the Revolution and rendered conspicuous service inGeorgia against the British. Major Toombs came to Georgia in 1783 andreceived a rich tract of 3000 acres of land in Wilkes County. This wastheir share in the award to distinguished soldiers of "the Virginialine. "

"They fought for their estates like feudal barons, " General Toombs usedto say, when speaking of his ancestors, now sleeping in the red hills ofGeorgia. When he was asked after the civil war why he did not petitionfor relief of political disabilities, he declared that "no vote ofCongress, no amnesty proclamation, shall rob me of the glory ofoutlawry. I shall not be the first of my name for three centuries toaccept the stigma of a pardon. "

The elder Gabriel Toombs in 1795 made his last will and testament. Hecommended his soul to God who gave it, and blessed his Maker for theworldly goods that he was possessed of. Distributing his estate amonghis wife, Ann Toombs, and his six children, he expressly directed thathis negroes and their increase must be appraised together; that theywere not to be sold out of the family, and that they should be "used ina Christian-like manner. " He divided up parcels of land in Greene andWilkes counties among his sons, Robert Toombs and Dawson Gabriel Toombs, and his four daughters. Gabriel Toombs died in 1801. 

When Major Robert Toombs, the Virginia veteran, and son of Gabriel, cameto Georgia to claim his award of land, he settled on Beaverdam Creek, five miles from the town of Washington. It is probable that he stoppedin Columbia County, for he married Miss Sanders, of that county. Shedied, leaving no children, and Major Toombs went back to Virginia andmarried Miss Catlett. One son was born, and this lady died. MissCatharine Huling was the third wife. The Hulings were also Virginians, and by this marriage six children were reared. Sarah, who finally becameMrs. Pope; James, who was killed by accident while hunting; Augustus, Robert, and Gabriel. 

Catharine Huling, the mother of Robert Toombs of Georgia, was a mostexcellent woman, of strong and exalted piety. She was of Welsh ancestry, a devout Methodist, and after accompanying her son to college, andseeing him married, prosperous, and distinguished, died in 1848, when hewas a member of Congress. Mrs. Toombs gave generously of her own means, to family and friends. Robert Toombs proved to be a dutiful son. Hevisited his mother constantly, and carefully managed her property. Finally he induced her to move to Washington, so that he might be nearher. 

Robert Toombs was the fifth child of Robert and Catharine Toombs. He wasborn in Wilkes County, about five miles from Washington, July 2, 1810. His brother Gabriel, who still lives, was three years his junior, andwas throughout his life his close and confidential adviser and friend. 

Robert Toombs, in childhood, was a slender, active, mischievous lad, andit will be a surprise to those who remember his superb physical manhood, to hear that at school and college he bore the nickname of "Runt. " Hewas marked for his energy and vivacity. He was not precocious. Naturegave no signs of her intentions in his youth. His development, physicaland mental, was not rapid, but wholesome. He was fond of horsebackriding, and the earliest glimpse we have of him is as a slender lad, with dark eyes and hair slightly touched with auburn, flying through thevillage, and sometimes carrying on his pony behind him his littlebrother to school. 

He was always in good health. He boasted that he never took medicineuntil he was thirty-four years old. His mother said that he grew upalmost without her knowledge, so little trouble had he given her. He wasa fine horseman. Possibly this practice had much to do with his goodspirits and physical strength. 

In his younger days he rode sixty-five miles to Milledgeville, coveringthe distance in one day, and was fresh enough to attend a dance atnight. He delighted in fox-hunting, although never a racer or in anysense a sporting man. During the earlier years of his career hepracticed law in the saddle, as was the custom with the profession atthat time, and never thought of riding to court on wheels until later inlife. Throughout his active participation in the Civil War he rode hisfamous mare, "Gray Alice, " and was a striking figure as, splendidlymounted and charged with enthusiasm, he plunged along the lines of theArmy of Northern Virginia. In his long wandering from capture in 1865, he was in the saddle six months, riding to and from the wilds ofnortheast Georgia to the swamps of the Chattahoochee. There wassomething in his picturesque figure upon the horse which suggests JohnRandolph of Roanoke. 

His first training was at what was known as an "old field school, "taught by Welcome Fanning, a master of good attainments and a firmbeliever in the discipline of the rod. Afterward, Robert Toombs wasdrilled by a private tutor, Rev. Alexander Webster--an adjunct professorof the University of Georgia and a man of high repute as scholar andinstructor. Mr. Webster was the friend and early preceptor of AlexanderH. Stephens. 

Young Toombs was christened Robert Augustus, and carried his middle nameuntil 1840, when he seems to have dropped it as a useless piece offurniture. There is a report that some of his political foes, playingupon his initials, saddled him with the sobriquet of "Rat. " Havingout-grown one nickname he was prepared to shed another. 

Young Toombs proved to be a great reader. Most of his learning developedin the Humanities; and a cultured visitor from Maryland who once stoppedat his father's house declared that this boy of fourteen was betterposted in history than anyone he had ever seen. 

It was about this time that Robert Toombs was fitted out for FranklinCollege--now the State University--located in Athens, Ga. , forty milesfrom Washington. 

This institution, to which he was devotedly attached and of whosegoverning board he was a member at the time of his death, was charteredin 1785 by the State of Georgia. It was the early recipient of the deedof western lands, which the State subsequently purchased, assuming theperpetual endowment of the college. It has been to Georgia whatJefferson's school has proved to Virginia, the nursery of scholars andstatesmen. Governor John Milledge had given the institution a home upona beautiful hill overlooking the Oconee River, and this lovely spot theyhad named Athens. Here in 1824 young Robert Toombs repaired, animatedwith the feelings which move a college boy, except that his mother wentwith him and relieved him of the usual sense of loneliness whichovertakes the student. Major Robert Toombs, his father, who was anindigo and tobacco planter, was reputed to be a wealthy man for thosetimes, but it was the comfort of the early settler who had earned hisdemesne from the government rather than the wealth of the capitalist. Hehad enough to support his family in comfort. He died when Robert wasfive years old, and the latter selected as his guardian Thomas W. Cobb, of Greene County, a cousin of Governor Howell Cobb, a member of Congresshimself and a man of high legal attainment. 

When Robert Toombs entered college that institution was under thePresidency of Moses Waddell, a born educator and strict disciplinarian. Three generations of this family have served the State as preceptors inFranklin College. 

It may well be imagined that the college had not at that time reachedthe dignity of a university, for an entry in President Waddell's diarywas this: "Caught Jones chewing tobacco: whipped him for it. " Those werethe old days when boys were boys until they were twenty-one. There is norecord to show that Robert Toombs in college was a close scholar. Laterin life he became a hard student and laborious worker. But if theseindustrious habits were born to him in Athens there is no trace of them. That he was a reader of Shakespeare and history he gave ample evidencein his long career, but if the legends of his college town are to betrusted, he was more noted for outbreaks of mischief than for closeapplication. Full of life and spirits, a healthy, impetuous boy, he wason good terms with his classmates, and took life easily. That was a timewhen students were required to get up at sunrise and attend prayers. 

One night, the story goes, the vigilant proctor actually found youngToombs playing cards with some of his friends. Fearing a reprimand, Toombs sought his guardian, who happened to be in Athens on a visit fromhis home in Greenesboro. It is not certain that young Toombscommunicated the enormity of his offense, but he obtained leave to applyto Dr. Waddell for a letter of discharge. The learned but severe scholarhad not received the proctor's report, and gave the young student acertificate of honorable dismissal. 

Later in the day the President met Toombs walking around the campus. 

"Robert Toombs, " said he, "you took advantage of me early this morning. I did not then know that you had been caught at the card-table lastevening. "

Toombs straightened up and informed the doctor that he was no longeraddressing a student of his college, but a free-born American citizen. 

The halls of Athens are fragrant with these stories of Toombs. No manever left so distinctive a stamp upon the place or gave such spicyflavor to its traditions. 

Among the college-mates of Robert Toombs at Athens were Stephen Olin, Robert Dougherty, and Daniel Chandler, the grandfather of theunfortunate Mrs. Maybrick of England, and the man whose chaste andconvincing appeal for female education resulted in the establishment ofWesleyan Female College--the first seminary in the world for the higherculture of women. 

The closest of these companionships was that of George F. Pierce, ayoung man like Toombs, full of brains and energy--even then a strikingand sparkling figure. The path of these men commenced at the door oftheir _alma mater_, and although their ways were widely divergent, thefriends never parted. Two of the finest orators in Georgia, one left hisimpress as strongly upon the Church as did the other upon the State. Onebecame bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the other a Whigsenator. One day these men met, both in the zenith of power, when Toombssaid: "Well, George, you are fighting the devil, and I am fighting theDemocrats. "

Closer in friendship their hands clasped as age swept over their ravenlocks and stalwart shoulders. Bishop Pierce never hesitated to go toRobert Toombs when his churches or his schools needed money. Toombswould give to the Methodist itinerant as quickly as he would to thelocal priest. Whether he was subscribing for a Catholic Orphans' Home ora Methodist College he would remark, as he gave liberally and freely, "Ialways try to honor God Almighty's drafts. "

Pierce and Toombs had much in common--although the one was full ofsaintly fire and the other, at times, of defiant irreverence. It wasPierce whose visits Toombs most enjoyed at his own home, with whom heafterward talked of God and religion. The good bishop lived to bury thedevoted Christian wife of the Georgia statesman, and finally, when thedross of worldliness was gone, to receive into the Methodist Church thebowed and weeping figure of the giant Toombs. 

When Robert Toombs became prominent in Georgia, there is a story thathis State university, in order to win back his friendship, conferredupon him an honorary degree. Toombs is represented as having spurned itwith characteristic scorn. "No, " said he, "when I was unknown andfriendless, you sent me out disgraced, and refused me a diploma. Nowthat I would honor the degree I do not want it. "

There is no record that the college ever conferred a degree upon Toombsat all. Later in life he was elected a trustee of this university, andeach year his familiar figure was seen on the stage during commencement, or his wise counsel heard about the board. His attendance upon theseduties was punctilious. He would leave the courthouse, the legislativehalls, or Virginia Springs--wherever he happened to be--and repair toAthens the first week in August. Once or twice he delivered the annualaddress before the alumni; several times he secured appropriations forhis _alma mater_ from the State. His visits to Athens were alwaysoccasions of honor. Young men flocked wherever his voice was heard, fascinated by his racy conversation. No "Disinherited Knight" everreturned to more certain conquest or more princely homage. 

There is a regular mythology about Toombs at his State university. Thethings he said would fill a volume of Sydney Smith, while the pranks heplayed would rival the record of Robin Hood. There is still standing inthe college campus in Athens a noble tree, with the crown of a centuryupon it. Under its spreading branches the first college commencement washeld one hundred years ago; under it the student Toombs once stood andaddressed his classmates, and of all the men who have gone in and outbeneath its shade, but one name has been found sturdy enough to linkwith this monument of a forgotten forest. The boys to this day call it"The Toombs Oak. "

[Illustration: ROBERT TOOMBS, AGE 19, LAW STUDENT, UNIVERSITY OFVIRGINIA, 1829. 

(_From a miniature painting. _)]

CHAPTER II. 

AT THE BAR. 

After Robert Toombs left the University of Georgia, he entered UnionCollege at Schenectady, N. Y. , under the presidency of Dr. EliphaletKnott. Here he finished his classical course and received his A. B. Degree. This was in 1828, and in 1829 he repaired to the University ofVirginia, where he studied law one year. In the Superior Court of ElbertCounty, Ga. , holden on the 18th day of March, 1830, he was admitted tothe bar. The license to practice recites that "Robert A. Toombs made hisapplication for leave to practice and plead in the several courts of lawand equity in this State, whereupon the said Robert A. Toombs, havinggiven satisfactory evidence of good moral character, and having beenexamined in open court, and being found well acquainted and skilled inthe laws, he was admitted by the court to all the privileges of anattorney, solicitor, and counsel in the several courts of law and equityin this State. "

The license is signed by William H. Crawford, Judge, Superior Court, Northern Circuit. Judge Crawford had served two terms in the UnitedStates Senate from Georgia. He had been Minister to Paris during thedays of the first Napoleon. He had been Secretary of War and of theTreasury of the United States. In 1825 he received a flattering vote forPresident, when the Clay and Adams compact drove Jackson and Crawford tothe rear. Bad health forced Mr. Crawford from the field of nationalpolitics, and in 1827, upon the death of Judge Dooly, Mr. Crawford wasappointed Judge of the Northern Circuit. He held this position until hisdeath in Elbert County, which occurred in 1834. Crawford was a friendand patron of young Toombs. The latter considered him the full peer ofWebster and of Calhoun. 

Robert Toombs was married eight months after his admission to the bar. His career in his profession was not immediately successful. A newspaperwriter recently said of him that "while his contemporaries were fightingstubbornly, with varying luck, Toombs took his honors without astruggle, as if by divine right. " This was no more true of Toombs thanit is true of other men. He seems to have reached excellence in law byslow degrees of toil. Hon. Frank Hardeman, Solicitor-General of theNorthern Circuit, was one of the lawyers who examined Toombs foradmission to the bar. He afterward declared that Robert Toombs, duringthe first four or five years of his practice, did not give high promise. His work in his office was spasmodic, and his style in court was toovehement and disconnected to make marked impression. But the exuberanceor redundancy of youth soon passed, and he afterward reached a height inhis profession never attained by a lawyer in Georgia. 

His work during the first seven years of his practice did not vary inemolument or incident from the routine of a country lawyer. In thosedays the bulk of legal business lay in the country, and the mostprominent men of the profession made the circuit with their saddle-bags, and put up during court week at the village taverns. Slaves and landfurnished the basis of litigation. Cities had not reached their size andimportance, corporations had not grown to present magnitude, and thewealth and brains of the land were found in the rural districts. "Theyoung lawyers of to-day, " says Judge Reese of Georgia, "are far inadvance of those during the days of Toombs, owing to the fact thatquestions and principles then in doubt, and which the lawyers had to digout, have been long ago decided, nor were there any Supreme Courtreports to render stable the body of our jurisprudence. "

The counties in which Robert Toombs practiced were Wilkes, Columbia, Oglethorpe, Elbert, Franklin, and Greene. The bar of the NorthernCircuit was full of eminent men. Crawford presided over the courts and adelegation of rare strength pleaded before him. There were Charles J. Jenkins, Andrew J. Miller, and George W. Crawford of Richmond County;from Oglethorpe were George R. Gilmer and Joseph Henry Lumpkin; fromElbert, Thomas W. Thomas and Robert McMillan; from Greene, William C. Dawson, Francis H. Cone; from Clarke, Howell Cobb; from Taliaferro, Alexander H. Stephens. Across the river in Carolina dwelt Calhoun andMcDuffie. As a prominent actor in those days remarked: "Giants seem togrow in groups. There are seed plats which foster them like the bigtrees of California, and they nourish and develop one another, and seemto put men on their mettle. " Such a seed plat we notice within a radiusof fifty miles of Washington, Ga. , where lived a galaxy of men, illustrious in State and national affairs. 

In 1837 the great panic which swept over the country left a large amountof litigation in its path. Between that time and 1843, Lawyer Toombs didan immense practice. It is said that in one term of court in one countyhe returned two hundred cases and took judgment for $200, 000. Thelargest part of his business was in Wilkes and Elbert, and his feesduring a single session of the latter court often reached $5000. Duringthese six years he devoted himself diligently and systematically to thepractice of his profession, broken only by his annual attendance uponthe General Assembly at Milledgeville. It was during this period that hedeveloped his rare powers for business and his surpassing eloquence asan advocate. He made his fortune during these years, for after 1843, anduntil the opening of the war between the States, he was uninterruptedlya member of Congress. 

There was no important litigation in eastern or middle Georgia that didnot enlist his services. He proved to be an ardent and tireless worker. He had grown into a manhood of splendid physique, and he spent the daysand most of the nights in careful application. He never went into a caseuntil after the most thorough preparation, where preparation waspossible. But he had a wonderful memory and rare legal judgment. He wasthoroughly grounded in the principles of law. He possessed, as well, some of that common sense which enabled him to see what the law ought tobe, and above all else, he had the strongest intuitive perception oftruth. He could strip a case of its toggery and go right to its vitals. He was bold, clean, fearless, and impetuous, and when convinced he hadright on his side would fight through all the courts, with irresistibleimpulse. He was susceptible to argument, but seemed absolutely blind tofear. 

The brightest chapters of the life of Toombs are perhaps his courthouseappearances. There is no written record of his masterly performances, but the lawyers of his day attest that his jury speeches were evenbetter than his political addresses. 

A keen observer of those days will tell you that Mr. Stephens wouldbegin his talk to the jury with calmness and build upon his openinguntil he warmed up into eloquence; but that Mr. Toombs would plungeimmediately into his fierce and impassioned oratory, and pour historrent of wit, eloquence, logic, and satire upon judge and jury. Hewould seem to establish his case upon the right, and then defy them todisregard it. 

In spite of this vehement and overpowering method he possessed greatpractical gifts. He had the knack of unraveling accounts, and while nottechnically skilled in bookkeeping, had a general and accurate knowledgewhich gave him prestige, whether in intricate civil or criminal cases. He was a rash talker, but the safest of counselors, and practiced hisprofession with the greatest scruple. On one occasion he said to aclient who had stated his case to him: "Yes, you can recover in thissuit, but you ought not to do so. This is a case in which law andjustice are on opposite sides. "

The client told him he would push the case, anyhow. 

"Then, " replied Mr. Toombs, "you must hire someone else to assist you inyour damned rascality. "

On one occasion a lawyer went to him and asked him what he should chargea client, in a case to which Mr. Toombs had just listened in thecourthouse. 

"Well, " said Toombs, "I should have charged a thousand dollars; but youought to have five thousand, for you did a great many things I could nothave done. "

Mr. Toombs was strict in all his engagements. His practice remained withhim, even while he was in Congress, and his occasional return during thesession of the Superior Court of the Northern Circuit gave rise at onetime to some comment on the part of his opponents, the Democrats. Thenominee of that party, on the stump, declared that the demands upon Mr. Toombs's legal talent in Georgia were too great to admit of his strictattendance to public business in Washington. When Mr. Toombs came toanswer this point, he said: "You have heard what the gentleman saysabout my coming home to practice law. He promises, if elected toCongress, he will not leave his seat. I leave you to judge, fellow-citizens, whether your interest in Washington will be bestprotected by his continued presence or his occasional absence. " This hitbrought down the house. Mr. Toombs's addresses to the Supreme Court weremodels of solid argument. During the early days of the Supreme Court ofGeorgia, it was a migratory body; the law creating it tended topopularize it by providing that it should hold its sessions in thedifferent towns in the State convenient to the lawyers. The court oncemet in the little schoolroom of the Lumpkin Law School in Athens. One ofthe earliest cases heard was a land claim from Hancock County, bristlingwith points and involving about $100, 000 worth of property. A. H. Stephens, Benjamin H. Hill, Howell and Thomas Cobb were employed, but inthis splendid fight of Titans, Justice Lumpkin declared that the finestlegal arguments he ever heard were from the lips of Robert Toombs. 

Hon. A. H. Stephens said the best speech Mr. Toombs ever made was in acase in which he represented a poor girl who was suing her stepfatherfor cruel treatment. The defendant was a preacher, and the jury broughtin a verdict for $4000, the maximum sum allowed, and petitioned theJudge to allow them to find damages in a heavier amount. 

One of the most celebrated causes Mr. Toombs was engaged in before thewar was a railroad case heard in Marietta, Ga. , in September, 1858. Howell Cobb and Robert Toombs were employed on one side, while Messrs. Pettigru and Memminger, of Charleston, giants of the Carolina bar, wereranged in opposition. The ordeal was a very trying one. The caseoccupied seven days. Mr. Toombs, always an early riser, generallycommenced his preparation in this case at half-past five in the morning. The hearing of the facts continued in the courthouse until seven in theevening, and the nights were passed in consultation with counsel. Attendants upon this celebrated trial declared that Toombs's manner inthe courtroom was indifferent. That, while other lawyers were busytaking notes, he seemed to sit a listless spectator, rolling his headfrom side to side, oblivious to evidence or proceeding. And yet, whenhis time came to conclude the argument, he arose with his kingly way, and so thorough was his mastery of the case, with its infinite detail, its broad principles, and intricate technicalities, that his argumentwas inspiring and profound. His memory seemed to have indelibly picturedthe entire record of the seven days, and to have grouped in his mind themain argument of counsel. It was a wonderful display of retentiveness, acumen, learning, and power. On one occasion, while a member of theUnited States Senate, he came to Georgia to attend a session of theSupreme Court in Milledgeville. He writes his wife: "I have had a hard, close week's work. The lawyers very kindly gave way and allowed my casesto come on this week, which brought them very close together, and as Iwas but ill prepared for them, not having given them any attention lastwinter, and but little this spring, I have been pretty much speaking allday and studying all night. " In March, 1856, Mr. Toombs wrote to hiswife, whom he had left in Washington City, that the spring term ofWilkes court would be the most laborious and disagreeable he everattended. Says he: "For the first time in my life, I have business incourt of my own--that is, where I am a party. The Bank of the State ofGeorgia has given me a year's work on my own account. If I live I willmake the last named party repent of it. "

At another time he wrote: "I had fine weather for Elbert, and adelightful trip. Everything went well in Elbert with my business. " Itusually did. There was no county in which he was more of an autocratthan in Elbert. He never failed to carry the county in politics, evenwhen Elbert had a candidate of her own for Congress. His legal advicewas eagerly sought, and he was more consulted than any other man inGeorgia about public and private affairs. The reason of his phenomenalsuccess as counsel was that, united with his learning and forensicpower, he had a genius for detail. He was a natural financier. He usedto tell President Davis, during the early days of the Confederacy, thatfour-fifths of war was business, and that he must "organize" victory. 

During the sessions of Elbert court his arguments swept the jury, hisword was law outside. His talk was inspiring to the people. His rare andracy conversation drew crowds to his room every night, and to anoccasional client, who would drop in upon his symposium to confer withhim, he would say, with a move of his head, "Don't worry about that now. I know more about your business than you do, as I will show you at theproper time. " His fees at Elbert were larger than at any other courtexcept his own home in Wilkes. It was during the adjournment of courtfor dinner that he would be called out by his constituents to make oneof his matchless political speeches. He never failed to move the crowdsto cheers of delight. 

On one occasion he was at Roanoke, his plantation in Stewart County, Ga. He writes his wife: "I was sent for night before last to appear inLumpkin to prosecute a case of murder: but as it appeared that the actwas committed on account of a wrong to the slayer's marital rights, Ideclined to appear against him. " Mr. Toombs was the embodiment ofvirtue, and the strictest defender of the sanctity of marriage on thepart of man as well as woman. His whole life was a sermon of purity anddevotion. 

Judge William M. Reese, who practiced law with Mr. Toombs, and was hispartner from 1840 to 1843, gives this picture of Toombs at the bar: "Anoble presence, a delivery which captivated his hearers by its intenseearnestness: a thorough knowledge of his cases, a lightning-likeperception of the weak and strong points of controversy; a power ofexpressing in original and striking language his strong convictions; acapacity and willingness to perform intellectual labor; a passion forthe contest of the courthouse; a perfect fidelity and integrity in allbusiness intrusted to him, with charming conversational powers--allcontributed to an immense success in his profession. Such gifts, with aknowledge of business and the best uses of money, were soon renderedvaluable in accumulating wealth. "

Although Mr. Toombs often appeared in courts to attend to businessalready in his charge, he gave out that he would not engage in any newcauses which might interfere with his Congressional duties. Theabsorbing nature of public business from 1850 to 1867 withdrew him fromthe bar, and the records of the Supreme Court of Georgia have only abouttwenty-five cases argued by him in that time. Some of these were ofcommanding importance, and the opinions of the Justices handed down inthat time bear impress of the conclusiveness of his reasoning and thepower of his effort before that tribunal. Judge E. H. Pottle, whopresided over the courts of the Northern Circuit during the later yearsof Toombs's practice, recalls a celebrated land case when Robert Toombswas associated against Francis H. Cone--himself a legal giant. Toombs'sassociate expected to make the argument, but Cone put up such a powerfulspeech that it was decided that Toombs must answer him. Toombsprotested, declaring that he had been reading a newspaper, and notexpecting to speak, had not followed Judge Cone. However, he laid downhis paper and listened to Cone's conclusion, then got up and made anovermastering forensic effort which captured Court and crowd. 

The last appearance Toombs ever made in a criminal case was in theEberhart case in Oglethorpe County, Ga. , in 1877. He was thensixty-seven years of age, and not only was his speech fine, but hismanagement of his case was superb. He had not worked on that side of thecourt for many years, but the presiding Judge, who watched him closely, declared that he never made a mistake or missed a point. 

It was during a preliminary hearing of this case that Toombs resorted toone of his brilliant and audacious motions, characteristic of him. TheState wanted to divide the case and try the principals separately. Father and son were charged with murder. The defense objected, but wasoverruled by the Court. General Toombs then sprung the point that JudgePottle was not qualified to preside, on the ground of a rumor that hehad selected the men of the jury panel instead of drawing them. Toombsfurther argued that the Court was not competent to decide the questionof fact. Judge Pottle vacated the bench and the clerk of court calledHon. Samuel H. Hardeman to preside. Toombs and Benjamin H. Hill, hisassistant, contended that the clerk had no right to appoint a judge. Judge Hardeman sustained the point and promptly came down, when JudgePottle resumed the bench and continued the case--just the result thatToombs wanted. This case attracted immense comment, and in theConstitution of 1877 a provision was made, growing out of this incident, providing for the appointment of judges _pro hac vice_. 

He was a bitter enemy to anything that smacked of monopoly, and duringthe anti-railroad agitation of 1879-80, he said: "If I was forty-fiveyears old I would whip this fight. " Still, he was an exceedingly justman. Linton Stephens, noted for his probity and honor, said he wouldrather trust Robert Toombs to decide a case in which he was interestedthan any man he ever saw. 

During the last five years of General Toombs's life he was seldom seenin the courtroom. He was sometimes employed in important causes, but hiseyesight failed him, and his strength was visibly impaired. Hisaddresses were rather disconnected. His old habit of covering his pointsin great leaps, leaving the intervening spaces unexplained, rendered itdifficult to follow him. His mind still acted with power, and he seemedto presume that his hearers were as well up on his subject as he was. His manner was sometimes overbearing to the members of the bar, but noman was more open to reason or more sobered by reflection, and he wasabsolutely without malice. He was always recognized as an upright man, and he maintained, in spite of his infirmities, the respect andconfidence of the bench and bar and of the people. 

Chief Justice Jackson said: "In the practice of law this lightning-likerapidity of thought distinguished Toombs. He saw through the case at aglance, and grasped the controlling point. Yielding minor hillocks, heseized and held the height that covered the field, and from thateminence shot after shot swept all before it. Concentrated fire wasalways his policy. A single sentence would win his case. A big thought, compressed into small compass, was fatal to his foe. It is the clearinsight of a great mind only that shaped out truth in words few andsimple. Brevity is power, wherever thought is strong. From Gaul Cæsarwrote '_Veni, vidi, vici. _' Rome was electrified, and the messageimmortalized. Toombs said to this Court, 'May it please yourHonor--Seizin, Marriage, Death, Dower, ' and sat down. His case was won, the widow's heart leaped with joy, and the lawyer's argument livesforever. "

CHAPTER III. 

IN THE LEGISLATURE. 

When Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun were waging their "irrepressibleconflict, " the county of Wilkes in the State of Georgia was nursingdiscordant factions. Just across the river in Carolina lived the greatNullifier. The Virginia settlers of Wilkes sided with him, while scoresof North Carolinians, who had come to live in the county, swore by "OldHickory. " This political difference gave rise to numerous feuds. The twoelements maintained their identity for generations, and the divisionsbecame social as well as political. The Virginians nursed their Statepride. The sons of North Carolina, overshadowed by the Old Dominion, clung to the Union and accepted Andrew Jackson, their friend andneighbor, as oracle and leader. The earliest political division inGeorgia was between the Clarke and Crawford factions. General JohnClarke, a sturdy soldier of the Revolution, came from North Carolina, while William H. Crawford, a Virginian by birth and a Georgian byresidence, led the Virginia element. The feud between Clarke andCrawford gave rise to numerous duels. Then came George M. Troup toreënforce the Crawford faction and defend States' Rights, even at thepoint of the sword. Troup and Clarke were rival candidates for Governorof Georgia in 1825, and the Toombs family ardently fought for Troup. Young Toombs was but fifteen years of age, but politics had been burntinto his ardent soul. Wilkes had remained a Union county until thiscampaign, when the Troup and Toombs influence was too strong for theNorth Carolina faction. Wilkes, in fact, seemed to be a watershed inearly politics. It was in close touch with Jackson and Calhoun, withClarke and Crawford, and then with Clarke and Troup. On the one side thecurrent from the mountain streams melted into the peaceful Savannah andmerged into the Atlantic; on the other they swept into the Tennessee andhurried off to the Father of Waters. 

Robert Toombs cast his first vote for Andrew Jackson in 1832. Heabandoned the Union Democratic-Republican party, however, after theproclamation and force bill of the Administration and joined the States'Rights Whigs. When young Toombs was elected to the General Assembly ofGeorgia in October, 1837, parties were sharply divided. The Democrats, sustained by the personal popularity of "Old Hickory, " were stilldominant in the State. The States' Rights Whigs, however, had a largefollowing, and although not indorsing the doctrines of Calhoun, theparty was still animated by the spirit of George M. Troup. Thisstatesman, just retired from public life, had been borne from a sick-bedto the United States Senate Chamber to vote against the extreme measuresof President Jackson. The Troup men claimed to be loyal to theConstitution of their country in all its defined grants, and concededthe right of the Chief Magistrate to execute the office so delegated, but they resisted what they believed to be a dangerous latitude ofconstruction looking to consolidated power. Robert Toombs was not adisciple of Calhoun. While admiring the generalities and theories of thegreat Carolinian, the young Georgian was a more practical statesman. TheStates' Rights Whigs advocated a protective tariff and a national bank. They believed that the depreciation of the currency had caused thedistress of the people in the panic of 1837, and no man in this stormyera more vigorously upbraided the pet-bank and sub-treasury system thanRobert Toombs. He introduced a resolution in the legislature declaringthat President Van Buren had used the patronage of the government tostrengthen his own party; that he had repudiated the practices andprinciples of his patriotic antecedents, and "had sought out antiquatedEuropean systems for the collection, safe keeping, and distribution ofpublic moneys--foreign to our habits, unsuited to our conditions, expensive and unsafe in operation. " Mr. Toombs contended, with all theforce that was in him, that a bank of the United States, properlyregulated, was "the best, most proper and economical means for handlingpublic moneys. " Robert Toombs would not have waited until he wastwenty-seven years of age before entering public life, had not thesentiment of his county been hostile to his party. Wilkes had been aUnion county, but in 1837 it returned to the lower house two Democrats, and Robert A. Toombs, the only Whig. Nothing but his recognized abilityinduced the people to make an exception in his favor. Besides hisreputation as an orator and advocate, Toombs had just returned from theCreek war, where he had commanded a company and served under GeneralWinfield Scott in putting down the insurrection of Neahmatha, the Indianchief. He now brought to public life the new prestige of a soldier. After this, "Captain Toombs" was never defeated in his county. He wasreturned at the annual elections in 1839, 1840, 1842, and 1843--andsucceeded in preserving at home an average Whig majority of 100 votes. He did not care for the State Senate, preferring the more populous body, then composed of 200 members. Parties in the State were very evenlybalanced, but Mr. Toombs preserved, in the varying scale of politics, aprominent place in the house. He was made chairman of the JudiciaryCommittee by his political opponents. He served as a member of theCommittee on Internal Improvements, as chairman of the all-importantCommittee on Banking, chairman of the Committee on State of theRepublic, and in 1842 received the vote of the Whig minority in thehouse for Speaker. In 1840 the Whigs gained control of the government. The Harrison tidal wave swept their best men to the front in State andnational councils. Charles J. Jenkins of Richmond was elected speaker ofthe house, and Mr. Toombs, as chairman of the Banking Committee, framedthe bill which repealed the law authorizing the issue of bank bills tothe amount of twice their capital stock. He went right to the marrow ofhonest banking and sound finance by providing for a fund to redeem theoutstanding bills, and condemned the course of the State banks inflooding the State with irredeemable promises to pay. 

It was at this session of the General Assembly that Mr. Toombs displayedthe skill and sagacity of a statesman in fearlessly exposing a seductivescheme for popular relief. He was called upon to confront public clamorand to fight in the face of fearful odds, but he did not falter. 

Just before the General Assembly of 1840 adjourned, Governor McDonaldsent an urgent message to both houses calling upon them to frame somemeans for the speedy relief of the people. The situation in Georgia wasvery distressing. The rains and floods of that year had swept the cropsfrom the fields, and there was much suffering among the planters. Comingupon the heel of the session, the Whig members of the legislature lookedupon the message as a surprise, and rather regarded it as a shrewdpolitical stroke. Mr. Toombs was equal to the emergency. He quickly putin a resolution asking the Governor himself to suggest some means ofpopular relief--throwing the burden of the problem back upon theexecutive. But Governor McDonald was armed. He drew his last weapon fromhis arsenal, and used it with formidable power. He sent in an elaboratemessage to the houses recommending that the State make a large loan anddeposit the proceeds in bank, to be given out to the people on goodsecurity. The Senate committee, in evident sympathy with the scheme forrelief, reported a bill authorizing the issue of two million six-yeareight-per-cent. Bonds to be loaned to private citizens, limiting eachloan to one thousand dollars, and restricting the notes to three years, with eight per cent. Interest. 

The report of the House Committee was prepared by Robert Toombs. It wasthe most admirable and statesmanlike document of that day. Mr. Toombssaid that deliberation had resulted in the conviction that the measuresuggested by His Excellency should not be adopted. While his committeewas duly sensible of and deeply regretted the pecuniary embarrassment ofmany of their fellow-citizens, he felt constrained by a sense of publicduty to declare that he deemed it unwise and impolitic to use thecredit, and pledge the property and labor of the whole people, to supplythe private wants of a portion only of the people. The use of the publiccredit, he went on to say, was one of the most important and delicatepowers which a free people could confide in their representatives; itshould be jealously guarded, sacredly protected, and cautiously used, even for the attainment of the noblest patriotic ends, and never for thebenefit of one class of the community to the exclusion or injury of therest, whether the demand grew out of real or supposed pecuniarydifficulties. To relieve these difficulties by use of the public creditwould be to substitute a public calamity for private misfortune, andwould end in the certain necessity of imposing grievous burdens in theway of taxes upon the many for the benefit of the few. All experience, Mr. Toombs went on to declare, admonish us to expect such results fromthe proposed relief measures, to adopt which would be to violate someof the most sacred principles of the social compact. All freegovernments, deriving their just powers from, and being established forthe benefit of, the governed, must necessarily have power over theproperty, and consequently the credit, of the governed to the extent ofpublic use, and no further. And whenever government assumed the right touse the property or credit of the people for any other purpose, itabused a power essential for the perfection of its legislative duties ina manner destructive of the rights and interests of the governed, andought to be sternly resisted by the people. The proposed measures, hecontended, violated these admitted truths, asserted the untenableprinciple that governments should protect a portion of the people, inviolation of the rights of the remainder, from the calamities consequenton unpropitious seasons and private misfortunes. 

He must have been an indifferent or careless spectator of similarfinancial schemes, Mr. Toombs declared, who could persuade himself thatthis plan of borrowing money, to lend again at the same rate ofinterest, could be performed without loss to the State. That loss mustbe supplied by taxation, and to that extent, at least, it will operateso as to legislate money from the pocket of one citizen to that ofanother. The committee declared that it knew of no mode of legislativerelief except the interposition of unconstitutional, unwise, unjust, andoppressive legislation between debtor and creditor, which did not needtheir condemnation. 

The argument was exhaustive and convincing. Never were the powers of theState or the soundness of public credit more strongly set forth. Thewhole scheme of relief was abandoned, and the General Assemblyadjourned. 

The relief measures, however, had a great effect upon the campaign. Rejected in the legislature under the rattling fire and witheringsarcasm of Toombs, they were artfully used on the hustings. "McDonaldand Relief" was the slogan. Men talked airily about "deliverance andliberty. " Mr. Toombs declared that "humbuggery was reduced to an exactscience and demonstrated by figures. " The Act compelling the banks tomake cash payments was represented as an unwise contraction of thecurrency and a great oppression to the people. Governor McDonald wasconsequently reëlected over William C. Dawson, the Whig nominee. 

Robert Toombs was not a candidate for reëlection in 1841. He worked hardat the polls for the Whig ticket, and although his candidate forGovernor received a majority of one in Wilkes County, the Whigs weredefeated for the legislature. When he returned to the Assembly in 1842he still found Governor McDonald and the Democrats supporting a centralbank and the sub-treasury. They clamored to restore public finances tothe old system. The Democrats held the legislature and elected to theUnited States Senate Walter T. Colquitt over Charles J. Jenkins. Although a member of the minority party, Mr. Toombs was appointedchairman of the Judiciary Committee. Here his high character and moralcourage shone conspicuously. He proved a stone wall against the perfectflood of legislation designed for popular relief. To use his own words:"The calendar was strong with a heterogeneous collection of billsproposing stay-laws. " He reported as "unwise, inexpedient, andinjurious, " proposed Acts "to protect unfortunate debtors"; "to redeemproperty in certain cases"; also a bill to "exempt from levy and salecertain classes of property. " He held with Marshall the absoluteinviolability of contracts; he believed in common honesty in public andprivate life; he was strict in all business obligations; he denouncedthe Homestead Act of 1868, and declared in his last days that there was"not a dirty shilling in his pocket. " Mr. Toombs was nothing of thedemagogue. He was highminded, fearless, and sincere, and it may be saidof him what he afterward declared so often of Henry Clay, that "he wouldnot flatter Neptune for his trident or Jove for his power to thunder. "He was called upon at this session to fight the repeal of the law he hadframed in 1840, to regulate the system of banking. He declared ineloquent terms that the State must restrict the issue of the banks andcompel their payment in specie. The experiment of banking on publiccredit had failed, he said. It had brought loss to the government, distress to the people, and had sullied the good faith of Georgia. 

It was at this session of the legislature that the Democrats proposed avote of censure upon John McPherson Berrien, United States Senator fromGeorgia, for his advocacy of a national bank. Mr. Toombs ardentlydefended Senator Berrien. He said that the State legislature was not thecustodian of a senator's conscience, and held that the people of Georgiasanctioned the expediency and utility of a national bank. When theresolution of censure came up in the house, the Whigs refused to vote, and raised the point of "no quorum. " Speaker _pro tem_. Wellborn, whopresided, counted a quorum and declared the resolutions adopted. Mr. Toombs fired up at this unusual decision. He threw himself before theSpeaker with impetuous appeal and called for a reversal of the decision. But it was a Democratic house, and the Speaker was sustained by a voteof 96 to 40. 

The craze for internal improvements now swept over the country. TheWhigs were especially active, and we find resolutions adopted by theGeneral Assembly, calling on the Federal Government to create ports ofentry and to build government foundries and navy yards on the Southernseaboard. Mr. Toombs was chairman of the Committee of InternalImprovements, but his efforts were directed toward the completion of theWestern and Atlantic Railroad. These enterprises had overshadowed thewaterways, and the railway from Charleston, S. C. , to Augusta, Ga. , oneof the very first in the country, had just been completed. Already acompany had embarked upon the construction of the Georgia Railroad, andon May 21, 1837, the first locomotive ever put in motion on the soil ofGeorgia moved out from Augusta. A local paper described the event insententious terms:

 This locomotive started beautifully and majestically from the depository and, following the impetus given, flew with surprising velocity on the road which hereafter is to be her natural element. 

The General Assembly decided that these rail lines should have an outletto the West. This great road was finally built and operated from Atlantato Chattanooga, and is still owned by the State, a monument to thesagacity and persistency of Toombs and his associates in 1840. The greatpossibilities of these iron highways opened the eyes of the statesmenof that day, Mr. Calhoun seemed to drop for a time his philosophicalstudies of States and slavery and to dream of railroads and commercialgreatness. He proposed the connection of the Atlantic Ocean with theMississippi River and the great West, through Cumberland Gap--abrilliant and feasible scheme. Governor Gilmer of Georgia declared inhis message that these projected roads "would add new bonds to theUnion. " But King Cotton, with his millions in serfdom, issued hisimperial decrees, and not even this great railroad development couldkeep down the tremendous tragedy of the century. 

One of the measures to which Mr. Toombs devoted great attention duringhis legislative term was the establishment of a State Supreme Court. This bill was several times defeated, but finally in 1843 passed thehouse by a vote of 88 to 86. It was the scene of many of his forensictriumphs. He also introduced, during the sessions of 1842 and 1843, bills to abolish suretyship in Georgia. This system had been severelyabused. In the flush times men indorsed without stint, and then duringthe panic of 1837 "reaped the whirlwind. " Fortunes were swept away, individual credit ruined, and families brought to beggary by thisreckless system of surety. What a man seldom refused to do for another, Mr. Toombs strove to reach by law. But the system had become too firmlyintrenched in the financial habits of the people. His bill, which hedistinctly stated was to apply alone to future and not past contracts, only commanded a small minority of votes. It was looked upon as anabridgment of personal liberty. Mr. Toombs exerted all of his efforts inbehalf of this bill, and it became quite an issue in Georgia. It is nota little strange that when Robert Toombs was dead, it was found that hisown estate was involved by a series of indorsements which he had givenin Atlanta to the Kimball House Company. Had he maintained the activityof his younger days, he would probably have turned this deal into aprofitable investment. The complication was finally arranged, but hislarge property came near being swept away under the same system ofsurety he had striven to abolish. 

CHAPTER IV. 

ELECTED TO CONGRESS. 

Entering public life about the same time, living a short distance apart, professing the same political principles, practicing in the same courtsof law, were Alexander H. Stephens of Taliaferro and Robert Toombs ofWilkes. Entirely unlike in physical organism and mental make-up, differing entirely in origin and views of life, these two men were closepersonal friends, and throughout an eventful period of more than half acentury, preserved an affectionate regard for each other. 

Mr. Stephens was delicate, sensitive, conservative, and sagacious, whileToombs was impetuous, overpowering, defiant, and masterful. Stephens wassmall, swarthy, fragile, while Toombs was leonine, full-blooded, andmajestic. And yet in peace and war these two men walked hand in hand, and the last public appearance of Robert Toombs was when, bent andweeping, he bowed his gray head at the coffin and pronounced the funeraloration over Alexander Stephens. 

In the General Assembly of 1843, Robert Toombs was a member of thehouse, but his ability and power had marked him as a candidate forCongress, and Mr. Stephens had already been promoted from the StateSenate to a seat in the national legislature at Washington. The lawrequiring the State to choose congressmen on the district plan had beenpassed, and the General Assembly was then engaged in laying off thecounties into congressional districts. The bill, as first reported, included the counties of Wilkes and Taliaferro in the second district ofGeorgia. Here was a problem. Toombs and Stephens had been named as Whigcandidates for the Clay campaign of 1844. To have them clash would havebeen to deprive the State of their talents in the national councils. Itwould be interesting to speculate as to what would have been the resulthad these two men been opposed. Stephens was naturally a Union man, andwas no very ardent advocate of slavery. Toombs inherited the traditionsof the Virginia landowners. It is not improbable that the firmness ofthe one would have been a foil for the fire of the other. History mighthave been written differently had not the conference committee in theGeorgia Legislature in 1843 altered the schedule of districts, placingTaliaferro in the seventh and Wilkes in the eighth Congressionaldistrict. Both were safely Whig, and the future Vice-President andpremier of the Southern Confederacy now prepared for the canvass whichwas to plunge them into their duties as members of the nationalCongress. 

Robert Toombs had already made his appearance in national politics in1840. Although still a member of the Georgia Legislature, he took a deepinterest in the success of the Whig ticket for President. His power as astump speaker was felt in eastern Georgia, where the people gathered atthe "log cabin and hard cider" campaigns. The most daring feat of youngToombs, just thirty years old, was in crossing the Savannah River andmeeting George McDuffie, the great Democrat of South Carolina, then inthe zenith of his fame. An eye-witness of this contest between thechampions of Van Buren and Harrison declared that McDuffie was"harnessed lightning" himself. He was a nervous, impassioned speaker. When the rash young Georgian crossed over to Willington, S. C. , to meetthe lion in his den, Toombs rode horseback, and it was noticed that hisshirt front was stained with tobacco juice, and yet Toombs was aremarkably handsome man. "Genius sat upon his brow, and his eyes were asblack as death and bigger than an ox's. " His presence captivated eventhe idolators of McDuffie. His argument and invective, his overpoweringeloquence, linger in the memory of old men now. McDuffie said of him: "Ihave heard John Randolph of Roanoke, and met Burgess of Rhode Island, but this wild Georgian is a Mirabeau. "

In 1844 Robert Toombs was a delegate to the Baltimore convention whichnominated Henry Clay, and during this visit he made a speech in New Yorkwhich attracted wide attention. It threatened to raise a storm about hishead in Georgia. In his speech he arraigned Mr. Calhoun for writing his"sugar letter" to Louisiana, and for saying that he would protect sugarbecause it was the production of slave labor. Mr. Toombs declared: "Ifany discrimination is made between free and slave labor it ought to bein favor of free labor. " "But, " said he, "the Whigs of Georgia want nosuch partial protection as Mr. Calhoun offers; they want protection forall classes of labor and home industry. The Whigs protest against theseefforts to prejudice the South against the North, or the North againstthe South. They have a common interest as well as a common history. Theblood that was mingled at Yorktown and at Eutaw cannot be kept at enmityforever. The Whigs of Bunker Hill are the same as the Whigs of Georgia. "Mr. Toombs was actually charged in this campaign with being anAbolitionist. He was accused of saying in a speech at Mallorysville, Ga. , during the Harrison campaign, that slavery was "a moral andpolitical evil. " This was now brought up against him. Mr. Toombsadmitted saying that slavery was a political evil. He wrote a ringingletter to his constituents, in which he declared that "the affected fearand pretended suspicion of a part of the Democratic press in relation tomy views are well understood by the people. I have no language toexpress my scorn and contempt for the whole crew. I have no other replyto make to these common sewers of filth and falsehood. If I had as manyarms as Briareus they would be too few to correct the misrepresentationsof speeches I have made in the past six months. "

It was on the 3d of October, 1844, that Robert Toombs spoke at amemorable political meeting in Augusta, Ga. Augusta was in the heart ofthe district which he was contesting for Congress, and the Democrats, tostrengthen their cause, brought over McDuffie from South Carolina. Largecrowds were present in the shady yard surrounding the City Hall; seatshad been constructed there, while back in the distance long trencheswere dug, and savory meats were undergoing the famous process ofbarbecue. Speaking commenced at ten o'clock in the morning, and, with ashort rest for dinner, there were seven hours of oratory. People seldomtired in those days of forensic meetings. Toombs was on his mettle. Hedenounced the Democrats for dragging the slavery question before thepeople to operate upon their fears. It was a bugbear everlastingly usedto cover up the true question at issue. It was kept up to operate onthe fears of the timid and the passions and prejudices of theunsuspecting. 

The young Whig then launched into a glowing defense of the NationalBank. The Democrats had asked where was the authority to charter a bank?He would reply, "Where was the authority, in so many words, to buildlighthouses? Democrats were very strict constructionists when it wasnecessary to accomplish their political purposes, but always found a wayto get around these doubts when occasion required. " He taunted McDuffiewith having admitted that Congress had power to charter a bank. 

Mr. Toombs contended that a tariff, with the features of protection toAmerican industry, had existed since the foundation of the government. This great system of "plunder" had been supported by Jefferson. Eloquently warming up under the Democratic charge that the tariff was asystem of robbery, Mr. Toombs appealed to every Whig and Democrat as anAmerican who boasted of this government as "a model to all nations ofthe earth; as the consummation of political wisdom; who asks theoppressed of all nations to come and place himself under its protection, because it upholds the weak against the strong and protects the pooragainst the rich, whether it has been going on in a system of plunderever since it sprang into power. " "It is not true, " he said, "it is nottrue!"

Turning with prophetic ken to his Augusta friends, he asked what wouldbe the effect were the Savannah River turned through the beautifulplains of Augusta, and manufactures built up where the industrious couldfind employment. Hundreds of persons, he said, would be brought togetherto spin the raw cotton grown in the State, to consume the provisionswhich the farmers raised, thus diversifying their employment andincreasing their profits. "Would any man tell me, " shouted the orator, his eyes blazing, and his arms uplifted, "that this would impoverish thecountry--would make paupers of the people? To increase the places wherethe laborer may sell his labor would never make him a pauper. Becontrolled, " said he, "in the administration of government and in allother things, by the improvement of the age. Do not tie the living tothe dead. Others may despise the lights of science or experience; theyhave a right, if they choose, to be governed by the dreams of economistswho have rejected practical evidence. But no such consistency is mine. Iwill have none of it. "

McDuffie in his speech declared that all the plundering which Englandhad been subjected to from the days of Hengist and Horsa could not equalthe plundering which the people of the exporting States had sustained. 

Toombs answered that if a man must pay tax to sustain the government itwas better he should pay it in such a way as to benefit his owncountrymen than for the benefit of foreign manufacturers and foreigncapitalists. 

Mr. Toombs alluded to a letter of James K. Polk to a Pennsylvaniamanufacturer, as leaning toward protection. 

McDuffie said that Polk's letter was "composed for that meridian. "

"Henry Clay does not need an interpreter, " cried Toombs. "He is the samein the North as in the South. He would rather be right than President. "

"Dallas, the Democratic nominee for vice president, is a high-tariffman, " said Toombs. "He voted for the tariff of 1832 and against thecompromise measures. Although the sword was drawn to drink the blood ofMcDuffie's friends in Carolina, Dallas would still adhere to his poundof flesh. "

Toombs concluded his great reply to McDuffie: "We have lived under thepresent order of things for fifty years, and can continue to live underit for one thousand years to come, if the people of the South are butcontent to stand upon their rights as guaranteed in the Constitution, and not work confusion by listening to ambitious politicians: by takingas much pains to preserve a good understanding with our Northernbrethren, the vast majority of whom are inclined to respect thelimitations of the Constitution. "

This was perhaps the greatest political meeting Georgia ever held. Politics were at white heat. Toombs and McDuffie each spoke two hours. The campaign cry was for the Whigs: "Clay, Frelinghuysen, Toombs, andour glorious Union, " and by the Democrats: "Polk, Dallas, Texas, andOregon. " It was Whig _vs. _ Loco-foco. The Whig leaders of the South werePettigru, Thompson, and Yeadon of South Carolina, Merriweather, Toombs, and Stephens, of Georgia, while the Democratic lights were McDuffie, Rhett, and Pickens of South Carolina, and Charlton, Cobb, Colquitt, andHerschel V. Johnson of Georgia. 

The campaign of 1844 was bitter in Georgia. The Whigs carried the burdenof a protective tariff, while the memories of nullification and theForce bill were awakened by a ringing letter from George M. Troup, condemning the tariff in his vigorous style. This forced Mr. Toombs, inhis letter accepting the congressional nomination, to review the subjectin its relation to the States' Rights party in Georgia. "The tariff of1824, " said he, "which was voted for by Andrew Jackson, carried theprinciple of protection further than any preceding one. Jackson was theavowed friend of the protective policy, yet he received the vote ofGeorgia, regardless of party. In 1828 the Harrisburg convention demandedadditional protection, and this measure was carried through Congress bythe leading men of the Democratic party. It created discontent in theSouth, and the Act of 1832 professed to modify the tariff--but thismeasure not proving satisfactory was 'nullified' by South Carolina. General Jackson then issued his proclamation which pronounced principlesand issues utterly at war with the rights of the States, and subversiveof the character of the government. The opponents of consolidatingprinciples went into opposition. Delegates met in Milledgeville in 1833, adopted the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, denounced the sentimentsof Jackson's proclamation, and affirmed the doctrine of States' Rights. "

"The Democratic party was then, " said Toombs, "cheek by jowl with thewhole tariff party in the United States, sustaining General Jackson, andstoutly maintaining that the leaders of that spirited little band in oursister State, whose talent shed a glory over their opposition, deserveda halter. They sustained John C. Forsythe in voting against theCompromise bill--that peace offering of the illustrious Henry Clay. "

Mr. Toombs declared in this campaign that the effect of a tariff on theproductive industries of a country has been a disputed question amongthe wisest statesmen for centuries, and that these influences aresubject to so many disturbing causes, both foreign and domestic, thatthey are incapable of being reduced to fixed principles. Mr. Toombs didnot hesitate, however, to condemn "the theories of the South Carolinaschool of politics. "

Mr. Toombs opposed the acquisition of Texas. He did not believe theNorth would consent. "It matters not, " he said, "that Mexico is weak, that the acquisition is easy. The question is just the same: Is itright, is it just, is it the policy of this country to enlarge itsterritory by conquest? The principle is condemned by the spirit of theage, by reason, and by revelation. A people who love justice and hatewrong and oppression cannot approve it. War in a just cause is a greatcalamity to any people, and can only be justified by the highestnecessity. A people who go to war without just and sufficient cause, with no other motive than pride and love of glory, are enemies to thehuman race and deserve the execration of all mankind. What, then, mustbe the judgment of a war for plunder?" He denounced the whole thing as aland job, and declared that he would rather have "the Union withoutTexas than Texas without the Union. "

The Democratic opponent of Mr. Toombs in this canvass was Hon. Edward J. Black of Screven, who had been in Congress since 1838. The new districtwas safely Whig, but the young candidate had to fight the prestige ofMcDuffie and Troup and opposition from numberless sources. It wascharged that he always voted in the Georgia Legislature to raise taxes. He retorted, "It is right to resort to taxation to pay the honest debtof a State. I did vote to raise taxes, and I glory in it. It was a dutyI owed the State, and I would go to the last dollar to preserve her goodname and honor. "

While Mr. Toombs was making a speech in this canvass a man in theaudience charged him with having voted for the free banking law andagainst the poor-school fund. "The gentleman, " said Mr. Toombs, "seemsto find pleasure in reveling in my cast-off errors. I shall not disturbhim. "

"How is this, Mr. Toombs, " shouted a Democrat at another time, "here isa vote of yours in the house journal I do not like. "

"Well, my friend, there are several there that I do not like: now whatare you going to do about it?"

Especially was opposition bitter to Henry Clay. Cartoons were publishedfrom Northern papers, of Clay whipping a negro slave, with thisinscription: "The Mill Boy of the _Slashes_. " Pictures appeared in theDemocratic papers of a human figure surmounted by a pistol, a bottle, and a deck of cards. To this a _résumé_ of Clay's misdeeds was appended:

"In 1805 quarreled with Colonel Davis of Kentucky, which led to hisfirst duel. In 1808 challenged Humphrey Marshall, and fired three timesat his breast. In 1825 challenged the great John Randolph, and firedonce at his breast. In 1838 he planned the Cilley duel, by which amurder was committed and a wife made a mourner. In 1841, when sixty-fiveyears old, and gray-headed, is under a five thousand dollar bond to keepthe peace. At twenty-nine he perjured himself to secure a seat in theUnited States Senate. In 1824, made the infamous bargain with Adams bywhich he sold out for a six thousand dollar office. He is well known asa gambler and Sabbath-breaker. "

But the eloquent Harry of the West had a large and devoted following. Hevisited Georgia in March of this year, and charmed the people by hiseloquence and magnetism. Robert Toombs had met him at the social boardand had been won by his superb mentality and fine manners. Women paidhim the tribute of their presence wherever he spoke, and little childrenscattered flowers along his path. But the November election in Georgia, as elsewhere, was adverse to the party of Henry Clay. Toombs andStephens were sent to Congress, but the electoral vote of Georgia wascast for Polk and Dallas, and the Whigs, who loved Clay as a father, regarded his defeat as a personal affliction as well as a publiccalamity. 

CHAPTER V. 

IN THE LOWER HOUSE. 

Robert Toombs took his seat in the twenty-ninth Congress in December, 1845. The Democrats organized the House by the election of John W. Davisof Indiana, Speaker. The House was made up of unusually strong men, whoafterward became noted in national affairs. Hannibal Hamlin was with theMaine delegation; ex-President John Quincy Adams had been elected fromMassachusetts with Robert C. Winthrop; Stephen A. Douglas was there fromIllinois; David Wilmot from Pennsylvania; R. Barnwell Rhett andArmistead Burt from South Carolina; Geo. C. Droomgoole and Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, were members, as wereHenry W. Hilliard and W. L. Yancey of Alabama, Jefferson Davis and JacobThompson of Mississippi, and John Slidell of Louisiana. Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb were the most prominent figures in the Georgiadelegation. 

The topics uppermost in the public mind of that day were the Oregonquestion, Texas, and the ubiquitous tariff. It looked at one time as ifwar with Great Britain were unavoidable. President Polk occupied anextreme position, and declared in his message to Congress that our titleto the whole of Oregon was clear. The boundary of the ceded territorywas unsettled. The Democrats demanded the occupation of Oregon, with thecampaign cry of "fifty-four forty or fight. "

Mr. Toombs did not accept President Polk's position. His first speech inthe House was made January 12, 1846, and at once placed him in the frontrank of orators and statesmen. He said that it was not clear to him thatour title was exceptional up to 54°40'. Our claim to the territory northof the Columbia River was the Spanish title only, and this had been aninchoate right. 

Mr. Toombs wanted the question settled by reason. He impetuouslydeclared that "neither the clamors within nor without this hall, nor theten thousand British cannon, floating on every ship, or mounted on everyisland, shall influence my decision in a question like this. " He was forpeace--for honorable peace. "It is the mother of all the virtues andhopes of mankind. " No man would go further than he to obtain honorablepeace; but dishonorable peace was worse than war--it was the worst ofall evil. 

War was the greatest and the most horrible of calamities. Even a war forliberty itself was rarely compensated by the consequences. "Yet thecommon judgment of mankind consigned to lasting infamy the people whowould surrender their rights and freedom for the sake of a dishonestpeace. "

"Let us, " cried the speaker, turning to his Southern colleagues, "let usrepress any unworthy sectional feeling which looks only to theattainment of sectional power. "

His conclusion was an apotheosis of Georgia as a Union State. He said:"Mr. Speaker, Georgia wants peace, but she would not for the sake ofpeace yield any of her own or the nation's rights. A new career ofprosperity is now before her; new prospects, bright and fair, open toher vision and lie ready for her grasp, and she fully appreciates herposition. She has at length begun to avail herself of her advantages byforming a great commercial line between the Atlantic and the West. Sheis embarking in enterprises of intense importance, and is beginning toprovide manufactures for her unpaid laborers. She sees nothing butprosperity ahead, and peace is necessary in order to reveal it; butstill, if war must come, if it has been decreed that Oregon must beconsecrated to liberty in the blood of the brave and the sufferings ofthe free, Georgia will be found ready with her share of the offering, and, whatever may be her sacrifice, she will display a magnanimity asgreat as the occasion and as prolonged as the conflict. "

Mr. Toombs indorsed the conservative action of the Senate, which forcedPresident Polk from his extreme position and established the parallel of49° as the northern boundary. 

The tariff bill of 1846 was framed, as President Polk expressed it, inthe interest of lower duties, and it changed the basis of assessmentfrom specific, or minimum duties, to duties _ad valorem_. 

Mr. Toombs made a most elaborate speech against this bill in July, 1846. If his Oregon speech had shown thorough familiarity with the force andeffect of treaties and the laws of nations, his tariff speech proved hima student of fiscal matters and a master of finance. His genius, asJefferson Davis afterward remarked, lay decidedly in this direction. Mr. Toombs announced in his tariff speech that the best of laws, especiallytax laws, were but approximations of human justice. He entered into anelaborate argument to controvert the idea that low tariff meantincreased revenue. The history of such legislation, he contended, hadbeen that the highest tariff had raised the most money. Mr. Toombscombated the _ad valorem_ principle of levying duty upon imports. 

Mr. Toombs declared to his constituents in September, 1846, that thePresident had marched his army into Mexico without authority of law. "The conquest and dismemberment of Mexico, however brilliant may be thesuccess of our arms, " said he, "will not redound to the glory of ourrepublic. "

The Whigs approached the Presidential campaign of 1848 with every chanceof success. They still hoped that the Sage of Ashland might be thenominee. George W. Crawford, ex-Governor of Georgia, and afterwardmember of the Taylor Cabinet, perceiving that the drift in the West wasagainst Mr. Clay, offered a resolution in the Whig convention that"whatever may have been our personal preferences, we feel that inyielding them at the present time, we are only pursuing Mr. Clay's ownillustrious example. " Mr. Toombs stated to his constituents that Claycould not be nominated because Ohio had declared that no man who hadopposed the Wilmot Proviso could get the vote of that State. The Whigs, who had opposed the Mexican war, now reaped its benefits by nominatingone of its heroes to the Presidency, and Zachary Taylor of Louisianabecame at once a popular candidate. Millard Fillmore of New York wasnamed for vice president, and "Rough and Ready" clubs were soonorganized in every part of Georgia. The venerable William H. Crawfordheaded the Whig electoral ticket in Georgia, while Toombs, Stephens, andThomas W. Thomas led the campaign. 

The issue of the campaign in Georgia was the Clayton compromise whichthe Georgia senators had sustained, but which Stephens and Toombs haddefeated in the House. This compromise proposed that all questionsconcerning slavery in the governments of the ceded territory be referredto the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Toombs declared that theMexican law prohibiting slavery was still valid and would so remain;that Congress and not the courts must change this law. 

The Clayton compromise, Mr. Toombs said, was only intended as "theEuthanasia of States' Rights. When our rights are clear, security forthem should be free from all ambiguity. We ought never to surrenderterritory, until it shall be wrested from us as we have wrested it fromMexico. Such a surrender would degrade and demoralize our section anddisable us for effective resistance against future aggression. It is farbetter that this new acquisition should be the grave of the republicthan of the rights and honor of the South--and, from presentindications, to this complexion it must come at last. "

Mr. Toombs demanded that what was recognized by law as property in theslaveholding States should be recognized in the Mexican territory. "Thisboon, " he pleaded, "may be worthless, but its surrender involves ourhonor. We can permit no discrimination against our section or ourinstitutions in dividing out the common property of the republic. Theirrights are not to be abandoned, or bartered away in presidentialelections. "

So Toombs and Stephens were central figures in this national campaign. It was during this canvass that Mr. Stephens became embroiled with JudgeFrancis H. Cone, a prominent lawyer of Georgia and a near neighbor. Mr. Stephens heard that Judge Cone had denounced him as a traitor for movingto table the Clayton compromise. Stephens had retorted sharply that ifCone had said this he would slap his face. After some correspondence thetwo men met in Atlanta, September 4, 1848. The trouble was renewed;Judge Cone denounced Mr. Stephens, who rapped him over the shoulderswith a whalebone cane. Mr. Stephens was a fragile man, and Judge Cone, with strong physique, closed in and forced him to the floor. During thescuffle Mr. Stephens was cut in six places. His life for a while wasdespaired of. Upon his recovery he was received with wild enthusiasm bythe Whigs, who cheered his pluck and regarded his return to the canvassas an omen of victory. 

Shortly afterward he wrote to Mrs. Toombs, thanking her for her interestand solicitude during his illness. He managed to write with his lefthand, as he could not use his right. "I hope, " he says, "I will be ableto take the stump again next week for old Zach. I think Mr. Toombs hashad the weight of the canvass long enough, and though he has donegallant service, this but inspires me with the wish to lend all aid inmy power. I think we shall yet be able to save the State. My faith is asstrong as Mr. Preston's which, you know, was enough to move mountains. Igot a letter the other day from Mr. C----, who gives it as his opinionthat Ohio would go for General Taylor. If so, he will be elected. Andyou know how I shall hail such a result. "

During Mr. Stephens' illness Mr. Toombs canvassed many of the countiesin the Stephens district. Both men were reëlected to Congress, andZachary Taylor received the electoral vote of Georgia over Lewis Cass ofMichigan, and was elected President of the United States. 

The Democrats, who put out a candidate this year against Mr. Toombs, issued an address which was evidently not inspired by the able anddeserving gentleman who bore their standard, but was intended as a sharprebuke to Mr. Toombs. It is interesting as showing how he was regardedby his friends, the enemy. 

"Of an age when life's illusions have vanished, " they said of theDemocratic candidate, "he has no selfish aspirations, no vaultingambition to carry him astray: no vanity to lead where it is glory enoughto follow. " They accorded to Mr. Toombs "a very showy cast oftalent--better suited to the displays of the stump than the gravediscussions of the legislative hall. His eloquence has that sort ofsplendor mixed with the false and true which is calculated to dazzle themultitude. He would rather win the applause of groundlings by some sillytale than gain the intelligent by the most triumphant course ofreasoning. " Mr. Toombs carried every county in the district and wasreturned to Congress by 1681 majority. 

When Mr. Toombs returned to Washington he had commanded nationalprominence. He had not only carried his State for Zachary Taylor, buthis speech in New York, during a critical period of the canvass, hadturned the tide for the Whig candidate in the country. Toombs andStephens naturally stood very near the administration. They soon hadreason to see, however, that the Taylor Cabinet was not attentive toSouthern counsels. 

During the fight over the compromise measure in Congress the Northernpapers printed sensational accounts of a rupture between PresidentTaylor and Messrs. Toombs and Stephens. According to this account theGeorgia congressmen called on the President and expressed strongdisapprobation of his stand upon the bill to organize the Territory ofNew Mexico. It was said that they even threatened to side with hisopponents to censure him upon his action in the case of SecretaryCrawford and the Golphin claim. The President, the article recited, wasvery much troubled over this interview and remained despondent forseveral days. He took his bed and never rallied, dying on the 9th ofJuly, 1850. Mr. Stephens published a card, promptly denying thissensation. He said that neither he nor his colleague Mr. Toombs hadvisited the President at all during or previous to his last illness, andthat no such scene had occurred. 

Toombs and Stephens, in fact, were warm personal friends of George W. Crawford, who was Secretary of War in Taylor's Cabinet. He had servedwith them in the General Assembly of Georgia and had twice been Governorof their State. The Golphin claim, of which Governor Crawford had beenagent, had been collected from the Secretary of the Treasury whileGovernor Crawford was in the Cabinet, but President Taylor had decidedthat as Governor Crawford was at the head of an entirely differentdepartment of the government, he had been guilty of no impropriety. After the death of President Taylor, Governor Crawford returned toAugusta and was tendered a public dinner by his fellow-citizens, irrespective of party. He delivered an eloquent and feeling address. Hemade an extensive tour abroad, then lived in retirement in RichmondCounty, enjoying the respect and confidence of his neighbors. 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

No legislative body ever assembled with more momentous measures beforeit than the thirty-first Congress of the United States. An immense areaof unsettled public domain had been wrested from Mexico. The Territoriesof California, Utah, and New Mexico, amounting to several hundredthousand square miles, remained undisposed of. They comprised what Mr. Calhoun had termed the "Forbidden Fruit, " and the trouble whichbeclouded their annexation threatened to surpass the storms of conquest. 

Congress felt that it was absolutely without light to guide it. It haddeclined to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean. Henry Clay had pronounced such division of public domain between thesections a "Utopian dream, " and Zachary Taylor had condemned theprinciple in the only message he ever delivered to Congress. What Mr. Lincoln afterward embodied in his famous expression that the Union couldnever exist "half slave, half free, " had been actually anticipated. Thewhole territorial question came up as a new problem. But if the crisiswas now momentous the body of statesmen which considered it was a greatone. The men and the hour seemed to meet in that supreme moment. TheSenate consisted of sixty members, and for the last time that great trioof Clay, Calhoun, and Webster met upon its floor. Commencing theircareers a generation before; with eventful lives and illustriousperformance, they lingered one moment in this arena before passingforever from the scenes of their earthly efforts. All three had given upambition for the Presidency, none of them had commenced to break inmental power, and each one was animated by patriotism to serve and savehis country. William H. Seward had entered the Senate from New York;James M. Mason and Robert M. T. Hunter represented Virginia; Wm. C. Dawson had joined Mr. Berrien from Georgia; Salmon P. Chase appearedfrom Ohio; Jefferson Davis and Henry S. Foote illustrated Mississippi;Stephen A. Douglas had been promoted from the House in Illinois, andSamuel Houston was there from Texas. The House was unusually strong anddivided with the Senate the stormy scenes and surpassing struggles overthe compromise measures of 1850. It was the time of breaking up of partylines, and many believed that the hour of disunion had arrived. 

The Whig caucus, which assembled to nominate a candidate for Speaker ofthe House, sustained a serious split. Robert Toombs offered a resolutionthat Congress should place no restriction upon slavery in theTerritories. The Northern Whigs scouted the idea and Toombs led theSouthern members out of the meeting. The organization of the House wasdelayed three weeks, and finally, under a plurality resolution, theDemocrats elected Howell Cobb of Georgia Speaker over Robert C. Winthropof Massachusetts. In the midst of these stormy scenes Mr. Toombs forcedthe fighting. He declared with impetuous manner that he believed theinterests of his people were in danger and he was unwilling to surrenderthe great power of the Speaker's chair without security for the future. 

"It seems, " he said, "that we are to be intimidated by eulogies of theUnion and denunciations of those who are not ready to sacrifice nationalhonor, essential interests, and constitutional rights upon its altar. Sir, I have as much attachment to the Union of these States, under theConstitution of our fathers, as any freeman ought to have. I am ready toconcede and sacrifice for it whatever a just and honorable man ought tosacrifice. I will do no more. I have not heeded the expression of thosewho did not understand or desired to misrepresent my conduct or opinionsin relation to these questions, which, in my judgment, so vitallyaffect it. The time has come when I shall not only utter them, but makethem the basis of my political actions here. I do not then hesitate toavow before this House and the country, and in the presence of theliving God, that if by your legislation you seek to drive us from theTerritories purchased by the common blood and treasure of the people, and to abolish slavery in the District, thereby attempting to fix anational degradation upon half the States of this confederacy, I am fordisunion, and if my physical courage be equal to the maintenance of myconvictions of right and duty I will devote all I am and all I have onearth to its consummation. 

"Give me securities that the power of organization which you seek willnot be used to the injury of my constituents; then you can have mycoöperation, but not till then. Grant them, and you prevent thedisgraceful scenes of the last twenty-four hours and restoretranquillity to the country. Refuse them, and, as far as I am concerned, let discord reign forever. "

This speech fell like a clap of thunder. The Wilmot Proviso waved like ablack flag over the heads of Southern men. No one had spoken outrightuntil Mr. Toombs in his bold, dashing, Mirabeau style accepted the issuein the words just given. The House was filled with storms of applauseand jeers, and, as can be imagined, Mr. Toombs' speech did not soothethe bitterness or alter the determination of either side. 

On the 22d of December a conference was held by Whigs and Democrats, theSouthern Whigs excepted, and a resolution reported that the personreceiving the largest number of votes for Speaker, on a certain ballot, should be declared elected, provided this number should be the majorityof a quorum, but not a majority of the House. Mr. Stanton of Tennesseeoffered this "plurality resolution. "

Mr. Toombs sprang to his feet and declared that the House, until itorganized, could not pass this or any other rule. 

Members stood up and called Mr. Toombs to order, claiming that there wasalready a question pending. Mr. Stanton contended that he had the floor. 

Toombs called out: "You may cry 'order, ' gentlemen, until the heavensfall; you cannot take this place from me. I have the right to protestagainst this transaction. It is not with you to say whether this rightshall be yielded or when it shall be yielded. "

Mr. Stevens of Pennsylvania: "I call the gentleman to order. "

Mr. Toombs: "I say that by the law of 1789 this House, until a Speakeris elected and gentlemen have taken the oath of office, has no right toadopt any rules whatever. "

(Loud cries of "order. ")

Mr. Toombs: "Gentlemen may amuse themselves crying 'order. '"

(Calls of "order. ")

Mr. Toombs: "But I have the right and I intend to maintain the rightto----"

Mr. Vandyke called upon the clerk to put the preceding question. "Let ussee, " he said, "whether the gentleman will disregard the order of thisHouse. "

Mr. Toombs: "I have the floor, and the clerk cannot put the question. "

"The House, " he said, "has no right. Gentlemen may cry 'order' andinterrupt me. It is mere brute force, attempting by the power of lungsto put me down. "

Confusion increased. Members called out to encourage Mr. Toombs, andothers to put him down. In the midst of this babel he continued tospeak, his black hair thrown back, his face flushed, and his eyesblazing like suns. His deep voice could be heard above the shouts like alion's roar. Members shouted to the clerk to call the roll for the yeasand nays. 

Toombs continued: "If you seek by violating the common law ofparliament, the laws of the land, and the Constitution of the UnitedStates, to put me down ["order, order, call the roll"], you will find ita vain and futile attempt. ["Order. "] I am sure I am indebted to theignorance of my character on the part of those who are thus disgracingthemselves ["order, order"], if they suppose any such efforts as theyare now making will succeed in driving me from the position which I haveassumed. I stand upon the Constitution of my country, upon the libertyof speech which you have treacherously violated, and upon the rights ofmy constituents, and your fiendish yells may be well raised to drown anargument which you tremble to hear. You claim and have exercised thepower to prevent all debate upon any and every subject, yet you have notas yet shown your right to sit here at all. I will not presume that youhave any such right ["order, order"]. I will not suppose that theAmerican people have elected such agents to represent them. I thereforedemand that they shall comply with the Act of 1789 before I shall bebound to submit to their authority. " (Loud cries of "order. ")

The Act to which Mr. Toombs referred recited that the oath must beadministered by the Speaker to all the members present, and to theclerk, previous to entering on any other business. This he tried toread, but cries of "order" drowned his voice. 

Throwing aside his manual Mr. Toombs walked further out into the aisleand assumed a yet more defiant position. 

"You refuse, " he said, "to hear either the Constitution or the law. Perhaps you do well to listen to neither; they all speak a voice ofcondemnation to your reckless proceedings. But if you will not hear themthe country will. Every freeman from the Atlantic to the Pacific shoreshall hear them, and every honest man shall consider them. You cannotstifle the voice that shall reach their ears. The electric spark shallproclaim to the freemen of this republic that an American Congress, having conceived the purpose to violate the Constitution and the laws toconceal their enormities, have disgraced the record of their proceedingsby placing upon it a resolution that their representatives shall not beheard in their defense, and finding this illegal resolution inadequateto secure so vile an end, have resorted to brutish yells and cries tostifle the words of those they cannot intimidate. "

The clerk continued to call the roll, and Mr. Toombs with splendidaudacity turned upon him. Pointing his finger at the _locum tenens_, hecried with scorn: "I ask by what authority that man stands there andcalls these names. By what authority does HE interfere with the rightsof a member of this House. [The clerk continued to call. ] He is anintruder, and how dares he to interrupt members in the exercise oftheir constitutional rights. Gentlemen, has the sense of shame departedwith your sense of right, that you permit a creature, an interloper, inno wise connected with you, to stand at that desk and interrupt yourorder?"

Mr. Toombs continued, amid these boisterous scenes, his alternate rôleof argument, of appeal, of denunciation. He contended that a powerdelegated to the House must be used by a majority of the House. Heconcluded:

"I therefore demand of you before the country, in the name of theConstitution and the people, to repeal your illegal rule, reject the oneon your table, and proceed to the discharge of your high duties, whichthe people have confided to you, according to the unvarying precedentsof your people and the law of the land. "

This performance was denounced by Northern restrictionists as menacingand insolent. Mr. Stephens, in his "War Between the States, " contendedthat it should rather be considered in the light of a wonderfulexhibition of physical as well as intellectual prowess--in this, that asingle man should have been able, thus successfully, to speak to atumultuous crowd and, by declamatory denunciations combined with solidargument, to silence an infuriated assembly. 

The noise during the delivery of this speech gradually ceased. Theclerk stopped calling the roll, all interruptions were suspended and"every eye, " says Mr. Stephens, "was fixed upon the speaker. " It was apicture worthy of ranking with Lamartine's great speech to therevolutionists in France. 

On the 29th of February Mr. Toombs addressed the House upon the generalterritorial question. He said:

"We had our institutions when you sought our allegiance. We were contentwith them then, and we are content with them now. We have not sought tothrust them upon you, nor to interfere with yours. If you believe whatyou say, that yours are so much the best to promote the happiness andgood government of society, why do you fear our equal competition withyou in the Territories? We only ask that our common government shallprotect us both, equally, until the Territories shall be admitted asStates into the Union, then to leave their citizens free to adopt anydomestic policy in reference to this subject which in their judgment maybest promote their interest and their happiness. The demand is just. Grant it, and you place your prosperity and ours upon a solidfoundation; you perpetuate the Union so necessary to your prosperity;you solve the problem of republican government. If it be demonstratedthat the Constitution is powerless for our protection, it will then benot only the right but the duty of the slaveholding States to resume thepowers which they have conferred upon this government and to seek newsafeguards for their future protection. . . . We took the Constitution andthe Union together. We will have both or we will have neither. This cryof Union is the masked battery behind which the rights of the South areto be assaulted. Let the South mark the man who is for the Union atevery hazard and to the last extremity; when the day of her peril comeshe will be the imitator of that character, the base Judas, who forthirty pieces of silver threw away a pearl richer than all his tribe. "

On the 15th of June, 1850, while the compromise measures were shiftingfrom House to House, the question was put to some of the advocates ofthe admission of California, whether they would under any circumstancesadmit a slave State into the Union. They declined to say. 

Mr. Toombs arose and declared that the South did not deny the right of apeople framing a State constitution to admit or exclude slavery. TheSouth had uniformly maintained this right. 

"The evidence is complete, " he said. "The North repudiated thisprinciple. "

"I intend to drag off the mask before the consummation of the act. We donot oppose California on account of the antislavery clause in herconstitution. It was her right, and I am not even prepared to say sheacted unwisely in its exercise--that is her business: but I stand uponthe great principle that the South has the right to an equalparticipation in the Territories of the United States. I claim the rightfor her to enter them with all her property and security to enjoy it. She will divide with you if you wish it: but the right to enter all, ordivide, I will never surrender. In my judgment this right, involving, asit does, political equality, is worth a dozen such Unions as we have, even if each were a thousand times more valuable than this. I speak notfor others, but for myself. Deprive us of this right, and appropriatethis common property to yourselves; it is then your government, notmine. Then I am its enemy, and I will then, if I can, bring my childrenand my constituents to the altar of liberty, and like Hamilcar, I willswear them to eternal hostility to your foul domination. Give us ourjust rights, and we are ready, as ever heretofore, to stand by theUnion, every part of it, and its every interest. Refuse it, and, forone, I will strike for independence. "

Mr. Stephens declared that this speech produced the greatest sensationhe had ever seen in the House. "It created a perfect commotion. "

These heated arguments of Mr. Toombs were delivered under the menace ofthe Wilmot Proviso, or slavery restriction. When this principle wasabandoned and the compromise measures passed, Mr. Toombs uttered, as weshall see, far different sentiments. 

In the Senate Mr. Clay, the Great Pacificator, had introduced hiscompromise resolutions to admit California under the government alreadyformed, prohibiting slavery; to organize territorial governments forUtah and New Mexico without slavery restrictions; to pass afugitive-slave law, and to abolish the slave trade in the District ofColumbia. On the 7th of March, 1850, Mr. Webster delivered his greatUnion speech, in which for the first time he took strong grounds againstcongressional restriction in the Territories. It created a profoundsensation. It was on the 4th of March that Senator Mason read for Mr. Calhoun the last speech that the latter ever prepared. It was amemorable moment when the great Carolinian, with the stamp of deathalready upon him, reiterated his love for the Union under theConstitution, but declared, with the prescience of a seer, that the onlydanger threatening the government arose from its centralizing tendency. It was "the sunset of life which gave him mystical lore. "

Debate continued through the spring and summer with increasingbitterness. On the 31st of July Mr. Clay's "Omnibus Bill, " as it wascalled, "went to pieces, " but the Senate took up the separatepropositions, passed them, and transmitted them to the House. 

Here the great sectional contest was renewed. Mr. Toombs offered anamendment that the Constitution of the United States, and such statutesthereof as may not be locally inapplicable, and the common law, as itexisted in the British colonies of America until July 4, 1776, shall bethe exclusive laws of said Territory upon the subject of Africanslavery, until altered by the proper authority. This was rejected by theHouse. On September 6 the Texas and New Mexico bill, with the Boydamendment, passed by a vote of 108 to 97--and the anti-restrictionists, as Mr. Stephens said, won the day at last. This was the great compromiseof that year, and the point established was that, since the principle ofdivision of territory between the North and South had been abandoned, the principle of congressional restriction should also be abandoned, andthat all new States, whether north or south of 36° 30', should beadmitted into the Union "either with or without slavery as theirconstitution might prescribe at the time of their admission. "

During this memorable contest Mr. Toombs was in active consultation withNorthern statesmen, trying to effect the compromise. He insisted thatthere should be no congressional exclusion of slavery from the publicdomain, but that in organizing territorial governments the people shouldbe allowed to authorize or restrict, as they pleased. Until theseprinciples were settled, however, he would fight the admission ofCalifornia. Into this conference Mr. Stephens and Howell Cobb wereadmitted, and at a meeting at the house of the latter an agreement wasreached between the three Georgians and the representatives fromKentucky, Ohio, and Illinois, that California should be admitted: thatthe Territories should be organized without restriction, and that theirjoint efforts should be used to bring this about as well as to defeatany attempt to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. Here was theessence of the compromise, built upon the great measures of Henry Clay, and finally ripening into the legislation of that session. Here was theagreement of that compact which formed the great "Constitutional UnionParty" in Georgia, and which erected a bulwark against disunion, notonly in Georgia, but on the whole Southern seaboard. The disunionmovement failed in 1850. "At the head of the States which had the meritof stopping it, " said Thomas H. Benton, "was Georgia, the greatest ofthe South Atlantic States. " And that Georgia stood steadfast in herplace, and declined every overture for secession, was because of theunited prestige and splendid abilities of Howell Cobb, Alexander H. Stephens, and Robert Toombs. 

 * * * * *

During this stormy session Mr. Toombs' heart continually yearned forhome. He was a model husband and a remarkable domestic character. Thefiery scenes of the forum did not ween him from his family. On the 29thof August, 1850, he wrote to his wife:

 We have before us the whole of the territorial questions, and shall probably pass or reject them in a few days or at most in a week. I am greatly in hopes that we will not pass over them without final action of some sort, and if we can get rid of them I shall have nothing to prevent my coming home at the time appointed. I begin to be more anxious to see you than to save the republic. Such is a sweet woman's fascination for men's hearts. The old Roman Antony threw away an empire rather than abandon his lovely Cleopatra, and the world has called him a fool for it. I begin to think that he was the wiser man, and that the world was well lost for love. 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE GEORGIA PLATFORM. 

When Mr. Toombs came home in the fall of 1850 he found the State inupheaval. Disunion sentiment was rife. He was confronted by garbledextracts of his speeches in Congress, and made to pose as the championof immediate secession. He had aided in perfecting the great compromiseand was resolved that Georgia should take her stand firmly andunequivocally for the Union and the Constitution. Governor Towns hadissued a call for a State convention; Mr. Toombs took prompt issue withthe spirit and purpose of the call. He declared that the legislature hadendangered the honor of the State and that the Governor had put thepeople in a defile. "We must either repudiate this policy, or arm, " hesaid. "I favor the former measure. "

Mr. Toombs issued a ringing address to the people. It bore date ofOctober 9, 1850. He proclaimed that "the first act of legislativehostility was the first act of Southern resistance. " He urged the Southto stand by the Constitution and the laws in good faith, until wrong wasconsummated or the act of exclusion placed upon the statute books. 

Mr. Toombs said that the South had not secured its full rights. "But thefugitive-slave law which I demanded was granted. The abolition ofslavery in the District of Columbia and proscription in the Territorieswere defeated, crushed, and abandoned. We have firmly established greatand important principles. The South has compromised no right, surrendered no principle, and lost not an inch of ground in this greatcontest. I did not hesitate to accept these acts, but gave them my readysupport. "

Addressing himself to the disunionists he said: "They have abandonedtheir errors, but not their object. Being bent upon the ruin of therepublic they use truth or error for its accomplishment, as best suitsthe exigencies of the hour. If these people are honest in theirconvictions, they may find abundant consolation in the fact that theprinciple is neither conceded, compromised, nor endangered by thesebills. It is strengthened, not weakened by them, and will survive theirpresent zeal and future apostasy. "

Mr. Toombs called on all men of integrity, intellect, and courage tocome into the service of the State and prove their devotion to theConstitution and the Union. "With no memory of past differences, " hesaid, "careless of the future, I am ready to unite with any portion orall my countrymen in defense of the integrity of the republic. "

Mr. Toombs took the stump, and his words rang out like an alarm bell. Men speak to-day of his activity and earnestness in that great campaign, as with "rapid and prompt perception, clear, close reasoning, cuttingeloquence, and unsparing hand he rasped the follies of disunion andsecession. " A prominent journal of that day, speaking of his speech inBurke County, Ga. , declared that "his manly eloquence has shaken andshivered to the base the pedestal upon which the monument of Americanruin was to be erected. "

In November of that year a convention of delegates from Southern Stateswas held at Nashville. Ex-Governor Charles J. McDonald representedGeorgia. That meeting protested against the admission of California withslavery restriction; charged that the policy of Congress had been toexclude the Southern States from the Territories, and plainly assertedthat the powers of the sovereign States could be resumed by the Statesseparately. On November 3 the election of delegates to the Georgiaconvention was held. Toombs had already turned the tide. A greatmajority of Union men were chosen. Whigs and Democrats united to savethe State. Toombs stood convicted before many of his old followers of"unsoundness on the slavery question"--but he was performing hisgreatest public work. 

Among the delegates elected by the people to the Georgia convention, which met at Milledgeville, December 10, 1850, were Toombs and Stephensand many of the best men in the State. 

The work of the distinguished body was memorable. They adopted thecelebrated "Georgia Platform, " whose utterances were talismanic. CharlesJ. Jenkins reported the resolutions. They recited, first, that Georgiaheld the American Union secondary in importance to the rights andprinciples it was bound to perpetuate. That as the thirteen originalcolonies found union impossible without compromise, the thirty-one ofthis day will yield somewhat in the conflict of opinion and policy, topreserve the Union. That Georgia had maturely considered the action ofCongress (embracing the compromise measures) and--while she does notwholly approve it--will abide by it as a permanent adjustment of thissectional controversy. That the State would in future resist, even tothe disruption of the Union, any act prohibiting slavery in theTerritories, or a refusal to admit a slave State. The fifth plankdeclared for a faithful execution of the Fugitive-slave bill. 

Upon this platform the Union men selected Howell Cobb as their candidatefor Governor. The Southern Rights men selected Charles J. McDonald. This party claimed that the South was degraded by the compromisemeasures. Their platform was based upon the Virginia and Kentuckyresolution. It asserted the right of secession and maintained theconstitutionality and necessity of intervention by Congress in favor ofadmitting slavery into the Territories. The distinct doctrine of thecompromise measures was non-intervention. 

Howell Cobb was a born leader of men. Personally he was the most popularman in the State. Entering public life at an early age he had been acongressman at twenty-eight. He had been leader of the Southern party, and was chosen Speaker, as we have seen, in 1849, when only thirty-fouryears old. He had been known as a strong friend of the Union, and someof the extreme States' Rights men called him a "consolidationist. "

In his letter accepting the nomination for Governor, he alluded to thelong-cherished doctrine of non-intervention. The Wilmot Proviso had beenwithdrawn and the Union saved. The people had been awarded the right todetermine for themselves in the Territories whether or not slavery wasto be a part of their social system. 

No man was so tireless or conspicuous in this campaign as Mr. Toombs. Although expressing a desire that someone else should go to Congressfrom his district, he accepted a renomination to assert his principles. He did not, however, confine his work to his district. He traveled fromone end of the State to the other. He recognized that party organizationin Georgia had been over-thrown and party lines shattered in every Statein the Union. He boldly declared that a continuance of the Union was notincompatible with the rights of every State. He asserted that theanimating spirit of his opponents, the States' Rights party, washostility to the Union. Some of the members still submitted to thehumiliation of raising the cry of "the Union, " he said, but it was a"masked battery, " from which the very Union was to be assailed. Mr. Toombs announced on the stump that "the good sense, the firmness, thepatriotism of the people, would shield the Union from assault of our ownpeople. They will maintain it as long as it deserves to be maintained. "

Mr. Toombs admitted that the antislavery sentiment of the North hadbecome more violent from its defeat on the compromise measures. 

"What did this party demand, and what did it get?" he asked on thestump. "It was driven from every position it assumed. It demanded theexpress prohibition of slavery, the Wilmot Proviso, in the Territories. It lost it. It demanded the abolition of slavery in the District ofColumbia, and the slave trade between the States. It lost both. Itdemanded the affirmance of the oft-repeated declaration that thereshould be no more slave States admitted into the Union. Congressenacted that States hereafter coming into the Union should be admittedwith or without slavery, as such States might determine for themselves. It demanded a trial by jury for fugitives at the place of arrest. Itlost this also. Its acknowledged exponent is the Free-Soil party. TheWhig party has succumbed to it. It is thoroughly denationalized anddesectionalized, and will never make another national contest. We areindebted to the defeat of the policy of these men for the existence ofthe government to-day. The Democratic party of the North, thoughprostrated, is not yet destroyed. Our true policy is to compel bothparties to purge themselves of this dangerous element. If either will, to sustain it. If neither will, then we expect to preserve the Union. Wemust overthrow both parties and rally the sound men to a commonstandard. This is the only policy which can preserve both our rights andthe Union. "

On the 1st of August, 1851, Mr. Toombs spoke in Elberton. He was in thefull tide of his manhood, an orator without equal; a statesman withoutfear or reproach. Personally, he was a splendid picture, full of healthand vitality. He had been prosperous in his affairs. He was prominent inpublic life and overbore all opposition. His powers were in their prime. In his speech to his constituents he mentioned the fact that hisopponents had criticised the manner in which he traveled (alluding tohis fine horses and servants). He wanted the people to know that themoney was his, and that he made $5000 a year in Elbert alone. "Who wouldsay that he had not earned his money? He had a right to spend it as hechose. Perish such demagogy--such senseless stuff. " The people cheeredhim to the echo for his candor and audacity. 

"What presumption, " he said, "for the States' Rights men to nominateMcDonald for Governor--a man who supported Jackson's Force bill--a manwho had grown gray in federalism? He was the man brought to teach thepeople of Elbert States' Rights. It would be a curious subject ofinquiry to find out when this neophyte had changed, and by what processthe change had been wrought. "

Toombs was alluded to by the correspondents as "Richard, theLion-hearted, " with strong arm and ponderous battle-ax, as he went aboutwinning victories. Stephens, no less effective and influential, seemedto be the great Saladin with well-tempered Damascus blade--so skillfulas to sever the finest down. The people were in continued uproar asToombs moved from place to place. 

In Jefferson County, Mr. Toombs denied that the South had yielded anydemand she ever made, or had sacrificed any principle she ever held. Hecried that "opposition to Toombs and Stephens seemed to be theprinciple of political faith on the other side. " Toombs declared thatStephens "carried more brains and more soul for the least flesh of anyman God Almighty ever made. "

Mr. Toombs repeated that if the slaveholders had lost the right to carryslavery into California, they had lost it upon sound principle. Theright of each State to prescribe its own institutions is a right aboveslavery. Slavery is only an incident to this right. This principle liesat the foundation of all good government. He had always held it andwould always hold it:

 Till wrapped in flames the realms of ether glow, And Heaven's last thunder shakes the world below. 

He deeply sympathized with those Southern Rights men who denounced theUnion they professed to love. 

Speaking of the sudden change of some of his opponents in politicalprinciples, Toombs declared they "would profess any opinion to gainvotes. It had been the belief of Crawford that if a man changed politicsafter thirty he was a rascal. "

In Marietta Mr. Toombs addressed an enthusiastic crowd. A journalistsaid of him: "He is my _beau idéal_ of a statesman. Frank, honest, bold, and eloquent, he never fails to make a deep impression. Many of thefire-eaters (for they _will_ go to hear him) looked as if they wouldmake their escape from his withering and scathing rebuke. " Toombsderided the States' Rights men for declaring that they were friends ofthe Union under which they declared they were "degraded and oppressed. "The greatest stumbling-block to Toombs' triumphant tour was to bepresented with bits of his own speeches delivered during the excitementof the last Congress. 

He had said in one of these impassioned outbursts: "He who counts thedanger of defending his own home is already degraded. The people whocount the cost of maintaining their political rights are ready forslavery. "

In Lexington he was accused of having said that if the people understoodthis slavery question as well as he did "they would not remain in theUnion five minutes. " This provoked a bitter controversy. Mr. Toombsdenied the remark, and declared he was willing to respond personally andpublicly to the author. 

As the campaign became more heated, Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb redoubledtheir efforts and drew their lines more closely. This combination wasinvincible. It was evident that they would carry the State, but some ofthe prominent men in Georgia were ruled out under what was thought to bethe bitter spirit of the canvass. One of these was Charles J. Jenkins, and the other, John McPherson Berrien. The former had drawn thecelebrated Georgia Platform, and was devoted to the Union. The latterwas United States Senator from Georgia, and, as his successor was to bechosen by the legislature soon to be elected, there was much curiosityto find out his real position in this canvass. Mr. Jenkins declared thathe considered Mr. Berrien "as good a Union man and as safe arepresentative of the party as any within its ranks. " Berrien acquiescedin but did not eulogize the compromise measures. He did not oppose orfavor the State convention of 1850. When he submitted to the Senate theGeorgia Platform, he declared that he did not surrender the privilegesof a free choice. He supported McDonald for Governor against Cobb, andit was soon evident that he was not in full sympathy with the winningparty. 

The Constitutional Union men won a signal victory. Howell Cobb waselected Governor by a large majority over Charles J. McDonald, who hadbeen twice Governor and who was one of the strongest men in Georgia. Robert Toombs was reëlected to Congress over Robert McMillen of Elbert, and Mr. Stephens defeated D. W. Lewis of Hancock. 

The legislature convened in November, 1851. It was largely made up ofUnion men. Judge Berrien was not a candidate for reëlection to theUnited States Senate. He wrote a letter in which he reviewed his courseduring the campaign. He said:

 "I asserted in terms which even cavilers could not misunderstand nor any honest man doubt, my devotion to the Union, my unfaltering determination to maintain by all constitutional means, and with undiminished zeal, the equal rights of the South, and my acquiescence in the compromise measures. Satisfied that such declarations, in the excited state of feeling, would not meet the exactions of either party in a contest peculiarly bitter, and unable to sacrifice for the purpose of victory the dictates of conscience or the convictions of judgment, I expressed a willingness to retire. "

On the 10th of November Robert Toombs was elected United States Senator. In the caucus he secured 73 votes, and in the open Assembly next day hereceived 120 votes, scattering, 50. 

Never was reward more swift or signal to the master-mind of a campaign. If he had been the leader of the extreme Southern wing in Congress, hehad shown his willingness to accept a compromise and go before thepeople in defense of the Union. 

He was charged with having aroused the Secession storm. If he hadunwittingly done so in Congress in order to carry his point, he provedhimself powerful in stopping it at home. What some of his critics hadsaid of him was true: "The rashest of talkers, he was the safest ofcounselors. " Certain it is that at a moment of national peril herepelled the charge of being an "irreconcilable, " and proved to be oneof the stanchest supporters of the Union. 

In Milledgeville, during the turmoil attending the election of UnitedStates Senator in November, 1851 Mr. Toombs wrote to his wife asfollows:

 Since I wrote you last I have been in the midst of an exciting political contest with constantly varying aspects. The friends of Judge Berrien are moving every possible spring to compass my defeat, but as yet I have constantly held the advantage over them. They started Mr. Jenkins and kept him up, under considerable excitement, until he came to town yesterday and instantly withdrew his name. To-day they have started a new batch of candidates: Judge Hill, Hines Holt, Warren, Charlton, and others, all of whom they seek to combine. I think I can beat the whole combination, though it is too close to be comfortable. It is impossible to give an idea of every varying scene, but as I have staked my political fortunes on success, if I am defeated in this conflict my political race is over, and perhaps I feel too little interest in the result for success. 

 Dawson is at home sick; Stephens is not here; so I am standing very much on my own hand, breasting the conflict alone. So I shall have the consolation of knowing that, if I succeed, the victory will be all my own. The contest will be decided by Monday next, and perhaps sooner. . . . As soon as it is over I shall leave here and shall be at home at furthest to-day week. If I were not complicated in this business, nothing would induce me to go into it. There are so many unpleasant things connected with it, which will at least serve as lessons for the future, whatever may be the result. You can see from this letter how deeply I am immersed in this contest, yet I am getting so impatient to come home that even defeat would be better than this eternal annoyance. 

 TOOMBS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1852. 

In this first struggle between Secession and the Union Georgia had takenthe lead, but Georgia had not been the only State involved. The fightwas waged just as fiercely in Mississippi, when Henry S. Foote, theUnion candidate, was elected Governor over Jefferson Davis. But theGeorgia Platform was the corner-stone of the Southern victory. Heraction gave peace and quiet to the whole Union, and the success of thetriumvirate that year offered assurance of strength and security to thecountry. The national parties were quick to align themselves on thisplatform. The Democratic convention, which assembled in Baltimore June1, declared that "the party would abide by and adhere to a faithfulexecution of the Acts known as the Compromise Measures, settled by thelast Congress. " The Whig convention, which met also at Baltimore, June16, proclaimed that "the series of Acts of the thirty-first Congress, known as the Compromise Measures of 1850, the Act known as theFugitive-slave law included, are received and acquiesced in by the Whigparty of the United States as a settlement in principle and substanceof the dangerous and exciting questions which they embrace. "

"The truth is, " said Mr. Stephens in his "War Between the States, " "anoverwhelming majority of the people, North as well as South, was infavor of maintaining these principles. "

Under these conditions the presidential campaign of 1852 was opened. TheSouthern Whigs did not, as a body, accept the Baltimore nominee, GeneralWinfield Scott. They claimed that he had refused to express any directapproval of the platform relating to the compromise. Mr. Toombs demandedthat his candidate plant himself unequivocally upon this platform. Henoticed that the opponents of the Fugitive-slave law were strong forScott. Feeling in the South was still running high. Some extremists heldthat no Northern man was fit to be trusted. Mr. Toombs declared thatthere were good and true men at the North and that he would "hold partyassociations with no others. "

In a speech to his own townspeople in Washington, Ga. , during thispresidential campaign, Mr. Toombs declared that he had not changed oneiota, but was ready now to support the men who would plant themselves onthe broad principles of the Constitution and the country. He saidGeneral Scott had no claims whatever upon the people. He spoke of him asa great general, and alluded in glowing terms to his achievements inarms against the Mexicans and Indians. But General Scott, he believed, was a Free-Soil candidate. He would be in favor of annexing Canada, butno more slave territory. Mr. Toombs alluded to the Democratic candidatefor President, General Franklin Pierce, as a very consistent man in allhis senatorial career, and believed he was the safest man on the slaveryquestion north of Mason and Dixon's line. He preferred Pierce to Scott, but said he would not vote for either. The contest was "between a biggeneral and a little general. "

Mr. Toombs launched into a magnificent tribute to Daniel Webster as astatesman and friend of the Constitution. It was Webster who had stayedthe flood of abolition and killed the Wilmot Proviso; who had dared, inthe face of the North, and in defiance of his constituents, to boldlydefend the rights of the South and exclaim, "O God, I will be just!"

This allusion of Mr. Toombs rang throughout the State. Its significancelay in the fact that the Whigs of Georgia, in convention assembled, hadnominated Daniel Webster for President and Charles J. Jenkins forvice-president of the United States. Without chance of national success, this ticket was received with strong expression of indorsement. Sincehis celebrated "4th of March" speech, in the Senate, Mr. Webster hadbeen a favorite in the South. He had abandoned the Wilmot Proviso andaccepted the Fugitive-slave law to conciliate the sections, and theaddition of his great name to seal the Compromise of 1850 was regardedin the South as an act of patriotism reached by few men in the country'shistory. His speech had made a profound impression. "The friends of theUnion under the Constitution were strengthened in their hopes, andinspired with renewed energies by its high and lofty sentiments. "Commanding always the respect and admiration of the Southern people Mr. Webster now took the place in their affections just made vacant by thedeath of Henry Clay. Mr. Webster must have put aside all politicalambition when he made this peaceful concession. His new-found strengthin the South did not add to his popularity in the North. When the Whigconvention of 1852 met in Baltimore, Mr. Webster was Secretary of Stateunder President Fillmore. He had added fresh luster to his name by hislatest services to the nation. But the prestige of his life and laborsdid not override the passions of the hour, and Winfield Scott wasnominated for the Presidency. This broke the last tie which held theSouthern Whigs in national allegiance. Circumstances were forcing theminto the Democratic party, but they made a final stand under the nameof Daniel Webster. 

To Mr. Toombs, the regard of the Whigs of Georgia for Mr. Webster wasespecially gratifying. He had lived next door to the great Massachusettsstatesman during his residence in Washington, and had seen him often inthe privacy of his home. He had consulted closely with him during theexciting days of the compromise measures, and was advised by Mr. Websterabout the Whig platform at Baltimore. He recognized the surpassinggreatness of the man, and when he sounded the praises of Webster it camestraight from an honest heart. 

Charles J. Jenkins, a native of Beaufort, S. C. , had studied law withSenator Berrien and practiced in Augusta. His nomination to second placeon the Webster ticket was a pledge of the high favor of the Whigs. Mr. Jenkins was five years the senior of Mr. Toombs; had served with him inthe State Legislature and, like Toombs, had been allied with the Troupparty in Georgia. Mr. Jenkins had been three times Speaker of the lowerbranch of the General Assembly, and in 1842 had received the entire Whigvote for United States Senator. Upon the resignation of McKennon ofPennsylvania, President Fillmore had, through Mr. Toombs, offered theInterior Department to Mr. Jenkins. This position, however, wasdeclined because of pressing duties in the courts. 

In the senatorial election of 1851 Mr. Jenkins would have been aformidable candidate for United States Senator again, had not his strongfriendship both for Senator Berrien and Mr. Toombs dictated hisdeclining the use of his name. He was a man of high ability and purecharacter. 

Georgia became a national battle-ground during this campaign. Besidesthe regular Whig and Democratic and the Webster tickets, there was anextreme faction of States' Rights men, who would not accept any of thesecandidates. They called on George M. Troup, then living in retirement inMontgomery County. He wrote a ringing letter accepting the nomination ofthe "Southern Rights" party for President. He was seventy-two years old, but his cherished principles, which he had proclaimed in the face ofAdams and Jackson, were now repeated for the people of anothergeneration. 

The gallant body of Union Whigs were destined to deep affliction. On the24th of October, 1852, ten days before the national election, DanielWebster died. The land was filled with lamentation, for there was noNorth, no South, in this sorrow. 

The State of Georgia, which in 1848 had voted for Taylor, now turnedabout and voted for Pierce and King. On November 2d the South CarolinaLegislature also cast 135 votes for the Pierce electors. General Scottcarried but four States in the Union, caused, as Mr. Stephens and Mr. Toombs thought, by his refusal to indorse the Compromise of 1850. 

On July 3, 1852, Mr. Toombs, then a member of the House, submitted anelaborate statement of his political position. He made the point thatpresidents, as then put forward, were not real representatives of thecountry or even of a party. From the beginning of the government up to1836 the presidency had been filled by ripe statesmen and triedpatriots. _All_ were excluded from competition except those who hadgreat experience in public affairs, and who had commended themselves tothe people by wisdom, virtue, and high services. Such men had no need ofhired biographers and venal letter-writers to inform the people who theywere. They needed no interpreters of letters to the public, cunninglydevised to mystify what they pretended to elucidate. Nationalconventions, Mr. Toombs contended, were contrivances to secure popularsupport to those who were not entitled to public confidence. 

Mr. Toombs was an enemy to mere convention. All party machinery, allirregular organizations, which are unknown to the Constitution, heregarded as dangerous to public liberty. He had noticed that thismachinery had been deadly to the great men of the nation and productiveonly of mediocrity. Obedience to them, he contended, was infidelity topopular rights. "This system, " said he, "has produced none of thoseillustrious men who have become so distinguished in their country'shistory; none of those political lights which have shone so brilliantlyon this Western continent for half a century. Nearly all of them havedeparted from us. Who is to take the place of the distinguishedCarolinian?" he asked. "He was the handiwork of God himself and of thepeople--not party machinery. Who is to fill the place of the greatKentuckian? When worthily filled, it will not be by these nurseries offaction. 

"The friends of the Compromise, " said Mr. Toombs, "demand no sectionalcandidate. They were willing to accept the great New England statesman, notwithstanding they may point to disagreements with him in the past. Hehas thrown the weight of his mighty intellect into the scales ofconcord, in the darkest and most perilous hour of the conflict. AndSouthern Whigs would have struggled with pride and energy to have seenthe greatest intellect of the age preside over the greatest republic ofthe world. He was defeated in convention by the enemies of thecompromise measure, because he was its friend. And this was the truereason of his exclusion. It is a sufficient reason for the friends ofthe measure, North and South, to oppose and defeat General Scott'snomination. My action shall respond to my convictions. "

Mr. Toombs had seen Calhoun, Clay, and Webster, one by one, retiredbefore Van Buren, Harrison, and Scott. Was it any wonder that, inbreaking away from the old Whig party, he should denounce the systemwhich had blighted its brightest men and which, in his opinion, hadretired the greatest statesman in the world before an issue of sectionalprejudice? Mr. Toombs never again gave allegiance to conventions orobeyed the dictates of party caucuses. From 1854 to 1860 he was aDemocrat. After the war he acted mainly with the party which sympathizedwith the South. But his great power made him independent. He did nothesitate to criticise Pierce or Buchanan, or to upbraid Jefferson Davis, the head of the Southern Confederacy. He repudiated the nomination ofHorace Greeley by his party. He called a meeting in his own room in anAtlanta hotel in 1872, and put A. H. Stephens before the people forCongress. In 1878, when the organized Democracy of Georgia antagonizedDr. William H. Felton for Congress in the seventh Georgia district, MrToombs wrote a letter to the press, in which he declared that partyconventions were merely advisory. "When their action becomesauthoritative, they are usurpers. They deprive the people of freeelections. Let their actions be approved or disapproved by the electionsof the people. " He supported Mr. Stephens, who did not hesitate to "totehis own skillet, " when occasion required. Toombs' independence waslordly. He believed in the utmost freedom in public affairs. Machinerywas as hateful to him as to Thomas Jefferson. He was "the prince ofinnovation; the foe to all convention. " No less than of Burke, it wassaid of him that "born for the universe, he did not surrender to party, "but General Longstreet declared of Robert Toombs that he needed onlydiscipline to make him a great military genius. This was the radicalflaw in his make-up. How near he came to the ideal of a statesmanposterity must judge. 

CHAPTER IX. 

TOOMBS IN THE SENATE. 

When Robert Toombs entered the Senate of the United States, in 1853, the_personnel_ of that body had changed since the great debates on thecompromise measures. Calhoun had died before the compromise waseffected, and only a short time after his last address had been read tothe Senate by Mr. Mason of Virginia. Clay survived his last greatestwork but two years, and on the 29th of June, 1852, was no more. DanielWebster lived only four months longer than Mr. Clay. Among the newleaders in that body were Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, William M. Seward of New York, Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, and Charles Sumner ofMassachusetts. To this list may be added the familiar names of Thompsonof Mississippi, Bayard of Delaware, Toucey of Connecticut, Slidell ofLouisiana, Achison of Missouri, Bell of Tennessee, and Cass of Michigan. 

The third great sectional fight on the Territories came up on the reportto organize a government for that tract of public domain lying in theLouisiana cession, known as Kansas and Nebraska. In doing this, Mr. Douglas, as chairman of the Committee on Territories, adopted the sameprinciple on the slavery question as had been settled in the Utah andNew Mexico bills of 1850. 

The words of the Nebraska bill were that "said Territory, or any portionof the same, shall be received into the Union with or without slavery astheir constitutions may prescribe at the time of their admission. " Mr. Douglas claimed that the question of congressional interference was an"exploded doctrine"; that the Missouri Compromise bill had been ignoredby North and South; that the Wilmot Proviso had been rejectedaltogether; and that the principles of 1850 had superseded theprinciples of 1820. The committee sought to avoid the perils of slaveryagitation for all time, they claimed, by withdrawing the question ofslavery from the halls of Congress and from national politics. "Let thenew States and Territories, " they said, "settle this matter forthemselves. " Mr. Sumner of Massachusetts took the lead in opposing theKansas-Nebraska bill. He declared that the bill violated the principlesof the Missouri Compromise, which prohibited slavery in all thatterritory ceded by France and lying north of 36° 30'. He and his friendsheld that this was a "sacred compact, " and this territory could not becontrolled by the same principles as the land secured from Mexico. 

The second bill drawn by Mr. Douglas, which provided for theestablishment of two territorial governments in Kansas and Nebraska, instead of one, expressly repealed the Missouri Compromise as beinginconsistent with the principles of non-intervention by Congress. Here, then, the contest waged anew. 

One of the first speeches made by Senator Toombs was on the 23d ofFebruary, 1854, on the Kansas-Nebraska bill. 

Douglas was in charge of the Territorial bills, and his readiness indebate, his sinewy intellect, his tact and shrewdness, had gained forhim the name of "Little Giant. " Seward, Chase, and Sumner had beenelected from their States as "independent Democrats" by theAbolitionists, who held the balance of power in New York, Ohio, andMassachusetts. Mr. Toombs was more than willing to measure swords withthe champions of free soil. He declared that he would address himself tothe consideration of the Kansas-Nebraska bill "with a heart filled withgratitude to the Disposer of human events, that after the conflicts ofmore than a third of a century this great question has found itssolution, not in temporary expedients for allaying sectional discord, but in the true principles of the Constitution and upon the broadfoundation of justice and right, which forms the only true basis offraternity and of national concord. "

Mr. Toombs repudiated the libel cast by Mr. Sumner upon Northern men who"dared to exercise the rights of freemen" and differ from theAbolitionists upon this question. "It appears, " said he, "from thespeeches of the senator from Massachusetts, that all such are whiteslaves, whose manhood has been debased and enervated by the irresistibleattractions of slave power. " He declared that the men who talked about"solemn compact" in this connection were men whom "no oaths can bind andno covenants restrain. " They called the Missouri Compromise a compact, yet showed their willingness to violate it. 

"In all governments, " said Mr. Toombs, "the acquisitions of the statebelong rightfully to the people. Much more strongly does this principleapply to a purely popular government. Therefore, any exercise of powerto injure or destroy those who have equal rights of enjoyment isarbitrary, unauthorized by the contract, and despotic. "

"You have no power to strike from the meanest Indian trapper, the basesttrader or camp-follower, as the senator from New York styled thesepeople, their equal privileges, this sovereignty of right, which is thebirthright of every American citizen. This sovereignty may--nay, itmust--remain in abeyance until society becomes sufficiently strong andstable to be entitled to its full exercise, as sovereignty does notbelong to the general government, and its exercise is a markedusurpation. "

"The power and duty, then, of this government over the inchoate societyof the Territories, is simply to protect this equality of right ofpersons and property of all the members of society until the periodshall arrive when this dormant sovereignty shall spring into activeexistence and exercise all the powers of a free, sovereign, andindependent State. Then it can mold, according to its own sovereign willand pleasure, its own institutions, with the single restriction thatthey must be republican. "

"Justice, " said Mr. Toombs, "is the highest expediency, the supremestwisdom. Applying that test to the principles of this measure, I say thatno fair man in any portion of the country can come to any otherconclusion than that it establishes between the people of this Union, who are bound together under a common Constitution, a firm, a permanent, a lasting bond of harmony. 

"What is it that we of the South ask? Do we make any unjust or unequaldemands on the North? None. Do we ask what we are not willing on ourside to grant to them? Not at all. We say to them 'Gentlemen, here isour common territory. Whether it be ceded by old States, whether it beacquired by the common treasure, or was the fruits of successful war towhich we rallied, and in which we all fought, we ask you to recognizethis great principle of the revolution: let such as desire, go there, enjoy their property, take with them their flocks and herds, theirmen-servants and maid-servants, if they desire to take them there; andwhen the appropriate time comes for the exercise of the dormantsovereignty of the people, let them fix the character of theirinstitutions for themselves. '"

Senator Toombs ridiculed the idea of the "thunder of popularindignation. " "If even this were true, it should in no wise control theactions of American senators. But it is not real but melodramaticthunder--nothing but phosphorus and sheet-iron. "

Senator Toombs admitted that the North had the power to reject theprinciples of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. They had a majority in the Houseand Senate. Aristides had said, "True, you can do it; you have got thepower; but, Athenians, it is unjust. "

[Illustration: ROBERT TOOMBS, UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM GEORGIA, 1855. ]

Senator Toombs was a bold man. When he adopted a line of argument, hewas willing to follow wherever its conclusions led. He did nothesitate, in this speech, to admit that "if you yield to the people theright to mold their institutions, the establishment of polygamy mayresult legitimately therefrom. " This point had been made in debate tofight the principle of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Said Senator Toombs:"It is just what they have a right to do. When the people of Utah maketheir organic law for admission to the Union, they have a right toapproximate, as nearly as they please, the domestic manners of thePatriarchs. Connecticut may establish polygamy to-morrow. The people ofMassachusetts may do the same. How did they become possessed of greaterrights, in this or any other respect, than the people of Utah? The rightin both cases has the same foundation--the sovereignty of the people. "

Senator Toombs adverted to the fact that Henry Clay had denied that heframed the Missouri Compromise; that it did not originate in the House, of which he was a member; that he did not even know if he voted for it. Senator Toombs held the Act of 1820 to be no compact--binding upon noman of honor; but, on the contrary, a plain and palpable violation ofthe Constitution and the common rights of the citizens, and ought to beimmediately abrogated and repealed. He declared that it had beenrejected by the North when passed, and rejected when Arkansas wasadmitted, when Oregon was formed, when California was received as aState. If the Kansas bill was settled upon sound and honest principles, he maintained that it should be applied to territory ceded from Francejust as elsewhere. He contended that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 wasnot a compromise in any sense of the term, but an unconstitutionalusurpation of power. "When we look into the Constitution, we find noantislavery power planted in that instrument. On the contrary, we findthat it amply provides for the perpetuity and not for the extinction ofslavery. "

Senator Toombs closed his first speech in the Senate with these words:"The senator from New York asks where and when the application of theseprinciples will stop. He wishes not to be deceived in the future, andasks us whether, when we bring the Chinese and other distant nationsunder our flag, we are to apply these principles to them? For one, Ianswer yes; that wherever the flag of the Union shall float, thisrepublican principle will follow it, even if it should gather under itsample folds the freemen of every portion of the universe. "

The Kansas-Nebraska bill reopened the whole question of slavery. In theNorth, it was a firebrand. Mr. Buchanan, in his book, written after hisretirement from the presidency, said that the South was for the firsttime the aggressor in this legislation. Mr. Fillmore declared that therepeal of the Missouri Compromise was "the Pandora Box of Evil. " Mr. Douglas was reviled by his opponents and burned in effigy at the North. His leadership in this fight was ascribed to his overweening ambition toreach the presidency. The clergymen of New England and of Chicagoflooded the Senate with petitions crying against this "intrigue. " On May26, 1854, at one o'clock in the morning, the bill passed the Senate by avote of 31 to 13. The "nays" were Messrs. Allen, Bell, Chase, Clayton, Fish, Foote, Gillet, Hamlin, James, Seward, Sumner, Wade, and Walker. 

The enactment of this measure into a law did not settle the question. Itresulted in a strife in the Territories themselves. For two years Kansaswas in a state of civil war. The Emigrant Aid Societies of New Englandraised large sums of money to send to the Territories Free-Soil settlersand other agitators. A counter-stream of agitators set in from Missouri, in sympathy with the slavery men, and the result was a long series ofbloody disorders. In February, 1856, Mr. Toombs made a speech upon themessage of the President in regard to the lawless condition of Kansas. The Governor informed President Pierce that the laws were obstructedand openly resisted by bodies of armed men; that prisoners were rescuedfrom the sheriffs, peaceable inhabitants murdered, and houses burned. Another authority informed the President that an overwhelming force wascrossing the border for the avowed purpose of invading Kansas andbutchering the unoffending Free-State citizens. One side claimedprotection from insurrection within, the other from invasion without. 

As to the Emigrant Aid Societies, Mr. Toombs said, "Whatever be theirpolicy, whatever their tendency to produce strife, if they simply aidemigrants from Massachusetts to go to Kansas to become citizens of thatTerritory, I am prepared to say that they violate no law; they have aright to do it, and every attempt to prevent their doing so violates thelaw and ought not to be sustained. But if they send persons therefurnished with arms, with the intent to offer forcible resistance to theconstituted authorities, they are guilty of the highest crime known tocivil society, and are amenable to its penalties. I shall not undertaketo decide upon their conduct. The facts are not before me, and Itherefore pass it by. "

Mr. Toombs thought it would be difficult to imagine a case calling moreloudly for the intervention of Federal power. Mr. Toombs favored thesupremacy of the law in the Territories at any cost. "If traitors seekto disturb the peace of the country, I desire that it shall be nosectional contest. I do not see the end of that. I prefer that theconflict shall be between the Federal Government and the lawless. I cansee the end of that. The law will triumph and the evil stop. "

"We who pass this Kansas-Nebraska bill, both at the North and South, intend to maintain its principles. We do not intend to be driven fromthem by clamor nor by assault. We intend that the actual _bona fide_settlers of Kansas shall be protected in the full exercise of all therights of freemen; that, unawed and uncontrolled, they shall freely andof their own will legislate for themselves, to every extent allowed bythe Constitution, while they have a territorial government; and whenthey shall be in a condition to come into the Union and may desire it, that they shall come into the Union with whatever republicanconstitution they may prefer and adopt for themselves; that in theexercise of their rights they shall be protected from insurrection fromwithin and invasion from without. "

In answer to Senator Hale of New Hampshire, Senator Toombs agreed thatthe Territory of Kansas would certainly be a free State. Such, hethought would be its future destiny. "The senator from New Hampshire, "he said, "was unable to comprehend the principles of the bill. Thefriends of the Kansas bill, North and South, supported the bill becauseit was right, and left the future to those who were affected by it. Thepolicy of the Kansas bill wrongs no man, no section of our commoncountry. We have never asked the government to carry by force, or in anyway, slavery anywhere. We only demand that the inhabitants of theTerritories shall decide the question for themselves without theinterference of the government or the intermeddling of those who have noright to decide. "

Mr. Toombs and Senator Hale of New Hampshire seem to have been pittedsquarely against each other in this great debate. 

In 1854, during the progress of the Kansas debate, Mr. Toombs occupiedMr. Hale's desk, and alluded to the taunts which Mr. Hale had heapedupon the heads of senators who had sustained the compromise measures of1850. He had predicted that they would be driven from their seats; thatthe mighty North would drive them from their benches. The distinguishedsenator from Michigan, Mr. Cass, was the especial object of theseassaults. "But the result, " said Mr. Toombs, looking about him, "is thatthe gentleman who made these declarations is not here. "

In 1856, however, Mr. Hale was returned to the Senate and met Mr. Toombs in the Kansas debate, and the discussion was continued with thesame acrimony. 

"Let there be no legislative aggression on either side, " continued Mr. Toombs. "If the senator from New Hampshire is sincere, he will standthere. The common property is open to the common enjoyment of all. Letit remain so. "

Mr. Toombs charged Senator Hale with saying that the North had alwaysbeen practically in a minority in the Senate, because the South boughtup as many Northern men as it wanted. "Sir, I stand here to-day inbehalf of the North to repel the accusation. "

Mr. Hale: "Who made it?"

Mr. Toombs: "You said it. I have it before me in your printed speech. Iheard it delivered, and you are correctly reported. "

In a letter to Mr. B. F. Hallet of Boston, in 1856, Mr. Toombs deniedsaying that he would "call the roll of his slaves at the base of BunkerHill Monument. " He charged Senator Hale with misrepresenting him to thisextent. 

No man was oftener misquoted by word of mouth or in public print. Asbold as he was in speech and as free to speak out what was in his mind, he once remarked to an intimate friend, Dr. Steiner of Augusta, that herarely ever saw his name in print that it was not attached to a lie. 

We are not left to tradition or the dictum of political opponents toknow how seriously Mr. Toombs regarded the question of war between theNorth and South. In this same debate with Senator Hale, Mr. Toombs said:"He told us the North would fight. I believe that nobody ever doubtedthat any portion of the United States would fight on a proper occasion. Sir, if there shall ever be civil war in this country, when honest menshall set about cutting each other's throats, those who are least to bedepended upon in a fight will be the people who set them at it. Thereare courageous and honest men enough in both sections to fight. . . . No, sir, there is no question of courage involved. The people of bothsections of the Union have illustrated their courage on too manybattlefields to be questioned. They have shown their fighting qualities, shoulder to shoulder, whenever their country has called upon them; butthat they may never come in contact with each other in fratricidal war, should be the ardent wish and earnest desire of every true man andhonest patriot. "

CHAPTER X. 

THE "KNOW-NOTHING" PARTY. 

In the fall of 1854 the elections were generally adverse to theDemocrats. The slavery agitation at the North, intensified by thepassage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, resulted in a large number ofFree-Soil candidates and "anti-Nebraska" Whigs being elected to theHouse. In the West and South, the "Know-nothing" movement had arisen asin a single night, and with secrecy and strength had asserted itself onelection day. The consequence was that the Democratic majority in theHouse which had been elected with Franklin Pierce now disappeared. Theyears of 1854-55 were full of uncertainty in Georgia. The old-lineWhigs, who had broken away from their party associates upon thenomination of General Scott for President, had not yet gone into fullaffiliation with the Democrats. Many of these men joined the "Americanparty, " which had arisen out of antagonism to the large foreignpopulation flowing into the States and Territories. This party put outcandidates for Congress and the State offices in Georgia. 

To Alexander H. Stephens, more than to any other man, was due the honorof breaking up the Know-nothing movement in Georgia. Amazed at therapidity with which this party organized and the completeness with whichit worked; repudiating the principles which it held and theproscriptions which it enforced, Alexander Stephens announced, early inthe day, that he would not be a candidate for reëlection to Congress. Hedeclared, in a letter, that, from the secrecy of the order, he wasunable to know what they were doing, and, as political principles shouldcome out in the open sunlight for inspection, he could not submit hiscandidacy to any such concern. He did not hesitate to condemn thepractices and creed of the American party in public. Prominent leadersin his district who recognized his ability made it known that they werewilling to support him, if he would not be so severe in hisdenunciations. Mr. Stephens promptly replied that the crisis requiredthe knife, not the poultice. However, he did run for Congress and scoredthe secret order on every stump in the district. He declared, in aspeech in Augusta, that he "was not afraid of anything on the earth, above the earth, or below the earth, except to do wrong. " Mr. Stephenswas elected. Religious fanaticism and race prejudice received a deathblow in Georgia. "It writhed in pain, and died among its worshipers. "

Mr. Toombs had already made himself felt in this campaign. He was in theshadow of a domestic affliction. His youngest daughter died in Februaryof that year. This occurrence brought him to decide upon a trip abroad, which he had long anticipated, but which his busy and eventful life hadnot allowed him to enjoy. 

In April, 1855, he wrote his wife:

 I feel more and more anxious to get abroad and out of this country; to be relieved of the thousand harassments of business, and look for a great deal of pleasure in our quiet and uninterrupted strolling over the hills and plains of Europe, where nobody knows us and nobody can harass me with business or their troubles. I wish I could, like our darling child, thank God there was rest in Heaven. 

Just before he left the State, he attended the Supreme Court of Georgia, at Milledgeville. At that time he wrote his wife:

 I have had a hard, close week's work. The lawyers very kindly gave way and allowed my cases to come this week, which brought them very close together, and, as I am but ill prepared for them, not having given them any attention last winter, and but little this spring, I have been pretty much speaking all day and studying all night--and that without the benefit of "specks, " which I am beginning to need. 

 All the old Whigs here have joined the Know-nothings, and keep very shy of me, as I have spoken not softly of the miserable wretches who expect to govern a great country like this with imbecility, if they can only cover it with secrecy. I have been greatly beset not to go to Europe this summer, as the political campaign is likely to be hot. I shall go, and the rather that I may avoid such an event, and take that leisure and repose with my family in foreign countries which I seem to be totally incapable of getting at home. 

Mr. Toombs left no doubt as to how he regarded the American party. In aspeech on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, he had declared that the countrycould assimilate the foreigners from Europe and the Chinamen from Asia, and gather under the ample folds of the American flag every nation onearth. 

It is related that in the early part of Mr. Toombs' political career hewas accused of having subscribed to build a Catholic church in Georgia. The charge was repeated secretly from ear to ear until it came to hisfriends. It was on the eve of an election in Wilkes County, and adelegation, in spite of the lateness of the hour, went to Mr. Toombs'residence, awoke him, and asked for an authoritative denial of what theyconsidered a damaging charge. Mr. Toombs listened to the delegation, andthen declared with emphasis, not free from profanity, that it was so. "Ihave responded to their calls just as I have those of otherdenominations. You can tell the people that the distribution of mymoney is none of their business. "

This bold and prompt reply did not prevent his reëlection to thelegislature the next day. 

No man was more liberal in matters of religion and conscience than Mr. Toombs. In 1851 he wrote his wife in reply to a letter informing himthat his daughter wanted to join the Methodist Church:

 I am content if she desires, and you wish it. My opinions about revivals, to which you refer, have been long formed and much strengthened by my experience in the world, but I am not at all desirous that they should be the rule of anybody's conduct but my own. I have therefore endeavored to stand upon the Protestant principle in matters of conscience, of judging for myself and allowing others to do the same. The Judge of the Earth will do right at the final hearing. 

On June 6, 1855, Mr. Toombs set sail from New York, in company with hiswife and daughter, and Mr. W. F. Alexander, his son-at-law. In ten days, after a smooth trip, he landed in Liverpool, with just enough roughnessoff the coast of Ireland to show old Neptune in his element. Mr. Toombswas in the very prime of a vigorous life. He had accumulated acompetency at the law, was in fine physical condition, and had a mindbroad, sensitive, and retentive. He could stand any amount oftravel--this man who rode his circuits on his horse, and who endured thewearing trips from Georgia to the national capital. He remarked at theoutset of his European trip that he had more money than time, so hesecured special conveyances at every available place, and pushed hisjourney to all points of interest. From London he went to Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, thence to the Mediterranean, where he passed the Fourth ofJuly plowing his way to Naples, sleeping on deck to escape the stuffystateroom of the little steamer, and catching all the cinders from thesmokestack. Embarking at Naples, he went to Rome, where he was entrancedto see the historic spots of the Eternal City. Rome had for him morecharms than Paris. Crossing the Alps, he went to Geneva, and strikingthe Rhine, he proceeded by boat to Amsterdam, thence to Brussels, wherehe walked over the field of Waterloo. Leaving his family in Paris, hecrossed to England and made a tour alone through Ireland and Scotland. 

As an American senator, Robert Toombs bore letters of introduction toprominent people in Europe. His reputation was international, hisacquaintance with the diplomatists of the Old World was extensive, andhis knowledge of the history and government of the different countrieswas complete. But he did not seek notoriety in his trip abroad. Hepresented none of his letters. He preferred to travel among the people, and at night, like Jean Valjean, he loved to see the _bourgeois_ intheir gardens and at their ease, in order to study their habits andcondition. He took great interest in the laborers. On one occasion hegot down from his _diligence_ to ask a man, who was drawing water from awell to irrigate the land, how much he was paid for this slow andcumbersome process. He was astonished to hear that it was but twelvecents a day. 

Mr. Toombs spoke the French language; he studied the people, and no manwas a better judge of human nature. He said when he returned that theSouthern slave was better treated and was a better laborer than most ofthe peasants whom he had seen. 

His conversation during his European trip was bright and racy. He neverfagged in body or mind. He never became a trifler or a tease. He was nota man who cared for his personal comforts or appetites. Occasionally hewould abuse the hotels as being far behind the American hostelry. Nowand then he would jest with his guide or indulge in bright raillery overthe Italian peddler with the inevitable cigarette. He made it a rule tosmoke a cigar in every country, to test the tobacco, and also to samplethe wine of every nation. He drank but little at that time, nevertouching ardent spirits in any way. Good-humor, good health, andhappiness followed him as he made the circuit of the Continent. 

Just three months were passed by him in the Old World. He arrived in NewYork in September, 1855, where telegrams awaited him, summoning him to adesperate campaign in Georgia. 

The contest in Georgia that year was sharp. The American party electedseveral members of Congress, but their candidate for Governor, JudgeAndrews, was defeated by Herschel V. Johnson. The latter was one of thestrongest Democrats in Georgia. He had, in 1853, been elected Governorover so able a man as Charles J. Jenkins. 

Mr. Toombs plunged at once into the canvass and proceeded, in his ownvigorous way, to fight the Know-nothings. 

CHAPTER XI. 

TOOMBS IN BOSTON. 

In 1856, Mr. Toombs visited Boston, and delivered a lecture uponslavery. It was a bold move, and many of his friends advised against it. They did not see what good would come from the appearance of an extremeSouthern man in the heart of abolitionism, carrying his doctrines to thevery citadel of antislavery. But Toombs, with dramatic determination, decided to accept. Several Southern statesmen had been invited to appearbefore Boston audiences, but prudence had kept them from complying. 

On the evening of the 24th of January, Mr. Toombs ascended the stage atTremont Temple. A large audience greeted him. There was great curiosityto see the Southern leader. They admired the splendid audacity of thisman in coming to the place where Garrison had inveighed against slaveryand had denounced the Constitution as a "league with Hell and a covenantwith the Devil"; where Wendell Phillips had exerted his matchlessoratory, and where Charles Sumner had built up his reputation as anunflagging enemy of Southern propagandism. Mr. Toombs was in good trimfor this supreme effort. Inspired by the significance of his mission, heseemed possessed of unusual strength. His fine eye lighted with histheme, and his brow seemed stamped with confidence rather than defiance. His long, black hair was brushed from his forehead, and his deep voicefilled the historic hall. He was indeed a fine specimen of a man--a Saulamong his fellows. Possibly he was moved by the thought that he stoodwhere Webster had pleaded for the Union, for concession, and for harmonysix years before, when the people for the first time had turned from himand when Fanueil Hall had been closed against him. 

Senator Toombs was attended upon the stage by William and NathanAppleton, whose guest he was. Their presence was a guarantee that thespeaker should receive a respectful hearing. It was noticed at theoutset that he had abandoned his fervid style of speaking. He deliveredhis address from notes in a calm and deliberate manner. He neverprepared a speech with so much care. His discourse was so logical andprofound, his bearing so dignified and impressive, that his hearers werereminded of Webster. 

It was evident early in the evening that his lecture would produce apowerful effect. To many of his hearers his views were novel and fresh, as they had never heard the Southern side of this great question. "Withthe exception of Sam Houston, " said a New York paper, "Mr. Toombs is theonly Southern man who has had the pluck to go into the antislavery campand talk aloud of the Constitution. Other Southern men, not afraid toface Boston, have been afraid to face opinion at home. "

In referring to the clause of the Constitution providing for the returnof fugitive slaves, Mr. Toombs was greeted by a hiss. The speaker turnedin the direction of the noise and said, "I did not put that clausethere. I am only giving the history of the action of your own JohnAdams; of your fathers and mine. You may hiss them if you choose. " Theeffect was electrical. The hiss was drowned in a storm of applause. Thereadiness and good-nature of the retort swept Boston off her feet, andfor one moment prejudice was forgotten. 

The New York _Express_ declared that the speaker was earnest anddeliberate, presenting his argument with great power, and his lecture ofan hour and a half was, for the most part, listened to with respect andattention. There was some conduct in the audience at the close which theBoston _Journal_ was forced to denounce as "ungentlemanly. " Threecheers, not unmixed with dissent, were given to the distinguishedspeaker. Someone called out, "When will Charles Sumner be allowed tospeak in the South?"

The New York _Express_ declared that "if Toombs and other hotheads wouldlecture in Syracuse, Oswego, Ashtabula, and other points of 'Africa, 'they would do a good deal of good in educating the innocents andbecoming themselves educated and freed from fire, froth, fury, andfolly. "

This lecture of Mr. Toombs at Boston will live as the most lucid defenseof slavery in law and in practice ever delivered. Slavery has fallen andmankind has made up its verdict; but this address will still be readwith interest. 

He did not hesitate to say that Congress had no right to limit, restrain, or impair slavery; but, on the contrary, was bound to protectit. At the time of the Declaration of Independence, slavery was a fact. The Declaration did not emancipate a single slave; neither did theArticles of Confederation. The Constitution recognized slavery. Everyclause relative to slavery was intended to strengthen and protect it. Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the Territories. The clausegiving Congress power to make regulations for the Territories did notconfer general jurisdiction. It was not proper nor just to prohibitslavery in the Territories. Penning the negro up in the old States wouldonly make him wretched and miserable, and would not strike a singlefetter from his limbs. Mr. Toombs simply asked that the common territorybe left open to the common enjoyment of all the people of the UnitedStates; that they should be protected in their persons and property bythe general government, until its authority be superseded by a Stateconstitution, when the character of their democratic institutions was tobe determined by the freemen thereof. "This, " he said, "is justice. Thisis constitutional equity. " Mr. Toombs contended that the compromisemeasures of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 were made toconform to this policy. "I trust--I believe, " he continued, "that whenthe transient passions of the day shall have subsided, and reason shallhave resumed her dominion, it will be approved, even applauded, by thecollective body of the people. "

Upon the second branch of his theme, Mr. Toombs contended that so longas the African and Caucasian races co-exist in the same society, thesubordination of the African is the normal and proper condition, the onewhich promotes the highest interests and greatest happiness of bothraces. The superiority of the white man over the black, he argued, wasnot transient or artificial. The Crown had introduced slavery among theAmerican colonists. The question was not whether it was just to tear theAfrican away from bondage in his own country and place him here. England had settled that for us. When the colonies became free theyfound seven hundred thousand slaves among them. Our fathers had toaccept the conditions and frame governments to cover it. Theyincorporated no Utopian theories in their system. They did not so muchconcern themselves about what rights man might possibly have in a stateof nature, as what rights he ought to have in a state of society. Thelecturer maintained that under this system, the African in theslaveholding States is found in a better position than he has everattained in any other age or country, whether in bondage or freedom. Thegreat body of this race had been slaves in foreign lands and slaves intheir native land. In the Eastern Hemisphere the African had always beenin a servile condition. In Hayti and Jamaica experiments had been triedof freeing them, under the auspices of France and England. Miseries hadresulted and ruin overwhelmed the islands. "Fanaticism may palliate, butcould not conceal the utter prostration of the race. " The best specimensof the race were to be found in the Southern States, in closest contactwith slavery. The North does not want the negro, does not encourage hisimmigration. The great fact of the inferiority of the race is admittedeverywhere in our country. 

"Our political system gives the slave great and valuable rights. Hislife is protected; his person secured from assault against all othersexcept his master, and his master's power in this respect is placedunder salutary legal restriction. " He gets a home, ample clothing andfood, and is exempted from excessive labor. When no longer capable oflabor, from age or disease, he is a legal charge upon his master. TheSouthern slave, he said, is a larger consumer of animal food than anypopulation in Europe, and larger than any laboring population in theUnited States, and their natural increase is equal to that of any otherpeople. Interest and humanity coöperate in harmony for the well-being ofslave labor. Labor is not deprived of its wages. Free labor is paid inmoney, the representative of products; slave labor in the productsthemselves. The agricultural and unskilled laborers of England fail toearn the comforts of the Southern slave. The compensation of labor inthe Old World has been reduced to a point scarcely adequate to thecontinuation of the race. 

"One-half the lands of the cotton States is annually planted in foodcrops. This half is consumed by the laborers and animals. The tenant inthe North does not realize so much. "

Mr. Toombs believed that the Southern men were awakening to theconviction that the slave should be taught to read and write, as beingof more use to himself, his master, and society. He realized that thelaws should protect marriage and other domestic ties, forbidding theseparation of families, and stated that some of the slaveholding Stateshad already adopted partial legislation for the removal of these evils. But the necessities of life and the roving spirit of the white peopleproduced an infinitely greater amount of separation in families thanever happened to the colored race. "The injustice and despotism ofEngland toward Ireland has produced more separation of Irish familiesand sundered more domestic ties within the last ten years than Africanslavery has effected since its introduction into the United States. "England keeps 100, 000 soldiers, a large navy, and innumerable police tosecure obedience to her social institutions, and physical force is theonly guarantee of her social order, the only cement of her giganticempire. The laws restrain the abuses and punish the crimes of the slavesystem. Slavery is impossible in England and Europe, because wages havegone down to a point where they are barely sufficient to support thelaborer and his family. Capital could not afford to own labor. Slaveryceased in England in obedience to this law, and not from any regard toliberty and humanity. 

Senator Toombs declared that the condition of the African might not bepermanent among us. He might find his exodus in the unvarying law ofpopulation. Increase of population may supply to slavery its euthanasiain the general prostration of all labor. The emancipation of the negroin the West Indies had not made him a more useful or productive memberof society. The slave States, with one-half the white population, andbetween 3, 000, 000 and 4, 000, 000 slaves, furnish three-fifths of theannual product of the republic. In this relation, the labor of thecountry is united with and protected by its capital, directed by theeducated and intelligent. 

Senator Toombs combated the idea that slavery debased and enervated thewhite man. To the Hebrew race were committed the orders of the MostHigh. Slaveholding priests ministered at their altars. Greece and Romeafforded the highest forms of civilization. Domestic slavery neitherenfeebles nor deteriorates a race. Burke had declared that the people ofthe Southern colonies of America were much more strongly, and with ahigher and more stubborn spirit, attached to liberty that those to theNorthward. Such were our Gothic ancestors; such were the Poles; suchwill be all masters of slaves who are not slaves themselves. In such apeople the haughtiness of domination combines itself with the spirit offreedom, fortifies it, and renders it invincible. 

Senator Toombs declared that, in the great agitation which for thirtyyears had shaken the national government to its foundation and burstthe bonds of Christian unity among the churches, the slaveholding Stateshave scarcely felt the shock. Stability, progress, order, peace, content, prosperity reign through our borders. Not a single soldier isto be found in our domain to overawe or protect society. Mr. Toombspictured the progress of the Southern churches, schools and collegesmultiplying. None of these improvements had been aided by the FederalGovernment. "We have neither sought from it protection for our privateinterests nor appropriations for our public improvements. They have beeneffected by the unaided individual efforts of an enlightened, moral, andenergetic people. Such is our social system and such our condition underit. We submit it to the judgment of mankind, with the firm convictionthat the adoption of no other, under such circumstances, would haveexhibited the individual man, bond or free, in a higher development orsociety in a happier civilization. "

Mr. Toombs carried his principles into practice. He owned and operatedseveral large plantations in Georgia, and managed others as agent orexecutor. He had the care of, possibly, a thousand slaves. His oldfamily servants idolized him. Freedom did not alter the tender bond ofaffection. They clung to him, and many of them remained with him andministered to his family to the day of his death. The old plantationnegroes never failed to receive his bounty or good will. During thesale of a plantation of an insolvent estate Mr. Toombs, who wasexecutor, wrote to his wife, "The slaves sold well. There were fewinstances of the separation of families. " He looked after the welfare ofall his dependents. While he was in the army, his faithful servants tookcare of his wife and little grandchildren, and during his long exilefrom his native land they looked after his interests and watched for hisreturn. 

CHAPTER XII. 

BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. 

The great contest of 1856 was coming on. A President was to be chosen. The relations of the sections were more strained every day. Theelections of 1854 had emboldened the antislavery men to form theRepublican party, and to put out, as their candidate, John C. Frémont, "pioneer and pathfinder, " who had saved California to the Union. Frémontwas not a statesman, but a hero of the kind who dazzled men, and wasthought to be especially available as a presidential candidate. "Freesoil, Free men, Frémont" was the cry, and it was evident that theAbolitionists had swept all the wavering Whigs into their lines andwould make a determined fight. The American party nominated MillardFillmore, and the Democracy, with a wealth of material and anon-sectional following, wheeled into line. President Pierce was willingto succeed himself. Stephen A. Douglas, who had rushed into theconvention of 1852 with such reckless dash to put aside "the old fogies"of the party, was an avowed candidate. His championship of theKansas-Nebraska bill had made him a favorite in the South, although itinjured his chances at the North. It is not a little remarkable thatDouglas, whose candidacy had the effect of setting aside Buchanan forPierce in 1852, should afterward have been the means of turning downPierce for Buchanan. 

James Buchanan of Pennsylvania had just returned from London, where hehad served with dignity as American Minister. Free from recentanimosities, he entered the field, fresh and full of prestige. He wasnominated for President on the fifth day of the Democratic Convention, Georgia casting her vote for him. The Cincinnati platform adopted thisplank:

"_Resolved_: That we recognize the right of the people of theTerritories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the legallyand fairly expressed will of a majority of the actual residents, andwhenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form aConstitution, either with or without domestic slavery, and to beadmitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with all theother States. "

Among the causes contributing to the current bitterness was the assaultmade upon Charles Sumner, senator from Massachusetts, by Preston S. Brooks, a representative from South Carolina. This happened in May, 1856, while Mr. Sumner was sitting at his desk, after the Senate hadadjourned. Mr. Brooks took exception to some remarks printed in Mr. Sumner's speech, entitled "The Crime against Kansas. " In this speech, the senator had referred, in rather caustic terms, to Senator Butler ofSouth Carolina. The latter was a kinsman of Mr. Brooks. The weapon usedby Mr. Brooks was a gutta-percha cane, and Senator Sumner, who was alarge, powerful man, in his effort to rise from his seat, forced hisdesk from its hinges and fell heavily to the floor. The assault createdan immense sensation. It was associated in the heated minds at the Northwith the "slavery aggressions of the South. " At the South, it wasgenerally excused as the resentment of an impetuous young man to aninsult offered an elderly kinsman. Northern men denounced the assault inunmeasured terms on the floor of the House and Senate. The affair led toseveral challenges between the representatives of both sections. Congressman Brooks resigned his seat, but was immediately reëlected. 

When Senator Sumner made his statement of the attack, he said that, after he was taken from the floor, he saw his assailant standing betweenSenator Douglas and Senator Toombs. This led to the assertion by someparties that the attack was premeditated, and that the senator fromIllinois and the senator from Georgia, who were strong politicalantagonists of Mr. Sumner, were aiding and abetting it. Both senatorsdenied this from their places. 

The political activity was not confined to the North. There was a largeelement in Georgia which disapproved of the Kansas-Nebraska bill as anunwise concession on the part of the South. This class, combined withthe American party, presented an active front against the party led bySenator Toombs. No contest was ever waged more vigorously in Georgia. New blood and new issues were infused into the fight. Mr. Toombs was atthe maximum of his greatness. He took redoubled interest in the campaignin that the legislature to be chosen in 1857 was to elect his successorto the Senate, and because the principles in this national contest weretaking shape for a State campaign the following year. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

"ON THE STUMP" IN GEORGIA. 

Among the young men on the stump that year was Benjamin H. Hill. He hadcome up from the plow-handles in Jasper County. Working his way to aneducation, he had graduated at the State University in 1845, with thefirst honors of his class. He was at this time barely more than thirtyyears of age, but he had won distinction at the bar and served hiscounty in the State Senate. He was known for his aggressive, ringingeloquence, and a clear, searching style which had made him somethingmore than local reputation. It was understood that he was the choice ofthe American party for Governor, and it was assumed that he would winhis spurs in the national campaign. He did not hesitate to go into thethickest of the fight. He challenged Toombs and Stephens in theirstrongholds; on the 22d of October meeting Mr. Stephens at hisstamping-ground in Lexington, Oglethorpe County, and the next dayconfronting Mr. Toombs at his home in Washington, Ga. There was a charmin the very audacity of this young Georgian. The man who would beard"the Douglas in his hall" was a curiosity to the people, for since theleadership of Toombs was established in 1844, no one, probably, hadassumed to cross swords with him before his home people. The fact thatyoung Hill had rather frustrated Mr. Stephens, in their first meeting, gave him fresh impetus for his clash with Toombs. People flocked toWashington by thousands. A large part of the audience which had cheeredBen Hill in Oglethorpe followed him to Wilkes. 

The speaking took place in Andrews' Grove, a noble cluster of oaks nearthe town, and by breakfast-time the place was filled with carriages andwagons. The red hills leading to Washington were alive with farmers andtheir wives and children, wheeling into the grove to hear the nobleveteran and the brilliant young stranger debate upon current topics. Oldand young men were there, and babies in arms. It was before the days ofa universal press. People took their politics from the stump. They weretrained in the great object-lessons of public life. The humble farmerknew all about the Missouri Compromise and the Nebraska bill. What theyhad learned was thorough. Every man was a politician. 

Ben Hill opened the discussion. He had the advantage of being a new anduntried man, while Toombs and Stephens had spread their records uponthe pages of hundreds of speeches. In those days of compromises and newdepartures, it was easy for a quick, bright fellow to make capital outof the apparent inconsistencies of public men. Hill was a master ofrepartee. He pictured Toombs' change from Whig to Democrat. He made adaring onslaught upon Toombs. Hill's bump of reverence was not large, and the way he handled this great statesman was a surprise. He did nothesitate to call him "Bobuel, " and to try to convict him out of his ownmouth of error. 

Toombs sat back with his fine features lit with scorn. His facialexpression was a rare part of his strength. He seemed to repel with hislook the impudence of this fearless young statesman. Hill saw the effectof his own audacity, and "plied his blows like wintry rain. " A keenobserver of this dramatic by-play declares that the pose of these twomen reminded him of Landseer's picture of "Dignity and Impudence. "

Hill declared that Toombs had been in Congress, "sleeping over ourrights. " Toombs retorted, "I have been protecting your rights and yourchildren's rights in spite of yourselves. "

Hill charged that Toombs had tried to dodge the issues of this campaign. Toombs, when he answered this part, cried out to the people impetuously:"Did I dodge the question, when in the presence of two thousand people, in the City of Augusta, and as I was about to travel in foreign lands, I denounced the secret midnight organization which was being fastenedupon the freemen of the South? An organization whose chief measure wasto prescribe a religious test in this land of liberty, and raise up abarrier to the entrance of the sons of the Old World, whose gallantsires aided us in achieving our independence?

"Did I dodge, when, just before putting my foot on shipboard, I wrote aletter to my beloved South, warning them against this insidiousorganization creeping into their midst, piloted by dark lanterns tomidnight lodges? Did I dodge, when, hearing, as I traveled, that thisdeadly order had taken hold and fastened its fangs in my State, Isuspended my travels and took the first ship that bore me back to mynative shores, and, raised my cry against these revolutionary measures?

"Did I dodge, when, as soon as landing in Georgia, I traveled all nightand spoke all next day against these blighting measures? If this becalled dodging, I admit that I dodged, and the gentleman can make themost of it. "

Mr. Hill declared that the Kansas-Nebraska bill embodied the principlesof "squatter sovereignty" and alien suffrage. The bill was not identicalwith the Utah and New Mexico bill, as Toombs and Stephens had alleged. The restrictive provisions of the Utah bill would prohibit thisTerritorial Legislature from excluding slavery. It could not do thatuntil it became a State, while the Kansas bill allowed a majority of theactual residents to determine whether slavery should or should notexist, even prior to its admission as a State. He denounced the Kansasbill as a cheat, a swindle, and a surrender of our dearest rights. As tothe National Convention, Mr. Hill declared that the South may haveframed the platform, but the North secured the candidate. Mr. Hill, relative to territorial questions, recognized the right of native bornand naturalized citizens of the United States, permanently residing inany Territory, to frame a constitution and laws and to regulate theirsocial and domestic affairs in their own way. The American partyproposed to extend the term required for naturalization and to bar theforeigners from holding office. Mr. Hill had strong sympathizers in theextreme Southern Rights' men, who were on hand in abundance. 

Mr. Toombs replied with great dignity and warmth. He said that theNebraska bill was a reiteration of the true intent of the compromisemeasures of 1850; that whoever opposed the Kansas bill was opposed tothe South. It was a touchstone for fixing party affiliations. It onlycarried out the Georgia platform protesting against Congressionalprohibition of slavery in the Territories. He paid high tribute toDouglas as a patriot and friend to the South. "Whoever condemnedDouglas needed watching himself. " Mr. Toombs charged that therepresentatives of the Know-nothing party had voted for theKansas-Nebraska bill, and now claimed ignorance of its provisions. Hedenied that either he or Mr. Stephens had declared that the Kansas billwas identical with the Utah bill. Mr. Hill insisted that they had saidso. Affirmance and denial became heated, and talk of holding each other"personally responsible" was indulged in, but pretty soon the debatewent back into the political grooves. Mr. Toombs denied that the billwas a "Pandora's box of evil, " or that its passage was violative of thegood faith of the South. This part of his argument, of course, wasdirected to meet Northern criticism. "The North, " Mr. Toombs said, "hadtried, by the Wilmot Proviso, to legislate the South out of the right ofequal enjoyment of the Territories. The South had endeavored to take thequestion of these rights out of Congress, to establish the doctrine ofnon-intervention. " This doctrine triumphed in 1850 and, despite theassertion of his opponent, was reaffirmed in the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This Act of 1854 was the great measure of justice and equality to theSouth. 

Mr. Toombs ridiculed the assertion of Millard Fillmore that the repealof the Missouri Compromise was a violation of a sacred compact. "Fillmore, " said Mr. Toombs, "is an amiable, clever sort of fellow, notto be trusted upon the great questions now before the country. He hadwithheld action upon the compromise measures of 1850 until hisattorney-general told him that he must sign them. "

Someone reminded Toombs that he had supported Fillmore for vicepresident in 1848. He replied, "Yes, and I said then, that if Fillmorewas at the head of the ticket, I would not support it. " Several personsin the audience declared that they had heard him say it. "I am glad toknow, " said he, "that, since my opponents address you people as if youhad no sense, you, at least, have shown that you have memories. "

Turning to the crowd who had cheered the opposition speaker, Mr. Toombssaid: "For those of you who have yelled so long and lustily, when yourdearest rights were assailed, I can but feel the profoundestcommiseration. Should you continue in your wild strife against theexperience of the past, I look to a kind Providence and to wise men toprotect you from yourselves. "

In regard to aliens in America, Mr. Toombs said: "I go for giving themall--the oppressed of all nations--a place of refuge, and say even tothe paupers and criminals; 'We will forgive you for the past and try youfor the future. ' You may start in your railroad and go to Memphis, andthen, follow the setting sun day by day, and week by week, until youfind him setting in the Pacific Ocean, and all the time you are passingover fertile lands where industry and thrift may meet appropriaterewards, and the blessings of liberty and peace find a resting-place inthe bosom of freedom. "

Mr. Hill said that Toombs was a turncoat. He had been a Whig, and now heabused the Whigs. Mr. Toombs told the people that he came not to abusethe Democrats or Whigs, but with the weapon of truth and the shield ofthe Constitution to aid in preserving the Union and maintaining therights of the South. He did not appear before the people to carrymajorities, but to promote their constitutional rights. 

Mr. Toombs was charged with being a disunionist. He said he stood uponthe Georgia platform of 1850, and leaning upon that faithful support, "Iwill say, that should Frémont be elected, I will not stand and wait forfire, but will call upon my countrymen to take to that to which theywill be driven--the sword. If that be disunion, I am a disunionist. Ifthat be treason, make the most of it. You see the traitor before you. "

Opinion as to the result of the debate at Washington was divided. Goodjudges thought that Mr. Hill relied too much on the _ad captandum_argument, and did not meet the points of Mr. Toombs; but there are menliving in Washington who heard the great contest and who delight to tellhow the young warrior from Troup charged right into the enemy's camp, and rode away with the laurels of the day. 

Buchanan was elected President in November. He carried nineteen States, Georgia among them. Buchanan and Breckenridge received 174 electoralvotes and 1, 838, 169 popular votes. 

Frémont carried eleven States and 114 electoral votes, receiving1, 341, 264 popular votes. Fillmore carried Maryland with 8 electoralvotes. His vote through the country amounted to 874, 534. 

Mr. Toombs, while a member of Congress, became possessed of a largetract of land in Texas. It was known as the Peter's Colony Grant, whichhad never been settled. The lands, he was informed by a competentsurveyor, were valuable and free to settlers. They comprised about90, 000 acres in Northern Texas, on the clear fork of the Trinity, in theneighborhood of Dallas and Fort Worth. Mr. Toombs had a clear head andkeen perception for business. His temperament was restless and fiery. His life had been spent at the bar and in the forum. His gifts oforatory were remarkable. It was a strange combination which added shrewdbusiness sense, but he had it in an eminent degree. He was a princelyliver, but a careful financier. He saw that this part of Texas mustsome day bloom into an empire, and fifty years ago he gave $30, 000 forthis tract of land. As Texas commenced to fill up the squatters occupiedsome of the most valuable parts of the country and refused to beremoved. These desperate fellows declared that they did not believethere was any such man as Toombs, the reputed owner of the land; theyhad never seen him, and certainly they would not consent to bedispossessed of their holdings. 

It was in 1857 that Senator Toombs, accompanied by a few of his friends, decided to make a trip to Texas and view his large landed possessions. For hundreds of miles he traveled on horseback over the plains of Texas, sleeping at night in a buffalo robe. He was warned by his agents that hehad a very desperate set of men to deal with. But Toombs was prettydetermined himself. He summoned the squatters to a parley at Fort Worth, then, a mere spot in the wilderness. The men came in squads, mounted ontheir mustangs, and bearing over their saddles long squirrel rifles. They were ready for a shrewd bargain or a sharp vendetta. Senator Toombsand his small coterie were armed; and standing against a tree, thelandlord confronted his tenants or trespassers, he hardly knew which. Hespoke firmly and pointedly, and pretty soon convinced the settlers thatthey were dealing with no ordinary man. He said he was willing to alloweach squatter a certain sum for betterments, if they would move off hisland, or, if they preferred to stay, he would sell the tract to each manat wild-land prices; but, failing in this, they must move away, as hehad the power to put them out, and would certainly use it. There was agood deal of murmuring and caucussing among the men, but they concludedthat there was a man named Toombs, and that he meant what he said. Thematter was settled in a business way, and Senator Toombs rode back overthe prairies, richer by a hundred thousand dollars. These lands wereimmensely valuable during the latter part of his life. They formed thebulk of his fortune when the war closed; and during his stay in Paris, an exile from his country, in 1866, he used to say that he consumed, inhis personal expenses, an acre of dirt a day. The land was then worthabout five dollars an acre. 

It was while he was returning home from his Texas trip that the postmanmet him on the plains and delivered a letter from Georgia. This was inJuly, 1857. The letter announced that the Democratic State Convention inGeorgia had adjourned, after nominating for Governor Joseph E. Brown. Senator Toombs read the letter and, looking up in a dazed way, asked, "And who in the devil is Joe Brown?"

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1856. 

There was a good deal of significance in the inquiry. There was a hotcampaign ahead. The opposition party, made up of Know-nothings andold-line Whigs, had nominated Benjamin H. Hill for Governor. SenatorToombs knew that it would require a strong man to beat him. Besides theGovernor, a legislature was to be chosen which was to elect a successorto Senator Toombs in the Senate. He was personally interested in seeingthat the Democratic party, with which he had been in full accord sincethe passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, had a strong leader in theState. All the way home he was puzzling in his brain about "Joe Brown. "

About the time that he returned, he was informed that Hill and Brown hadmet at Glen Spring, near Athens. A large crowd had attended the openingdiscussion. Howell Cobb wrote to Senator Toombs that he had better takecharge of the campaign himself, as he doubted the ability of Judge Brownto handle "Hill of Troup. "

Joseph E. Brown had come up from the people. He was a native of Pickens, S. C. , of old Scotch-Irish stock that had produced Calhoun and AndrewJackson. The late Henry W. Grady, in a bright fancy sketch, oncedeclared that the ancestors of Joseph E. Brown lived in Ireland, andthat "For seven generations, the ancestors of Joe Brown have beenrestless, aggressive rebels--for a longer time the Toombses have beendauntless and intolerant followers of the King. At the siege ofLondonderry, Margaret and James Brown were within the walls, starvingand fighting for William and Mary; and I have no doubt there werehard-riding Toombses outside the walls, charging in the name of thepeevish and unhappy James. Certain it is that forty years before, thedirect ancestors of Robert Toombs, in their estate, were hiding the goodKing Charles in the oak at Boscobel, where, I have no doubt, the fatherand uncle of the Londonderry Brown, with cropped hair and severe mien, were proguing about the place with their pikes, searching every bush inthe name of Cromwell and the psalm-singers. From these initial pointssprang the two strains of blood--the one affluent, impetuous, prodigal, the other slow, resolute, forceful. From these ancestors came the twomen--the one superb, ruddy, fashioned with incomparable grace andfullness--the other pale, thoughtful, angular, stripped down to brainand sinew. From these opposing theories came the two types: the onepatrician, imperious, swift in action, and brooking no stay; the otherdemocratic, sagacious, jealous of rights, and submitting to noopposition. The one for the king, the other for the people. "

Young Joe Brown had taught school, studied law, finally completing hiscourse at Yale College. He was admitted to the bar in 1845. In 1849 hewas elected as a Democrat to the State Senate by Cherokee County. In1851 he had been a Southern Rights' man, voting for McDonald againstCobb, the Union candidate for Governor. In 1852 he was Democraticelector for Pierce. In 1855 he was elected by the people judge of theBlue Ridge Circuit. He was very strong in North Georgia. The conventionwhich selected him as the candidate for Governor met in Milledgeville, June 24, 1857. The Democrats had no lack of eminent men. There werecandidates enough. James Gardner, the brilliant and incisive editor ofthe Augusta _Constitutionalist_, led the ballot, but Brown was finallybrought in as a compromise man. His nomination was a surprise. 

When Senator Toombs met the young nominee, by appointment, to talk overthe campaign, he found that he was full of good sense and sagacity. Hejoined him in his canvass, lending his own name and prestige to theDemocratic meetings. But he found much shrewdness and homely wisdomabout Joseph E. Brown, and he became convinced that he was able to makehis way to the favor of the people without outside aid. The Democraticnominee proved his ability to stand before the luminous oratory of BenHill himself. Brown had courage, clearness, and tact, with growingability and confidence. He soon developed the full strength of theDemocratic party, which, in Georgia, was overwhelming. Joseph E. Brownwas elected Governor, and the last vestige of the American party wentdown in 1857. The legislature was overwhelmingly Democratic. 

On the 6th of November, 1857, Mr. Toombs wrote from Milledgeville to hiswife, pending the election of United States Senator:

 I got here Wednesday and found the usual turmoil and excitement. Governor McDonald is here and has been trying hard to beat me, but I find very unexpected and gratifying unanimity in my favor. The party met this evening and nominated me by acclamation, with but two or three dissenting votes, and they speak of bringing on the election to-morrow. I am very anxious to see you, and am tired of wandering about in excited crowds; but I suppose after to-morrow I will have peace, so far as I am concerned, for the next six years. I think I shall be entitled to exemption from the actual duties of future campaigns to stay at home with you. 

He was reëlected to the United States Senate for the term beginningMarch 4, 1857. 

When President Buchanan was inaugurated, he announced that a case waspending in the Supreme Court upon the occupation of the Territories. Bythis decision he would abide. The day after the inauguration thedecision was announced. It was the celebrated Dred Scott case. It felllike a bomb into the antislavery camp. The great question involved waswhether it was competent for Congress, directly or indirectly, toexclude slavery from the Territories of the United States. The SupremeCourt decided that it was not. Six judges out of eight made thisdecision. The opinion was delivered by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 

This decision added to the fury of the storm. It was announced that theChief Justice had announced the doctrine that "negroes had no rightsthat a white man was bound to respect"; a sentiment so atrocious thatthis official repelled it with indignation. Efforts were made to burythe Chief Justice in obloquy. 

The struggle over the admission of Kansas into the Union was prolongedin Congress. But the situation in Kansas became warmer every year. TheEastern immigrant societies were met by inroads of Missouri and Southernsettlers. A state of civil war virtually obtained in 1856-57, andthroughout Buchanan's administration there was a sharp skirmish of newsettlers and a sharp maneuver of parties for position. The GeorgiaState Democratic Convention of 1857 demanded the removal of Robert J. Walker, who had been appointed Governor of Kansas. He was a Southernman, but was regarded as favoring the antislavery party in its effortsto organize the Territory. The truth was, as Senator Toombs had clearlyforeseen and expressed in his speech in the Senate in 1856, Kansas wasdestined to be a free State, and amid the violence of the agitation, confined to no one side, was marching steadily toward this destiny. Theadministration favored the admission of Kansas with the LecomptonConstitution, which was decidedly favorable to the proslavery men. Senator Douglas opposed this plan. He had become committed to the policyof squatter sovereignty during the debate on the Kansas-Nebraska bill in1854. He contended that the settlers of a Territory could determine thecharacter of their institutions, a position which the Buchanan partydenounced as inconsistent with Democratic principles. Mr. Douglasindorsed the Dred Scott decision, but maintained his position on popularsovereignty. He became at once unpopular with the rank and file of theSouthern Democracy, with whom he had long been a favorite. He was alsoestranged from the administration, and it was evident that he would haveno easy matter to be reëlected United States Senator. This election cameoff in the fall of 1858. It was clear to him that, to maintain hisprominence in politics, he must carry Illinois. Unless he could save hisown State his chance for President was gone. So he went into thismemorable canvass with his own party divided and a determined opponentin the person of Abraham Lincoln. The young Republican party in Illinoishad been gathering strength with each new phase of the slavery question. 

The joint debate between Douglas and Lincoln was memorable. As adexterous debater, Douglas had no equal in the Union. He was strong onthe stump and incomparable in a popular assembly. Without grace orimagination, he was yet a plausible, versatile man, quick and ingenious, resolute and ready, with a rare faculty for convincing men. He was smalland sinewy, with smooth face, bright eye, and broad brow, and hisneighbors called him the "Little Giant. " He could be specious, evenfallacious; he employed an _ad captandum_ kind of oratory, which wastaking with a crowd and confusing to an adversary. The man who met himin these debates was a tall, impressive personage, rough, original, butdirect and thoroughly sincere. In many points he was the opposite ofDouglas. 

He was rather an ill-ordered growth of the early West, a man who hadtoiled and suffered from his youth up. He was full of sharp corners andrough edges, and his nature was a strange mixture of patience andmelancholy. As Mr. Stephens said, he regarded slavery "in the light of areligious mysticism, " and believed that his mission to beat it down wasGod-ordained. And yet he was a statesman, a public man of breadth andprominence, a speaker of force and persuasion. He had the robust courageof a pioneer and the high purpose of a reformer. It was in this debatethat Mr. Lincoln, at Freeport, Ill. , asked Mr. Douglas that memorablequestion, on the stump: "Can the people of a Territory, in any lawfulway, exclude slavery from their limits, prior to the formation of aState constitution?" Mr. Douglas promptly answered, "Yes. " This was hisdoctrine of popular sovereignty. But the answer cost him the Democraticnomination to the Presidency. The theory that a mass of settlers, squatting in a Territory, could fix and determine the character of theTerritory's domestic institutions, was repugnant to a large portion ofthe Southern people. They claimed that under the Dred Scott decision, slavery already existed in the Territories, and must be protected by theConstitution; and that it was not competent for the people to determinefor themselves the question of slavery or no slavery, until they formeda constitution for admission into the Union as a State. 

The election in Illinois, in the fall of 1858, gave Stephen A. Douglas amajority of eight in the General Assembly over Abraham Lincoln, andDouglas was reëlected for the new term. In this contest he had beenopposed by the Buchanan Democrats, who cast over 8000 votes in Illinois. 

In the Senate, the debate on popular sovereignty was renewed. This timeJefferson Davis, a senator from Mississippi, attacked this position asincompatible with the Constitution and the laws. Mr. Davis was askillful debater. His mind was singularly graceful and refined. He waseloquent, logical, and courageous. His career as soldier and statesman, as War Minister under Pierce, and as senator for Mississippi, made him aprominent figure. He was cultured, classical, and well rounded, equippedby leisure and long study for the career before him. He had vanquishedSergeant S. Prentiss in public discussion over the national bank, andcontested, inch by inch, the domination of Henry S. Foote inMississippi. His career in the Mexican war had been a notable one. Allied to Zachary Taylor by marriage, a West Pointer by training, aSouthern planter by occupation, he was a typical defender of slavery asit existed. Davis was as slender and frail as Douglas was compact andsinewy. Like Lincoln, his mind grasped great principles, while Douglaswas fighting for points and expedients. 

Douglas declared that the territorial settler could determine whetherslavery should exist, by his influence in providing or withholdingpolice power; although he denied the constitutional right to legislateslavery out of the Territories, yet he believed the "popular sovereign"could, by means of "unfriendly legislation, " bar out the Southernsettler with his slaves. It was not difficult for Mr. Davis to impalehim upon this plea. 

Senator Douglas had saved his seat in the Senate, but his position inthe Democratic party was weakened. The Lecompton Constitution passed theSenate in spite of Douglas's steady opposition. 

Senator Toombs took no part in the subtleties of the Douglas-Davisdebate. He listened to the refinements of that discussion with decidedconvictions of his own, but with clear appreciation of the fact thatevery point scored against Douglas was cleaving the Democratic party intwain. Mr. Toombs favored the adoption of the Lecompton Constitution, but when it was rejected by the House, he promptly accepted the Englishcompromise, to refer the matter back to the people. Mr. Toombs hadalways been partial to Douglas. In the campaign of 1856 he declared, inGeorgia, that "the man who condemned Senator Douglas needed watchinghimself. " He viewed with some pain the Douglas departure over popularsovereignty; indeed he once declared that had he not been called awayfrom the Senate for quite a time in 1856, Mr. Douglas would never havegone off on this tangent. When asked if Douglas were really a greatman, Senator Toombs, in 1860, answered with characteristic heartinessand exaggeration, "There has been but one greater, and he, the ApostlePaul. "

It was very evident that the people of the South would demand newguarantees for the protection of slavery against the dogma of popularsovereignty. The platform of the Cincinnati convention, upon whichBuchanan had been elected, must be recast. The platform had declaredthat immigrants to any part of the public domain were to settle thequestion of slavery for themselves. The new plank, which PresidentBuchanan framed, was that the government of a Territory was provisionaland temporary, and during its existence, all citizens of the UnitedStates had an equal right to settle with their property in theTerritory, without their rights, either of person or property, beingdestroyed or impaired by Congressional or Territorial legislation. Thetwo last words contained the gist of the resolution, which was aimed atSenator Douglas. However right as an abstract principle, Mr. Stephensdeclared that this was a departure from the doctrine ofnon-intervention. 

It was at this time that Senator Toombs made one of the most importantspeeches of his life. This was delivered in Augusta, Ga. , September 8, 1859, during an exciting campaign. Governor Brown was a candidate forreëlection, and a strong opposition party had developed in Georgia, representing the extreme Southern sentiment. 

Senator Toombs said that the opposition to the Kansas bill had continuedbecause it was said to recognize the right of the people of a Territory, through the Territorial legislature, to establish or prohibit slavery. "When we condemned and abrogated Congressional intervention against us, "said he, "that was a great point gained. Congress had actually excludedus from the Territories for thirty years. The people of a Territory hadin no instance attempted such an iniquity. I considered it wise, prudent, and politic to settle the question against our common enemy, Congress, even if I left it unsettled as to our known friends, thepeople of the Territories. We could not settle the question of the powerof the people over slavery while in a territorial condition, becauseDemocrats differed on that point. We, therefore, declared in the Kansasbill that we left the people of the Territories perfectly free to formand regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject onlyto the Constitution of the United States. We decided to refer thequestion to the Supreme Court. It has gone there and been decided in ourfavor. The Southern friends of the measure repudiate the principle ofsquatter sovereignty. I stand its steady and uncompromising adversary. The doctrine of Douglas has not a leg to stand upon. Yet I do notbelong to those who denounce him. The organization of the Democraticparty leaves this an open question, and Mr. Douglas is at full libertyto take either side he may choose, and if he maintains his ground ofneither making nor accepting new tests of political soundness, I shallconsider him a political friend, and will accept him as therepresentative of the party, whatever it may tender him. I do nothesitate to tell you that, with his errors, I prefer him and wouldsupport him to-morrow against any opposition leader in America. 

"We are told, " said Mr. Toombs, "that we must put a new plank in theplatform of the Democratic party, and demand the affirmance of the dutyof Congress to prohibit slavery in a Territory, where such Territory mayfail to discharge this duty. I reply, I do not think it is wise to dothe thing proposed, and the inducement would not help the proposition. While I have already asserted full and complete power of Congress to dothis, I think, with Mr. Madison, that it should be prudently andcarefully exercised, and it ought not to be exercised until the occasionis imperative. There has been no occasion, from 1789 to this hour, calling for it, and I am more than willing that the Territorial settlersshall continue to govern themselves in their own way, so long as theyrespect the rights of all the people. I will not insult them bysupposing them capable of disregarding the Constitution of the UnitedStates, or by assuming that they are incapable of honestself-government. 

"No; I shall prescribe no new test of party fealty to NorthernDemocrats, those men who have hitherto stood with honor and fidelityupon their engagements. They have maintained the truth to their ownhurt. They have displayed a patriotism, a magnanimity rarely equaled inthe world's history, and I shall endeavor, in sunshine and in storm, with your approbation if I can get it, without it if I must, to stand bythem with fidelity equal to their great deserts. If you will stand withme, we shall conquer faction in the North and South, and shall save thecountry from the curse of being ruled by the combination now callingitself the opposition. We shall leave this country to our children as wefound it--united, strong, prosperous and happy. "

This was a memorable speech, strong, sincere, and conservative, and hada marked effect. It was intended, not only to influence the canvass thenpending, but to have an effect in controlling the National convention tobe held six months later. It was copied far and wide, and the success ofthe State candidates whom Mr. Toombs supported showed that itsstatesmanlike utterances were adopted overwhelmingly in Georgia. 

CHAPTER XV. 

JOHN BROWN'S RAID. 

But events were moving fast and furiously. The times needed no newMirabeau. The people were slowly welding a revolution, which must sweepstatesmen from their feet and bear upon its fierce current the strongand weak alike. It has been asserted, and with truth, that disunion wasprecipitated by the people, not by the politicians--by the North as wellas by the South. 

The raid of John Brown of Kansas into Virginia was not an event whichwould have stirred the people in ordinary times. It was the wild forayof a fanatic, who tried to stir up a slave insurrection. He wascaptured, tried, convicted, and hanged. There were demoralized followersand duped negroes with him, when he was overcome by Colonel Robert E. Lee, with a detachment of marines, at Harper's Ferry. This affaircreated a feverish excitement. The South did not know how far thismovement extended, nor by what authority it had been started. Thecriminal was execrated at the South and intemperately defended at theNorth. The man, who under normal conditions of society would have beensent to the insane asylum, was sentenced speedily to the gallows andmourned as a martyr by many at the North. Bells were tolled in hishonor. Following this remarkable episode, several free States passedstrong laws against the detention of fugitive slaves, and the Northernpress and pulpit teemed with new lessons and fresh morals. John Brown'sbody, in the language of the sentimental dirge, "lay moldering in hisgrave"; but the spirit of the Kansas boomer actually pervaded the land. 

What the Dred Scott decision had wrought at the North, the Ossawatomieraid awoke at the South. The main features of Buchanan's administrationto hasten the "irrepressible conflict" were the well-weighed words ofthe Chief Justice and the wild invasion of a border ruffian. Strangeparadox, but such were the influences at work in those disordered times. Men lost their moorings, and political parties abandoned settledpolicies. Events crowded with remorseless impact upon certain civilstrife. 

Under this new condition of things Mr. Toombs made his great "door-sill"speech in the United States Senate, on the 24th of January, 1860. It wasupon the resolution offered by Senator Douglas calling for a measure ofprotection of each State and Territory against invasion by theauthorities and inhabitants of every other State and Territory. SenatorToombs declared that the resolution opened up a new page in the historyof our country. It was a step in the right direction. He feared that thedisease lay too deep for the remedy. Heretofore the people of the UnitedStates could grapple and surmount all difficulties, foreign anddomestic. A spirit of nationality, a common interest, a common danger, carried the country through revolutions. Now all this has changed. Thefeeling of loyalty and common destiny is rapidly passing away. Hostilityto the compact of the Union, to the tie which binds us together, findsutterance in the tongues of millions of our countrymen, animates theirbosoms, and leads to the habitual disregard of the plainest duties andobligations. Large bodies of men now feel and know that party successinvolves danger; that the result may bring us face to face withrevolution. 

"The fundamental principles of our Union are assailed, invaded, andthreatened with destruction; our ancient rights and liberties are indanger; the peace and tranquillity of our homes have been invaded bylawless violence, and their further invasion is imminent; the instinctof self-preservation arms society to their defense. "

Mr. Toombs contended that this was no new principle introduced into ourConstitution. ["]It was inserted in the ordinance of 1787. The NewEngland Confederation adopted it in 1643. The Supreme Judicial tribunalof Prussia affirmed it as the public law of Europe as late as 1855. Itwas acknowledged to be a sound principle of public law in the days ofPericles, and its violation by one of the States of Greece was the chiefcause of the Peloponnesian War, which devastated Greece for twenty-oneyears. The Megareans had given refuge to the revolted slaves of Athens. "

"I say, " he continued, "the bargain is broken--broken by the Stateswhose policy I have reviewed; broken by the Republican party, which didthe work in their legislatures and elsewhere. Their hands are soiledwith the blood of the compact. They cannot be permitted to minister atits altar. Their representatives on this floor mock at constitutionalobligations; jeer at oaths. They have lost their shame with theirvirtue. . . . In the name of the people, I repeat, I demand the bond. Inthe name of every true and honest man at the North as well as the South, I demand the resumption of your plighted faith. Upon these terms I haveever been willing to let the Union stand, but upon no other. 

"Who is responsible for the murder, treason, and arson of John Brown? Ihave never known of his acts being approved or palliated by any otherperson than a Republican. Thousands of them have done it and are nowdoing it. In charging this dark catalogue of crime against thisorganization, I would not be unjust. I have no doubt that thousands ofpersons belonging to that organization throughout the North, loathe anddespise John Brown's raid; but it is equally true that there are otherthousands in the same organization who do approve it. They tell us thatthey condemn his acts, but admire his heroism. I think the Republicanparty must be pressed for a hero. The 'Newgate Calendar' can furnishthem with a dozen such saints. To 'die game' and not to 'peach' aresometimes useful, if not heroic, virtues in an accomplice. The thousandsof blind Republicans who do openly approve the treason, murder, andarson of John Brown, get no condemnation from their party for such acts. They are its main defenders and propagandists all over the North, and, therefore, the party is in moral complicity with the criminal himself. No society can long exist in peace under these injuries, because we arein virtual civil war; hence, I denounce their authors, the Republicanparty, as enemies of the Constitution and enemies of my country. 

"It is vain, in face of these injuries, to talk of peace, fraternity, and common country. There is no peace; there is no fraternity; there isno common country; all of us know it. 

"Sir, I have but little more to add--nothing for myself. I feel that Ihave no need to pledge my poor services to this great cause, to mycountry. My State has spoken for herself. Nine years ago a convention ofher people met and declared that her connection with this governmentdepended upon the faithful execution of the Fugitive-slave law. I was amember of that convention, and I stood then and stand now pledged to itsaction. I have faithfully labored to arrest these calamities; I will yetlabor until this last contingency happens, faithfully, honestly, and tothe best of my ability. When that time comes, freemen of Georgia, redeemyour pledges! I am ready to redeem mine. Your honor is involved, yourfaith is plighted. I know you feel a stain as a wound. Your peace, yoursocial system, your friends are involved. Never permit this FederalGovernment to pass into the traitors' hands of the black Republicanparty. It has already declared war against you and your institutions. Itevery day commits acts of war against you; it has already compelled youto arm for your defense. Listen to no vain babbling; to no treacherousjargon about 'overt acts'; they have already been committed. Defendyourselves! The enemy is at your door; wait not to meet him at yourhearthstone; meet him at the door-sill, and drive him from the Temple ofLiberty, or pull down its pillars and involve him in a common ruin. "

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 

It was an unfortunate time for the meeting of the Democratic NationalConvention. The hope that the party which had so often brought harmonyfrom discord could unite upon the soil of an extreme Southern State wasdestined to be broken. The body met in Charleston on April 23, 1860. Theplace was worthy of the assemblage. For the first time in the partyhistory, its convention had met south of Cincinnati or Baltimore. Redolent with the beauties of spring and the tint of historic interest, Charleston, with its memories of Moultrie, inspired feelings ofpatriotic pride. If it suggested the obstruction of Calhoun, it recalledthe Revolutionary glory of Marion and Rutledge, and the bold challengeof Hayne to Webster, that if there be one State in the Union which couldchallenge comparison with any other for a uniform, ardent, and zealousdevotion to the Union, that State was South Carolina. 

It was a memorable meeting. The convention was presided over by CalebCushing of Massachusetts, the devoted friend of Daniel Webster, andAttorney-General under Franklin Pierce. In its ranks were Henry B. Payneof Ohio, Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts, and James A. Bayard ofDelaware. These men were towers of strength in the North. They were themen to whom Robert Toombs had appealed in the Senate, when he turnedfrom his fiery imprecation and, lowering his great voice, declared, withtenderness and pride, "I have no word of invocation to those who standto-day in the ranks of Northern Democracy, but to remember and emulatetheir past history. From the beginning of this controversy they havestood firmly by the Constitution. No body of men in the world's historyever exhibited higher or nobler devotion to principle under such adversecircumstances. . . . Amid the opprobrious epithets, the gibes and jeers ofthe enemies of the Constitution; worse than this, amid words of distrustand reproach even from men of the South, these great-hearted patriotshave marched steadily in the path of duty. . . . The union of all theseelements may yet secure to our country peace and safety. But if thiscannot be done, safety and peace are incompatible in the Union. Amidtreachery and desertion at home, and injustice from without, amiddisaster and defeat, they have risen superior to fortune, and standto-day with their banners all tattered and soiled in the humble serviceof the whole country. No matter what fortune may betide us in thefuture, while life lasts, I have a hand that will succor and a heartready to embrace the humblest soldier of this noble band. "

At that time there were thirty-three States in the Union. The committeeon platform consisted of one from each State. The delegates fromCalifornia and Oregon, voting with the South, gave them seventeen votesin committee. The resolutions were quickly framed, with the exception ofthe one on slavery. Here was the deadlock. The majority plank declaredthat the right to settle in the Territories with slaves "was not to bedestroyed nor impaired by Territorial legislation. " The minorityproposed once more to leave the question to the Supreme Court. Thecompromise was not accepted. The two reports came before the convention, and, the Douglas men being in the majority on the floor, the minority, or squatter-sovereignty report, was adopted by a vote of 165 to 138. Here came the crisis. The delegates from Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, and a part of Delaware, withdrew from theconvention. Hon. William L. Yancey of Alabama led this movement. He wasa man of courage and decision, with unrivaled powers of oratory. He hadbeen a member of Congress, and his influence in the South was large. Sofar back as June 15, 1858, he had written a famous letter to James M. Slaughter that "no national party can save us; no sectional party canever do it; but if we would do as our fathers did, organize committeesof safety all over the cotton States--and it is only to them that we canhope for any effectual movement--we shall fire the Southern heart, instruct the Southern mind, give courage to each other, and, by oneconcerted action, we can precipitate the cotton States into arevolution. " This was called the "Scarlet Letter, " and was widelyscattered and read. 

The seceding delegates organized a second assemblage over which the Hon. James A. Bayard presided. The Douglas men were left in control of thefirst convention, but could not secure the two-thirds vote necessary forhis nomination. More than fifty ballots were taken, the full strength ofthe Illinois candidate being 152. On the 3d of May the conventionadjourned to meet in Baltimore on the 18th of June, when it was hoped aspirit of compromise might be inspired by the seriousness of thesituation. 

On the night of the break in that body Mr. Yancey made a speech inCharleston, when in prophetic words he declared, "Perhaps even now thepen of the historian is nibbed to inscribe the history of a newrevolution. "

The seceding delegates called for a convention to be held in Richmond, Va. , on the second Monday in June. 

When the seven States had withdrawn from the convention, the Georgiadelegation was split up. A majority left the convention, a smallminority remained. This action created great excitement in Georgia. TheDemocratic executive committee called a State convention to meet inMilledgeville on June 4. A committee of prominent citizens, headed byHon. J. J. Gresham of Macon, addressed letters to public men askingtheir views in this alarming situation. Howell Cobb indorsed theseceders; he was opposed to Douglas. Alexander H. Stephens thoughtGeorgia should appoint delegates to the Baltimore convention, withdrawthe demand for a new plank in the Cincinnati platform, abide by thedoctrine of non-intervention, and nominate a good man for President. "Ifwe must quarrel with the North, " said he, "let us base it on theaggressive acts of our enemies and not on the supposed shortcomings ofour friends. "

Hon. Robert Toombs did not come South during the Charleston convention. He watched from his post in the Senate the great struggle between theDemocratic factions. On May 10, he wrote, in reply to the letter of theMacon committee:

 Perhaps the time may not have come for the attainment of the full measure of our constitutional rights; it may not have been prudent on the part of the representatives of the seventeen States to have sanctioned and presented as much truth on the slavery issue as is contained in what is commonly called the majority platform; but when it was thus sanctioned, approved, and presented to the convention, it was well to stand by and defend it, especially against the platform of the minority. The seceding delegates did this with manly firmness, and I approve their action. 

Mr. Toombs advised, however, that the seceding delegates ought to meetwith the convention at Baltimore and endeavor to obtain such asatisfactory adjustment of difficulties as could be secured. "Thiscourse requires no sacrifice of principles. " This plan had been proposedby the delegates from New York to the delegates from the SouthernStates. "The proposed Richmond convention, if it shall be foundnecessary to hold it, " he said, "can be held after, as well as beforethe Baltimore convention, and I think with clearer lights for itsguidance. "

"It is sometimes wise, " said Mr. Toombs, "to accept a part of our justrights, if we can have the residue unimpaired and uncompromised, butnothing can justify a voluntary surrender of principle, indispensable tothe safety and honor of the State. 

"It is true we are surrounded with danger, but I do not concur in theopinion that the danger to the Union is even one of our greatest perils. The greatest danger, to-day, is that the Union will survive theConstitution. The body of your enemies in the North, who hate theConstitution, and daily trample it under their feet, profess an ardentattachment to the Union, and I doubt not, feel such attachment for aUnion unrestrained by a Constitution. Do not mistake your real danger!The Union has more friends than you have, and will last, at least, aslong as its continuance will be compatible with your safety. "

Prior to the reassembling of the Democratic convention, the resolutionsintroduced by the Hon. Jefferson Davis, containing the Southernexposition of principles, came up in the Senate. Mr. Toombs had opposedthe policy of introducing those resolutions, but as they were thenbefore the country, he said they should be met. He ridiculed the idea ofpopular sovereignty. He declared that Congress should protect slavery inthe Territories. The Federal Government, he claimed, did protect itscitizens, native and naturalized, at home and abroad, everywhere excepton the soil of our own territory, acquired by common blood and treasure. 

This speech of Senator Toombs marked an epoch in his career. Itseparated him entirely from Stephen A. Douglas, to whom he had beenclosely allied, in spite, as he said, of Douglas having wandered afterstrange gods. Douglas absented himself from the Senate when Toombsspoke. For the first time in twenty years, Toombs and Stephens tookdivergent paths. They were called in Georgia the "Siamese twins. " Fromthe election of Harrison to the Democratic split in 1860, they had beenpersonal friends and firm political allies. Mr. Stephens was for Douglasand the Union; Mr. Toombs feared lest "the Union survive theConstitution. "

The Democratic party in Georgia met on June 4, and parted on the linesof the Charleston division. The Union element in Georgia was led byHerschel V. Johnson, a man of power and influence. He had been Governorof the State, was a man of learning, profound in thought and candid inexpression. His wife was a niece of President Polk. His state paperswere models of clear and classical expression. Governor Johnson was, however, better fitted for the bench or the Cabinet than for a publicleader. 

Both wings of the Georgia convention appointed delegates to theBaltimore convention. That body admitted the delegation which hadseceded from the Charleston convention. As the seceding delegates fromthe other States were rejected, the Georgia delegates refused to go in. Missouri was the only Southern State which was represented entirely inthe body, composed of 190 delegates. Massachusetts withdrew and CalebCushing resigned the chair. Stephen A. Douglas was nominated forPresident of the United States. Governor Fitzpatrick of Alabama declinedthe vice presidency, and Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia was chosen forvice president. The seceders immediately organized a nationalconvention, Mr. Cushing presiding. It was composed of 210 delegates. Themajority or anti-Douglas platform of the Charleston convention wasadopted. John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky was nominated for President, and Joseph C. Lane of Oregon for vice president. Mr. Breckenridge was atthat time vice president of the United States, and Mr. Lane was asenator. Meanwhile, a Constitutional Union party had been formed inGeorgia, and had elected delegates to a convention of that party inBaltimore. This body nominated for President and vice president, JohnBell of Tennessee and Edward Everett of Massachusetts. Mr. Bell had beenUnited States Senator at the time of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraskabill, in 1854, and had been arraigned by Mr. Toombs for opposing theparty policy. He was one of the thirteen who voted against it in theSenate. 

The contest in Georgia waged with much vigor. Robert Toombs supportedBreckenridge. He was a delegate to the Democratic State convention whichput out a Breckenridge and Lane electoral ticket. He cut out thebusiness of that convention, and declared that the Constitution andequality of the States was the only bond of everlasting union. Mr. Stephens headed the Douglas ticket. Senator Douglas himself came toGeorgia and spoke during the campaign. The Bell and Everett ticket waschampioned by Benjamin H. Hill. The vote in Georgia was: Breckenridge, 51, 893; Douglas, 11, 580; Bell, 42, 855. 

Of these three Georgians, so strikingly arrayed against each other inthis critical campaign, Mr. Vincent, a gifted Texan, thus wrote withdramatic power: "Hill, Stephens, Toombs--all eloquent, all imbued withthe same lofty patriotism. They differed widely in their methods; theiropinions were irreconcilable, their policies often diametricallyopposite. Hill was quick, powerful, but unpersistent; Stephens, slow, forcible and compromising; Toombs, instantaneous, overwhelming, andunyielding. Hill carried the crowd with a whirlwind of eloquence;Stephens first convinced, then moved them with accelerating force;Toombs swept them with a hurricane of thought and magnetic example. Hill's eloquence was in flights, always rising and finally sublime;Stephens' was argumentative with an elegant smoothness, often flowing insweeping, majestic waves; Toombs' was an engulfing stream of impetuousforce, with the roar of thunder. Hill was receptive, elastic, and fullof the future; Stephens was philosophical, adaptable, and full of thepast; Toombs was inexhaustible, original, inflexible, and full of thenow. It was Hill's special forte to close a campaign; Stephens' tomanage it; Toombs' to originate it. In politics as in war, he sought, with the suddenness of an electric flash, to combat, vanquish, and slay. Hill's eloquence exceeded his judgment; Stephens' judgment was superiorto his oratorical power; in Toombs these were equipollent. Hillconsidered expediency; Stephens, policy; Toombs, principle always; Hillwould perhaps flatter, Stephens temporize, Toombs neither--never. Attimes Hill would resort to the arts of the dialectician; Stephens wouldquibble over the niceties of construction; Toombs relied on theimpregnability of his position, the depth of his thought, the vigor ofhis reasoning. Hill discussed with opponents; Stephens debated withthem; Toombs ignored them. Hill refuted and vanquished his adversaries;Stephens persuaded and led them; Toombs magnetized them, and theyfollowed him. Their enemies said that Hill was treacherous in politics;Stephens selfishly ambitious; and that Toombs loaned like a prince andcollected like a Shylock. 

"In those days Georgia did not put pygmies on pedestals. Hill will beremembered by his 'Notes on the Situation'; Stephens by his 'War betweenthe States'; Toombs had no circumstantial superiority. He is immortal, as the people are eternal. "

CHAPTER XVII. 

TOOMBS AS A LEGISLATOR. 

Georgia had taken a leading hand in the momentous events. Alexander H. Stephens had been prominently mentioned for President; so had HowellCobb. When Senator Toombs had attacked the doctrine of Mr. Douglas, thefollowers of the latter charged that Mr. Toombs had deserted his oldally, and was himself making a bid for the presidency. Especially wasthis the case, they urged, as Mr. Toombs had recommended the secedingdelegates to go back to the Baltimore convention, and endeavor to effectan honorable adjustment. The Augusta _Chronicle and Sentinel_, a leadingUnion organ, took up the charge and asked: "What of it? He is certainlyas much entitled to it as any citizen in the republic. Were he elected, he would be such a President as the country needs, giving no countenanceto corruption or fraud, but, with a will of his own, setting aside alldictation and acting as President of all the people. We doubt if thereis a man that could arouse such a furor in his behalf, North or South, as Robert Toombs. "

Close friends of Mr. Toombs at that time believed he was not without hisambition to occupy the Executive chair. Never an office-seeker, he hadgone easily to the front rank of national politics and had won hishonors in Georgia in a kingly way. He realized, however, that he was notpolitic enough to gain support from Northern States. His convictionswere overmastering passions; his speech was fervid and fearless; and hisbold, imperturbable expression had placed him in a fierce white light, which barred him from the promotion of party conventions. While hisenemies were accusing him of a desire to destroy the Union and embroilthe sections, Robert Toombs was probably cherishing in his heart a vaguehope that one day he might be called to the presidency of a commoncountry. 

Senator Toombs was very active in attending to his public duties. He wasinterested in every species of legislation. His remarks upon thedifferent matters of national business exhibited versatility, study, andinterest in everything that affected the public welfare. Those whobelieve him to have been a conspirator, using his high position tooverthrow the government, have only to look over the debates in Congressto see how active and conscientious were his efforts to promote everyreal interest of the Union. 

In the United States Senate, on July 31, 1854, Mr. Toombs gave anelaborate exposition of his views upon the policy of internalimprovements. He said he had maintained opposition to this system as afundamental principle. Since he entered public life, he had sustainedPresident Polk's veto of the River and Harbor bill in 1847. He believedthat Congress had no constitutional power to begin or carry on a generalsystem of internal improvements. He wanted to know where this power ofthe Constitution could be found. Madison and Jefferson had opposed thissystem. Monroe, Jackson, and Clay had yielded to the popular pressureand sanctioned it. "Instead of leaving the taxes or the money in thepockets of the people, " he said, "you have spent nine months inendeavoring to squander and arranging to have more to squander in thenext Congress. I should like to use a polite term, " said he, "for I am agood-natured man, but I think it is corruption. 

"In this bill you offer me seventy thousand dollars for the Savannahriver. Ships were sunk in that river for the common defense of thecountry during the Revolutionary War. You are bound to abate yournuisance at common law. You might offer me this Capitol full of gold, and I would scorn the gift just less than the giver. You ought to haveremoved these obstructions long ago. When we come and ask of you thisact of justice, you tell me to go with you into your internalimprovement bill and take pot-luck with you. "

Mr. Toombs claimed that the power given to Congress to regulatecommerce, simply meant to prescribe the rules by which commerce could becarried on, and nothing else. "The people of Maryland, " he said, "hadnever asked that the harbor of Baltimore should be cleaned at theexpense of the people of Georgia. They did not ask that other peopleshould pay their burdens. They came here and asked the privilege oftaxing their own commerce for their own benefit, and we granted it. Ihold it to be a fundamental principle in all governments, and especiallyin all free governments, that you should not put burdens on the peoplewhenever you can discriminate and put them on those who enjoy thebenefits. You started with that principle with your post-officeestablishments. 

"Senators, is it just? I tell you, as God lives, it is not just, and youought not to do it. There is manhood in the people of the MississippiValley. Let them levy tonnage duties for their own rivers and ports andput up their own lighthouses, and charge the people who use them for thebenefits conferred. Let the honest farmer who makes his hay, who gathershis cheese, who raises his meal in Vermont, be not taxed to increaseyour magnificent improvements of nature and your already giganticwealth. Senators, it is unjust. "

During the session of Congress of 1856-57, Senator Toombs againarraigned the whole system of internal improvements. He carefullydifferentiated between building a lighthouse and clearing out a harborby the Federal Government. He said in course of the debate: "Wherelighthouses are necessary for the protection of your navy, I admit thepower to make them; but it must be where they are necessary, and notmerely for the benefit and facilitation of commerce. Foreign anddomestic commerce ought to be charged, as in England and France, for thebenefit they receive. I would make the shipowners, the common carriersof this country, who are constantly using the power of this governmentto make money out of the products of honest industry and agriculture, submit to this rule. 

"The power to found a navy is found in the only fountain of power inthis country, the Constitution. The defense of one is the defense ofall. The destruction of nationality is the destruction of the life ofall. 

"I say if you take away the property of one man and give it to athousand, or if you take away the property of a million and give it tonineteen millions, you do not create national wealth by transferring itfrom the pockets of honest industry to other people's pockets. This ismy principle. It is immovable. The more commerce there is on theMississippi the more they are able and competent to pay the expenses oftransporting it, and I only ask that they shall do it. "

Mr. Toombs sustained the veto of President Pierce of the MississippiRiver bill. 

In July, 1856, he said that he had for eleven years maintained thevetoes of Mr. Polk. "I have perceived that this mischief is widespread, this corruption greater, this tendency to the destruction of the countryis more dangerous. The tendency to place the whole government under themoney power of the nation is greater and greater. The danger may be allof my imagination; but whether that be so, or whether I see in a bolderlight the evil that will grow by letting this sluice from the publictreasury and making it run by the will of the majority, I deem it soimportant that it may be worth an empire. We are called on, upon theidea of everybody helping everybody's bill, to vote for them all. Therecertainly can be no greater abandonment of public principle than is herepresented. "

Senator Toombs, while a member of the Georgia Legislature, opposed theomnibus bill, granting State aid to railroads, and one of the firstdevices to fall under his criticism was a scheme to build a road to hisown town. He was by nature progressive. He championed the cause of theState railroad of Georgia. In general terms he believed that the Statesand the people should carry out works of internal improvement. It issaid that the first office ever held by Mr. Toombs was that ofcommissioner of the town of Washington, Ga. The election hinged upon aquestion of public improvement, the question being "ditch or no ditch";Toombs was elected commissioner, and the ditch was dug. 

He was nothing of a demagogue. He did not attempt to belittle the publicservice. He championed the provision for higher pay for the UnitedStates Judges, and for increasing the stipend of army officers, althoughhe denounced the system of double rations as vicious. He did nothesitate to hit an unnecessary expense in every shape. All overflowingpension grabs found in him a deadly enemy. In December, 1856, whilespeaking on the subject of claims, he said: "In 1828, when half acentury had passed over the heads of the men who fought your battles, when their generation was gone, when Tories and jobbers could not bedistinguished from the really meritorious, the agents came here andattempted to intimidate public men. " He alluded to pension agents as menwho prowl about and make fortunes by peddling in the pretendedpatriotism and sufferings of their fathers. 

"It is, " said he, "a poor pretext for an honorable man to come and tellthe government, 'My ancestor fought for his own and the public liberty;he did not choose to be a slave to a foreign despotism; but withmanliness, and honor, and patriotism, he fought during the war; now payme for this. I want to be paid in hard dollars for the honor, andchivalry, and patriotism of my ancestor. ' I tell you, Mr. President, itis not good money; it is bad money; it is dishonorable to the memory ofthose who fought your battles. "

In February, 1857, the electoral vote for President was counted by thetwo Houses of Congress. The vote of the State of Wisconsin (fiveballots) had been cast on a day other than that fixed by the States forthe meeting of the Electoral College. If counted, it gave Frémont 114votes; if omitted, Frémont would have 109. 

In the debate which followed, Senator Toombs discussed very closely apoint which has since been the subject of sharp contention. He said:"The duty of counting the vote for President devolves on the Senate andHouse of Representatives. They must act in their separate capacities;but they alone can determine it, and not the President of the Senate andthe tellers of the two Houses. It is a high privilege, a dangerous oneto the liberties and Constitution of this country. The Senate and Housemust determine the votes to be counted, and the President of the Senatecan only announce those to be votes which are thus decided by competentauthority, and any attempt of the presiding officer to declare whatvotes he may deem to be legal, or to decide which are the votes, nomatter whether it affects the result or not, or even to say that thequestion shall not be decided, however highly I respect the chair, Isubmit is not a power given to the presiding officer by the Constitutionand the laws. "

In 1850 Senator Toombs found it necessary to oppose an appropriation foran experiment with the Atlantic cable. He was not prepared to say thatthe experiment would not be successful, but he boldly declared, despitethe importance of the work and the high character of the men who weresupporting it, that there was no power in the Federal Constitution forsuch an appropriation. Because the government establishes post roads, itcould not be inferred that the government had the power to aid intransmitting intelligence to all quarters of the globe. He did notbelieve in going beyond the constitutional guarantees. He declared ofthese questions, as he had in the debate upon the Kansas bill, that inhunting for power and authority he knew but one place to go--to theConstitution. When he did not find it there, he could not find itanywhere. 

Senator Toombs favored the purchase of Cuba, because he considered itadvantageous to the republic. "I will accept Canada as readily, if itcan be honestly and fairly done, " he said. "I will accept CentralAmerica and such part of Mexico as, in my judgment, would beadvantageous to the republic. "

The question of the slave population of Cuba should not come into thisdiscussion, he declared. "I will not trammel the great constitutionalpower of the Executive to deal with foreign nations, with our internalquestions; and I will not manacle my country, I will not handcuff theenergies of this mighty republic, by tying up our foreign diplomacy withour internal dissensions. At least to the rest of the world, let uspresent ourselves as one people, one nation. " He spurned the idea thathe wanted Cuba to strengthen the slave power in Congress. He said, "Somemay think we go for it because by this means we shall have one moreslave State in the Union. I know that the senator from New York (Mr. Seward) at the last session alluded to the comparative number ofslaveholding and non-slaveholding States; but I never considered that myrights lay there; I never considered that I held my rights of propertyby the votes of senators. It is too feeble a tenure. If I did, I haveshown by my votes that I have not feared them. Whenever any State, Minnesota or Oregon, or any other, came, no matter from where, if shecame on principles which were sufficient in my judgment to justify heradmission into this great family of nations, I never refused her theright hand of fellowship. I did not inquire whether you had seventeen oreighteen free States. If you had fifty, it would not alter my vote. Theidea of getting one slave State would have no effect on me. But Cuba hasfine ports, and with her acquisition, we can make first the Gulf ofMexico, and then the Carribean Sea, a _mare clausum_. Probably youngermen than you or I will live to see the day when no flag shall floatthere except by permission of the United States of America. That is mypolicy. I rose more with a view to declare my policy for the future;that development, that progress throughout the tropics was the true, fixed, unalterable policy of the nation, no matter what may be theconsequences with reference to European powers. "

Mr. Toombs believed that much bad legislation resulted from trusting toomuch to committees. He rarely failed to question such reports, and nevervoted unless he thoroughly understood the subject. He thought this wholemachinery was a means of "transferring the legislation of the countryfrom those into whose hands the Constitution had placed it toirresponsible parties. " He said it was a common newspaper idea thatCongress was wasting time in debating details. His opinion was thatnine-tenths of the time the best thing to be done in public legislationwas to do nothing. He thought Congress was breaking down the governmentby its own weight in "pensioning all the vagrants brought here. All thata man has to do is to make affidavit and get a pension. "

In 1859 he refused to vote to appropriate $500, 000 for the improvementof Buffalo harbor, because he held he had no right to spend the money ofthe whole Union for a particular locality; for this reason he voted toabolish the mint at Dahlonega, in his own State. 

Mr. Toombs opposed the policy of buying the outstanding debt at apremium. He criticised Senator Simon Cameron for asking that thegovernment give employment to 50, 000 laborers out of work. He said, "Sir, government cannot do it and never did do it. There never was agovernment in the world which did not ruin the people they attempted tobenefit by such a course. Governments do not regulate wages. "

Senator Toombs contended that the Postal Department stood on a differentfooting from the army and navy. Postal service, he thought, was no partof the national duty. "It is of no more importance to the people of theUnited States that this government should carry my letters than that itshould carry my cotton. " He claimed that he had some old-fashionedideas, but they were innate. "I do not think it right, before God, forme to make another man pay my expenses. "

In discussing the financial report, he said, "You have as much time toappropriate money intelligently as you have to give it lavishly. Whilethere is a general cry for retrenchment, when any practical movement ismade, the answer always is that this is not the right time or the rightplace. I am afraid we shall never find the right time, or the rightplace, until the popular revolution becomes strong enough to send heremen who will do the public business better than we have done it. "

CHAPTER XVIII. 

ELECTION OF LINCOLN. 

In the election of November, 1860, Mr. Lincoln received 1, 857, 610 votes, and the combined opposition 2, 787, 780 votes, the successful candidatebeing in a minority of nearly a million votes. The new House ofRepresentatives was Democratic, and the Senate had not been won over tothe antislavery party. But the trend of Northern politics wasunmistakably toward the extinction of slavery. As Mr. Lincoln said inhis letter to Mr. Stephens: "You think slavery is right and ought to beextended, while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. There, I suppose, is the rub. " Mr. Buchanan's message to Congress was full ofconservative counsel, but the Northern pressure was too strong. HisCabinet was soon dissolved, and the places of Southern men were taken byNorthern representatives, whose influence was not assuring to Southernpeople. 

Just before his departure for Congress Mr. Toombs, in response to aninvitation, wrote a conservative letter to his constituents in Danburg, Wilkes County, Ga. It bore date of December 13, 1860. The GeneralAssembly of Georgia had unanimously passed a resolution calling for aState convention to meet on January 16, 1861. Mr. Toombs took the groundthat separation, sooner or later, was inevitable. The time when theremedy was to be applied was the point of difference. He opposed delaylonger than March 4, but declared that he would certainly yield thatpoint "to earnest and honest men who are with me in principle but aremore hopeful of redress from the aggressors than I am. To go beyondMarch 4, we should require such preliminary measures to be taken aswould, with reasonable certainty, lead to adequate redress, and in themeantime, we should take care that the delay gives no advantage to theadversary. " Mr. Toombs declared that he believed the policy of Mr. Lincoln was to ultimately abolish slavery in the States, by drivingslavery out of the Territories, by abrogating Fugitive-slave laws, andby protecting those who stole slaves and incited insurrections. The onlyway to remedy these evils, in the Union, was by such constitutionalamendments as can be neither resisted nor evaded. "If the Republicanparty votes for the amendments, we may postpone final action. This willbe putting planks where they are good for something. A cartload of newplanks in the party platform will not redress one wrong nor protect oneright. "

As strong and unmistakable as this letter seemed, the great body of thepeople of Georgia did not think it sufficiently aggressive. Secessionnow amounted to a furor. It was not the work of leaders, but the spiritwhich pervaded the ranks of the people, who clamored because events didnot move fast enough. The "minute-men" declared Mr. Toombs' letter was abackdown. They called him a traitor, and wanted to vote him a tin sword. 

Congress, upon reassembling, devoted itself to measures of compromise. The situation was one of the deepest gravity. In the House a committeeof thirty-three was raised, and in the Senate a committee of thirteen, to look into the situation. But there was no Henry Clay to interpose, with tact and broad statesmanship, at the supreme moment. 

Twice before in our history, the "Great Pacificator" had proven equal toa desperate emergency. Adjusting the tariff in 1832 when South Carolinathreatened nullification, he had kept the peace between Calhoun andJackson. Proposing his omnibus bill in 1850, he had silenced all callsfor disunion by the territorial concession. Equally lacking was theexample of Webster to face the prejudices of the North and calm theapprehensions of the South. Perhaps it was because these men hadpostponed the conflict then that it reappeared now with irrepressiblepower. 

The House Committee reported propositions to amend the Fugitive-slavelaws, and accepted Mr. Toombs' demand that a law should be enacted bywhich all offenses against slave property, by persons fleeing to otherStates, should be tried where the offense was committed. 

Mr. Toombs was a member of the committee of thirteen in the Senate. Thefive Southern members submitted the Crittenden Compromise, demanding sixamendments to the Constitution. These recognized slavery south of theold Missouri line, prohibited interference by Congress with slavery inthe District of Columbia, or with transportation of slaves from oneState to another, and provided for the payment for fugitive slaves incases where the marshal was prevented from arresting said fugitive. Thesixth amendment guaranteed the permanence of these provisions. 

The House adopted the report of the committee of thirty-three. In theSenate a resolution was adopted declaring that the provisions of theConstitution were already ample for the preservation of the Union; thatit needed to be obeyed rather than amended. This, upon a test vote oftwenty-five to twenty-three, was substituted for the CrittendenCompromise. Mr. Toombs and five other Democratic members refused tovote, as they appropriately declared that no measure could be of valueto the South, unless it had the support of Republican senators from theNorth. They sat still and waited to see whether those senators offeredany guarantees. The twenty-five votes showed that the Republicans werenot in a conciliatory mood. This, in the opinion of Senator Toombs, wasconclusive that the best interests of the South lay in immediateseparation. 

Once convinced that this was the proper course, Senator Toombs bent allhis powers to bring about that result. He saw that if the SouthernStates must secede, the quicker they did so the better. If the Northcared to recall them, a vigorous policy would react more promptly uponthe Republicans. He did not go into this movement with foreboding orhalf-heartedness. There was no mawkish sentiment--no melancholy in hismake-up. His convictions mastered him, and his energy moved him toredoubled effort. On the 22d of December he sent his famous telegram tohis "fellow-citizens of Georgia. " He recited that his resolutions hadbeen treated with derision and contempt by the Republican members of thecommittee of thirteen. The amendments proposed by Mr. Crittenden had"each and all of them been voted against unanimously by the Republicanmembers of the committee. " These members had also declared that they hadno guarantees to offer. He believed that the House Committee only soughtto amuse the South with delusive hope, "until your election, in orderthat you may defeat the friends of secession. If you are deceived bythem it shall not be my fault. I have put the test fairly and frankly. It has been decided against you, and now I tell you upon the faith of atrue man, that all further looking to the North for security for yourconstitutional rights in the Union, ought to be instantly abandoned. Itis fraught with nothing but menace to yourselves and your party. Secession by the 4th of March next should be thundered forth from theballot-box by the united voice of Georgia. Such a voice will be yourbest guaranty for liberty, security, tranquillity, and glory. "

CHAPTER XIX. 

FAREWELL TO THE SENATE. 

On the 7th of January, 1861, Robert Toombs delivered his farewell speechto the United States Senate. It received profound attention. It was fullof brief sentences and bristling points. In epigrammatic power, it wasthe strongest summary of the demands of the South. As Mr. Blaine said, it was the only speech made by a congressman from the seceding Stateswhich specified the grievances of the South and which named theconditions upon which the States would stay in the Union. Other Senatorsregarded secession as a fixed fact. Mr. Toombs declared what, in hisopinion, would prevent it. And yet, as he stood at his desk, where forseven years he had been a recognized leader, his earnestness anddeliberation revealed a man whose hand did not hesitate to lead a revoltand whose heart did not fail in the face of a certain revolution. Heacted up to his own words, repeated a short while later: "He who dalliesis a dastard; he who doubts is damned. "

This speech was bold, succinct, definite. "Senators, " said Mr. Toombs, "my countrymen have demanded no new government. They have demanded nonew Constitution. The discontented States have demanded nothing butclear, distinct, constitutional rights, rights older than theConstitution. What do these rebels demand? First, that the people of theUnited States shall have an equal right to emigrate and settle in theTerritories with whatever property (including slaves) they may possess. Second, that property in slaves shall be entitled to the same protectionfrom the government as any other property (leaving the State the rightto prohibit, protect, or abolish slavery within its limits). Third, thatpersons committing crimes against slave property in one State and flyingto another shall be given up. Fourth, that fugitive slaves shall besurrendered. Fifth, that Congress shall pass laws for the punishment ofall persons who shall aid and abet invasion and insurrection in anyother State. "

He said: "We demand these five propositions. Are they not right? Arethey not just? We will pause and consider them; but, mark me, we willnot let you decide the questions for us. I have little care to disputeremedies with you unless you propose to redress our wrongs. 

"But no matter what may be our grievances, the honorable senator fromKentucky (Mr. Crittenden) says we cannot secede. Well, what can we do?We cannot revolutionize. He will say that is treason. What can we do?Submit? They say they are the strongest and they will hang us. Verywell! I suppose we are to be thankful for that boon. We will take thatrisk. We will stand by the right; we will take the Constitution; we willdefend it with the sword, with the halter around our necks. Will thatsatisfy the honorable senator from Kentucky? You cannot intimidate myconstituents by talking to them of treason. 

"You will not regard confederate obligations; you will not regardconstitutional obligations; you will not regard your oaths. What, then, am I to do? Am I a freeman? Is my State a free State? We are freemen; wehave rights; I have stated them. We have wrongs; I have recounted them. I have demonstrated that the party now coming into power has declared usoutlaws, and is determined to exclude thousands of millions of ourproperty from the common territory; that it has declared us under theban of the Union, and out of the protection of the laws of the UnitedStates everywhere. They have refused to protect us from invasion andinsurrection by the Federal power, and the Constitution denies to us, inthe Union, the right to raise fleets and armies for our own defense. Allthese charges I have proven by the record; and I put them before thecivilized world and demand the judgment of to-day, of to-morrow, ofdistant ages, and of Heaven itself upon the justice of these causes. Iam content, whatever it be, to peril all in so holy a cause. We haveappealed, time and again, for these constitutional rights. You haverefused them. We appeal again. Restore us those rights as we had them;as your Court adjudges them to be; just as our people have said theyare. Redress these flagrant wrongs--seen of all men--and it will restorefraternity, and unity, and peace to us all. Refuse them, and what then?We shall then ask you, 'Let us depart in peace. ' Refuse that, and youpresent us war. We accept it, and, inscribing upon our banners theglorious words, 'Liberty and Equality, ' we will trust to the blood ofthe brave and the God of battles for security and tranquillity. "

This speech created wide attention. It closed the career of RobertToombs as a member of the national councils. For sixteen years he hadserved in the two Houses in Washington, holding his rank among the firstmen in the country. 

He was then fifty-one years old, full of strength and confidence. Hisleadership among Southern men was undisputed; his participation inpublic business had been long and honorable; upon matters of home andforeign policy his word had been law in the Senate; his influence hadbeen preponderating. 

[Illustration: RESIDENCE OF GENERAL TOOMBS, WASHINGTON, GA. ]

CHAPTER XX. 

TOOMBS AND SECESSION. 

On the 16th of January, the State Sovereignty convention met inMilledgeville, Ga. The election had taken place shortly after thedelivery of Senator Toombs' farewell address, and Georgia had answeredto his call in the election of delegates by giving a vote of 50, 243 infavor of secession, and 39, 123 against it. The convention was presidedover by George W. Crawford, who had lived in retirement since the deathof President Taylor in 1850, and who was called on to lend his prestigeand influence in favor of the rights of his State. The convention wentinto secret session, and when the doors were opened, Hon. Eugenius A. Nisbet of Bibb offered a resolution, "That in the opinion of thisconvention, it is the right and duty of Georgia to secede from theUnion. " On the passage of this, the yeas were 165 and the noes 130. Mr. Toombs voted "yes, " and Messrs. Hill, Johnson, and Stephens, "no. " Nextday the committee of seventeen, through Judge Nisbet, reported theOrdinance of Secession. It was short and pointed; it simply declaredthat the people of the State of Georgia, in convention assembled, repealed the ordinance of 1788, whereby the Constitution of the UnitedStates was ratified and adopted. The Union was declared dissolved, sofar as the State of Georgia was concerned, and the State to be in fullpossession of all those rights of sovereignty that belonged to a freeand independent State. On the passage of this ordinance, the yeas were208, and the noes, 89. Messrs. Toombs and Hill "yes, " and Mr. Stephens"no. " At 2. 15 P. M. On the 19th of January, a signal gun was fired, andthe "Stars and Stripes" lowered from the State Capitol. One momentlater, the white colonial flag of Georgia fluttered to the winds, andthe State was in uproar. The news flashed to the utmost corners of thecommonwealth. Guns were fired, bells rung, and men were besidethemselves. The night only intensified this carnival of joy. There weresome men who shook their heads and doubted the wisdom of this step, andthere were women and little children who regarded these demonstrationswith awe. They did not comprehend what was meant by "going out of theUnion, " and by some inscrutable instinct feared the result of such anact. The old Union sentiment was, perhaps, stronger in Georgia than inany other Southern State. Georgia was the youngest of the thirteenStates, the last of the commonwealth to come into the national compact. Her charter from the Crown had originally barred slavery from herlimits, but the success of the institution in Carolina, the progress ofother States in subduing land and in cultivating indigo and tobacco inthe Southern savannas, rendered white labor unavailable, and leftGeorgia a laggard in the work of the younger colonies. Finally, slaveswere admitted, and commerce and agriculture seemed to thrive. But if theState had preserved its original charter restrictions, it is not certainthat, even then, the Union sentiment would have prevailed. As SenatorToombs had declared: "The question of slavery moves not the people ofGeorgia one-half so much as the fact that you insult their rights as acommunity. Abolitionists are right when they say that there arethousands and tens of thousands of people in Georgia who do not ownslaves. A very large portion of the people of Georgia own none of them. In the mountains there are but a few of them; but no part of our peopleis more loyal to race and country than our bold and hardy mountainpopulation, and every flash of the electric wire brings me cheering newsfrom our mountain-tops and our valleys that these sons of Georgia areexcelled by none of their countrymen in loyalty to their rights, thehonor and glory of the commonwealth. They say, and well say, this is ourquestion: we want no negro equality; no negro citizenship; we want nomongrel race to degrade our own, and, as one man, they would meet youupon the border with the sword in one hand and the torch in the other. They will tell you, 'When we choose to abolish this thing (slavery), itmust be done under our direction, according to our will. Our own, ournative land shall determine this question, and not the Abolitionists ofthe North. ' That is the spirit of our freemen. "

The spirit of the people was plainly manifested by the zeal and ardor ofThomas R. R. Cobb. He was a young man who went into the secessionmovement with lofty enthusiasm. He had all the ardor and religiousfervor of a crusader. He had never held public office, and had taken nohand in politics until the time came for Georgia to secede. He was theyounger brother of Howell Cobb. He declared that what Mr. Stephens saidwas the determining sentiment of the hour, that "Georgia could makebetter terms out of the Union than in it. " The greater part of thepeople was fired with this fervor, which they felt to be patriotic. Gray-bearded men vied with the hot blood of youth, and a venerablecitizen of Augusta, illuminating his residence from dome to cellar, blazoned with candles this device upon his gateway--"Georgia, right orwrong--Georgia!" Never was a movement so general, so spontaneous. Thosewho charged the leaders of that day with precipitating their States intorevolution upon a wild dream of power, did not know the spirit and thetemper of the people who composed that movement. Northern men who hadmoved South and engaged in business, as a general thing, stood shoulderto shoulder with their Southern brethren, and went out with thecompanies that first responded to the call to war. The South sacrificedmuch, in a material point of view, in going into civil conflict. In thedecade between 1850 and 1860, the wealth of the South had increasedthree billions of dollars, and Georgia alone had shown a growth measuredby two hundred millions. Her aggregate wealth at the time she passed theOrdinance of Secession was six hundred and seventy-two millions, doublewhat it is to-day. In one year her increase was sixty-two millions. Business of all kinds was prospering. But her people did not count thecost when they considered that their rights were invaded. Georgia wasthe fifth State to secede. South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, andFlorida had preceded her. Of the six States which formed the ProvisionalGovernment, Georgia had relatively a smaller number of slaves than any, and her State debt was only a little more than two and a half millionsof dollars. Her voting population was barely 100, 000, but she furnished, when the test came, 120, 000 soldiers to the Confederate army. 

As a contemporary print of those times remarked, "The Secessionconvention of Georgia was not divided upon the subject of rights orwrongs, but of remedies. " Senator Toombs declared that the conventionhad sovereign powers, "limited only by God and the right. " This policyopened the way to changing the great seal and adopting a new flag. Mr. Toombs was made chairman of the committee on Foreign Relations andbecame at once Prime Minister of the young Republic. He offered aresolution providing that a congress of seceded States be called to meetin Montgomery on the 4th of February. He admonished the convention that, as it had destroyed one government, it was its pressing duty to build upanother. It was at his request that commissioners were appointed fromGeorgia to the other States in the South. Mr. Toombs also introduced aresolution, which was unanimously adopted, "That the Convention highlyapproves the energetic and patriotic conduct of Governor Brown inseizing Fort Pulaski. "

The Ordinance of Secession was, on the 31st of January, signed by allthe members of the convention, in the open air, in the Capitol grounds. The scene was solemn and impressive. Six delegates entered theirprotests, but pledged "their lives, their fortunes, and their sacredhonor" in defense of Georgia against coercion and invasion. 

When the time came for the election of delegates to the ProvisionalCongress at Montgomery, Robert Toombs was unanimously selected as thefirst deputy from the State at large. His colleague, Howell Cobb, waschosen on the third ballot. The district selected Francis S. Bartow, Martin J. Crawford, E. A. Nisbet, B. H. Hill, A. R. Wright, Thomas R. R. Cobb, A. H. Kennan, and A. H. Stephens. 

The address to the people of Georgia adopted by this convention, waswritten by Mr. Toombs. It recited that "our people are still attached tothe Union from habit, national tradition, and aversion to change. " Theaddress alluded to our "Northern Confederates" and declared that theissue had been "deliberately forced by the North and deliberatelyaccepted by the South. We refuse to submit to the verdict of the North, and in vindication we offer the Constitution of our country. The peopleof Georgia have always been willing to stand by this compact; but theyknow the value of parchment rights in treacherous hands. " The reportcharged that the North had outlawed three thousand millions of ourproperty, put it under a ban, and would subject us, not only to a lossof our property, but to destruction of our homes and firesides. Itconcludes: "To avoid these evils, we withdraw the powers that ourfathers delegated to the government of the United States, and henceforthseek new safeguards for our liberty, security, and tranquillity. "

On the 4th of February, 1861, forty-two delegates met at Montgomery, Ala. The States of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina were represented. Howell Cobb of Georgia was chosenPresident of the Provisional Congress. Mr. Stephens said it was the mostintellectual body of men he had ever seen. One of the first duties ofthis convention was to elect a President and vice president of the newConfederacy. All eyes were turned to Robert Toombs. It was by commonconsent agreed that Georgia, owing to her commanding position, herprominence in the movement, and her wealth of great men, should furnishthe President. Toombs towered even above the members of that convention. Bold, imperious, and brainy, he had guided the revolution without hasteor heat, and his conservative course in the Georgia convention hadsilenced those critics who had called him "the genius of therevolution, " but denied to him the constructive power to build upon theruins he had made. He had, in the choice of delegates to the ProvisionalCongress, boldly advocated the election of Mr. Stephens from his owndistrict, although the latter was a Union man and, at that time, was noton good terms with Toombs. Toombs declared that Alexander Stephens was apatriot notwithstanding his views against secession. He had secured therecommitment of a dangerous resolution upon slavery which, he declared, would injure the South by the announcement of an ultra policy. He hadwritten a very conservative letter to Senator Crittenden. He had been aprominent Secessionist, and had contemplated the movement as unavoidablewhen men were talking with bated breath. But in the opening of therevolution, he had proven a safe counselor. Mr. Toombs was approached, and announced that he would accept the presidency if it were offeredwith unanimity. He was surprised to learn that the delegates from fourStates had agreed on Jefferson Davis. When this report was confirmed, Mr. Toombs, ignorant of the real cause of this sudden change ofsentiment, forbade further canvass of his own claims, and cordiallyseconded the nomination of Mr. Davis. Mr. Toombs was a man of raremagnanimity. He was absolutely without envy or resentment, and turningto Mr. Stephens, pressed him to accept second place on the ticket. Theannouncement of a Georgian for vice president effectually disposed ofhis own chance for the presidency. The fact was that Mr. Toombs was thefirst choice of Georgia, as he was thought to be of Florida, Carolina, and Louisiana. Jefferson Davis had not been presented by Mississippi. Hehad been selected by that State as the commander-in-chief of themilitary forces and himself preferred a military station. He was not inMontgomery when his nomination was confirmed. A messenger had to bedispatched to inform him of his election as President of the ConfederateStates of America. 

The sudden selection of Mr. Davis by four States probably carries a bitof secret history. Old party antagonisms arose at the last moment toconfront the candidacy of Mr. Toombs. Toombs had summarily left the Whigparty in 1850, to join the great Constitutional Union movement. Jefferson Davis had always been a States' Rights Democrat, and had beendefeated for Governor of Mississippi by the Constitutional Union party. Thus it would seem that, at the eleventh hour, party lines were drawnagainst Robert Toombs, and his boast that he had saved the Union in 1850probably cost him the presidency of the new republic. There was a story, credited in some quarters, that Mr. Toombs' convivial conduct at adinner party in Montgomery estranged from him some of the moreconservative delegates, who did not realize that a man like Toombs hadversatile and reserved powers, and that Toombs at the banquet board wasanother sort of a man from Toombs in a deliberative body. 

At all events, the recognized leader of the Confederacy was set aside, and with rare unanimity the election of officers was accepted withunselfish patriotism. 

At that time a curious and remarkable incident in the life of Mr. Toombswas related. Within thirty days he had performed journeys to the extentof fifteen hundred miles, largely by private conveyance, and during thatbrief period he served under four distinct governments: as senator inthe Congress of the United States, as delegate from his native county(Wilkes) to the convention of the sovereign republic of Georgia, asdeputy from his State to the Congress of seceding States, whichinstituted a Provisional Government, and finally in the permanentgovernment which he aided in framing for the Confederate States ofAmerica. 

In the perfection of a permanent government and the new-molding of aConstitution, Mr. Toombs was now diligently engaged. The principalchanges brought about by him may be briefly recalled. It was specified, in order to cut off lobby agents, that Congress should grant no extracompensation to any contractor after the service was rendered. This itemoriginated with Mr. Toombs, who had noted the abuses in the FederalGovernment. Congress was authorized to grant to the principal officer ofeach of the executive departments a seat upon the floor of either house, without a vote, but with the privilege of discussing any measurerelating to his department. This was an old idea of Mr. Toombs, andduring his visit abroad, he had attended sessions of the BritishParliament in company with Mr. Buchanan, then Minister to England. Hehad been impressed with the value of the presence in Parliament of theMinisters themselves. During a debate in the United States Senate in1859, Mr. Toombs had said: "My own opinion is that it would be a greatimprovement on our system if the Cabinet officers should be on the floorof both Houses, and should participate in the debate; I have no doubtthat we should thus get rid of one of the greatest difficulties in ourConstitution. "

Mr. Toombs also incorporated into the organic law a prohibition of thepayment of bounties and of the internal improvement system. There was atax upon navigation for harbors, buoys, and beacons, but this wasadjusted upon the Toombs principle of taxing the interest for which theburden was levied. Mr. Toombs was made chairman of the Finance Committeeof the Provisional Congress. This appointment was received with generalsatisfaction. His long legislative experience, his genius for finance, and his executive power, fitted him for this position. To provide waysand means for the new nation which was, as yet, without resources or asystem of taxation, involved no little difficulty. It was important thatthe young Confederacy should exhibit resources sufficient to equip herarmies and maintain herself before she could sue for independence orforeign recognition. It was for these admitted qualities of Mr. Toombsfor details and management, that President Davis preferred him to takethe position of Secretary of the Treasury. Next to the presidency thiswas his real place, but it was suggested that a man like Toombs deservedthe first position in the new Cabinet. A telegram from President Davis, offering him the portfolio of Secretary of State, reached Mr. Toombs inAugusta. He at first declined, but being urged by Mr. Stephens, finallyconsented to serve. The Cabinet was then made up as follows. RobertToombs of Georgia, Secretary of State; C. G. Memminger of SouthCarolina, Secretary of the Treasury; L. P. Walker of Alabama, Secretaryof War; J. H. Reagan of Texas, Postmaster-General; J. P. Benjamin ofLouisiana, Attorney-General; S. B. Mallory of Florida, Secretary of theNavy. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

TOOMBS AS PREMIER OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

One of the first acts of the new Confederate Government was to sendthree commissioners to Washington. John Forsyth of Alabama, Martin J. Crawford of Georgia, and A. B. Roman of Louisiana, were intrusted by theSecretary of State, Mr. Toombs, with a speedy adjustment of questionsgrowing out of the political revolution, upon such terms of amity andgood will as would guarantee the future welfare of the two sections. Mr. Toombs instructed Mr. Crawford, whom he had especially persuaded to takethis delicate mission, that he should pertinaciously demand theevacuation of Fort Sumter and the maintenance of the status elsewhere. 

Secretary Seward declined to receive the commissioners in any diplomaticcapacity, or even to see them personally. He acknowledged the receipt oftheir communication and caused the commissioners to be notified, pointedly, that he hoped they would not press him to reply at that time. Mr. Seward was represented as strongly disposed in favor of peace, andthe Confederate Government was semi-officially informed that FortSumter would probably be evacuated in a short time, and all immediatedanger of conflict avoided. There is no doubt that such were Mr. Seward's intentions. He had cordially agreed with General Winfield Scottthat the possession of Fort Sumter amounted to little in a strategicalway, and that the peace-loving people, North and South, should not bedriven into the war party by premature shock over the provisioning of afort that no Federal force could have held for a week. Mr. Lincoln'sCabinet took this position and, by a vote of five to two, favored theabandonment of Sumter. The commissioners were apprised of this feeling, and in a dispatch to Secretary Toombs, on the 20th of March, declaredthat there was no change in the status. "If there is any faith in man, "they wrote, "we may rely on the assurances we have as to the status. Time is essential to the principal issue of this mission. In the presentposture of affairs, precipitation is war. "

On the 26th of March the commissioners, having heard nothing more, askedthe Confederate Secretary whether they should delay longer or demand ananswer at once. Secretary Toombs wired them to wait a reasonable timeand then ask for instructions. He gave them the views of PresidentDavis, who believed that the counsels of Mr. Seward would prevail inWashington. "So long as the United States neither declares war norestablishes peace, it affords the Confederate States the advantage ofboth positions, and enables them to make all necessary arrangements forpublic defense and the solidification of government more safely, cheaply, and expeditiously than if the attitude of the United States wasmore definite and decided. "

Meanwhile new pressure was brought to bear on President Lincoln. On the2d of April, the commissioners, who kept up pretty well with thesituation, telegraphed Secretary Toombs: "The war party presses on thePresident; he vibrates to that side. " The rumor was given that thePresident had conferred with an engineer in regard to Fort Sumter. "Watch at all points. " Three days later they telegraphed that themovement of troops and the preparation of vessels of war were continuedwith great activity. "The statement that the armament is intended forSan Domingo, " they said, "may be a mere ruse. " "Have no confidence inthis administration. We say, be ever on your guard. . . . Glad to hear youare ready. The notice promised us may come at the last moment, if thefleet be intended for our waters. "

On the 6th of April Governor Pickens of South Carolina was informed thatthe President had decided to supply Fort Sumter with provisions, and onthe 10th, Hon. Levi P. Walker, Secretary of War at Montgomery, notifiedGeneral Beauregard, then in command of the Confederate forces atCharleston, to demand the evacuation of Fort Sumter, and, if refused, toproceed to reduce it. 

There is no doubt that the Lincoln Cabinet reversed its position aboutSumter. The pressure of New England and the West became too strong. WhatSumter lacked in military importance, it made up in politicalsignificance. The Lincoln Government had already been taunted withweakness by the people who had placed it in office. Mr. Lincoln decided, against the better judgment of Mr. Seward, to make the issue inCharleston Harbor. 

Seward's mind was of finer and more reflective cast than Mr. Lincoln's. He had all the points of a diplomatist, ingenuity, subtlety, adroitness. He was temporizing over the natural antipathy of the North to war andthe probable transient nature of the secession feeling in the South. Atthat very moment he was assuring England and France that "theconservative element in the South, which was kept under the surface bythe violent pressure of secession, will emerge with irresistible force. "He believed "that the evils and hardships produced by secession wouldbecome intolerably grievous to the Southern States. "

Mr. Lincoln was not temporizing at all. He was looking the crisis in theface. What he wanted was support at the North, not at the South. He waswilling to force the fighting at Sumter, knowing that the mere act ofthe Confederates in firing upon the flag would bring to his aid a unitedNorth. 

Secretary Toombs was one man in the Montgomery Cabinet who was notdeceived by Seward's sophistries. He knew the temper of Mr. Lincolnbetter than Mr. Seward did. He appreciated the feeling at the North, andgave his counsel in the Davis Cabinet against the immediate assault uponSumter. There was a secret session of the Cabinet in Montgomery. Toombswas pacing the floor during the discussion over Sumter, his hands behindhim, and his face wearing that heavy, dreamy look when in repose. Facingabout, he turned upon the President and opposed the attack. "Mr. President, " he said, "at this time, it is suicide, murder, and will loseus every friend at the North. You will wantonly strike a hornet's nestwhich extends from mountains to ocean, and legions, now quiet, willswarm out and sting us to death. It is unnecessary; it puts us in thewrong; it is fatal. " He clung to the idea expressed in his dispatches tothe commissioners, that "So long as the United States neither declareswar nor establishes peace, the Confederate States have the advantage ofboth conditions. " But just as President Lincoln overruled SecretarySeward, so President Davis overruled Secretary Toombs. 

No event in American history was more portentous than the first gunfired from Fort Johnson at 1. 30 o'clock in the morning of April 12, 1861. As the shell wound its graceful curve into the air and fell intothe water at the base of Sumter, the Civil War was an accomplished fact. Major Anderson replied with his barbette guns from the fort. He had butlittle more than 100 men, and early in the engagement was forced to relyentirely upon his casemate ordinance. The Confederate forces numberedabout five thousand, with thirty guns and seventeen mortars, and servedtheir guns from the batteries on Mount Pleasant, Cummings Point, and thefloating battery. Fort Sumter was built on an artificial island at themouth of Charleston Harbor, and was about three and a half miles fromthe city. It had cost the government one million dollars, and had notbeen entirely completed at the time of the bombardment. 

The excitement in Charleston at the opening gun was very great. Peoplerushed from their beds to the water-front, and men and women watched thegreat duel through their glasses. The South had gone into the war withall the fervor of conviction. The gunners in Moultrie and on MorrisIsland would leap to the ramparts and watch the effect of their shots, and jump back to their guns with a cheer. There was all the pomp andsound, but few of the terrors of war. On the morning of the second daythe quarters in the fort caught fire and the whole place was wrapped inflames and smoke, but Major Anderson's men won the admiration of theirenemies by standing by their guns and returning the fire at regularintervals. The battle lasted thirty-two hours; more than fifty tons ofcannon-balls and eight tons of powder were expended from weapons themost destructive then known to warfare; not a life was lost on eitherside. Sumter and Moultrie were both badly damaged. Major Andersonsurrendered on Saturday, April 13. 

The London _Times_ treated this remarkable event in humorous style. Theproceedings at Charleston were likened to a cricket match or a regattain England. The ladies turned out to view the contest. A good shot fromFort Sumter was as much applauded as a good shot from Fort Moultrie. When the American flag was shot away, General Beauregard sent MajorAnderson another to fight under. When the fort was found to be on fire, the polite enemy, who had with such intense energy labored to excite theconflagration, offered equally energetic assistance to put it out. Theonly indignation felt throughout the affair was at the conduct of theNorthern flotilla, which kept outside and took no part in the fray. TheSoutherners resented this as an act of treachery toward their favoriteenemy, Major Anderson. "Altogether, " says the _Times_, "nothing can bemore free from the furious hatreds, which are distinctive of civilwarfare, than this bloodless conflict has been. " Another London paperremarked "No one was hurt. And so ended the first, and, we trust, thelast engagement of the American Civil War. "

Mr. Toombs' prediction, that the attack upon Fort Sumter would "open ahornet's nest" in the North, was sustained. The effect of the assault atthat time and the lowering of the national flag to the forces of theConfederacy acted, as Mr. Blaine has stated, "as an inspiration, consolidating public sentiment, dissipating all differences. " In fact itbrought matters to a crisis all around, and prepared the two sectionsfor the great drama of the War. 

An important part of the work of Secretary Toombs was the selection of acommission to proceed to Europe and present the Confederate position toEngland and France, in order to secure recognition of the new nation. Mr. William L. Yancey was placed at the head of this commission, andwith him were associated Mr. A. D. Mason of Virginia, and Mr. A. P. Rostof Louisiana. The first month of the term of the Confederate Secretaryof State was occupied in the issue of letters of marque. On the 19th ofApril President Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of Southern ports, anddeclared that privateers with letters of marque from the SouthernConfederacy should be treated as pirates. This gave Secretary Toombs astrong point in dealing with foreign powers. The new government had beenorganized with promptness and ability. Great energy was shown in gettingthe civil and military branches equipped. The Southern position had beenpresented with great strength abroad, and France and England were notslow in framing proclamations recognizing the Confederate States asbelligerents. Next to immediate recognition as a separate nationality, this step was significant, and was the first triumph of the diplomacy ofSecretary Toombs over Secretary Seward. Then came the demand from theforeign powers that the blockade must be effectual, imposing a heavyburden upon the Northern States. Lord Lyons, acting in Washington inconcert with the French Government, declared that "Her Majesty'sGovernment would consider a decree closing the ports of the South, actually in possession of the Confederate States, as null and void, andthey would not submit to measures on the high seas pursuant to such adecree. " Mr Seward bitterly complained that Great Britain "did notsympathize with this government. " The British Minister accordinglycharged the British Consul at Charleston with the task of obtaining fromthe Confederate Government securities concerning the proper treatmentof neutrals. He asked the accession of the Lincoln government and of theDavis government to the Declaration of Paris of 1856, which had adoptedas articles of maritime law that privateering be abolished; that theneutral flag covers enemy's goods, with the exception of contraband ofwar; that neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, arenot liable to capture under the enemy's flag; that a blockade, in orderto be binding, must be effectual, that is, must be maintained by a forcesufficient to prevent access to the coast of the enemy. Theseconditions, except the first, were accepted by the ConfederateGovernment. 

The Southern Confederacy thus became parties, as Mr. Blaine says, to "aninternational compact"; and when, a few months later, Mr. Seward offeredto waive the point made by Secretary Marcy many years before, and acceptthe four articles of the Paris convention, he found himself blocked, because the Confederate States had not accepted the first article, abolishing privateering, and her privateers must, therefore, berecognized. It was by these privateers that great damage was inflictedupon American shipping. 

The Confederate States had no regular navy, and but few vessels; theywere an agricultural community, not a commercial or a ship-buildingpeople. Quite a number of vessels were put in commission under lettersof marque, and these reached the high seas by running the blockade. Manyprizes were taken and run into Southern ports. Later on steamers werefitted out and sent to sea under command of experienced officers. Thisnaval militia captured millions of the enemy's property, and produced agreat sensation at the North. A Southern agent was sent abroad by thenaval department to get ships and supplies. "In three years' time, " saysMr. Blaine, "fifteen millions of property had been destroyed by Southernprivateers, given to the flames, or sunk beneath the waters. Theshipping of the United States was reduced one-half, and the commercialflag of the Union fluttered with terror in every wind that blew, fromthe whale fisheries of the Arctic to the Southern Cross. "

On the 21st of May, the Confederate Congress, after providing for thedisposition of these naval prizes, and the treatment of prisoners of warbrought into Southern ports, adjourned to meet on the 20th of July inthe City of Richmond, now selected as the permanent seat of Governmentof the Confederacy. 

The powers of Europe never recognized the Confederate States as aseparate nation. The leaders of the English Government were, no doubt, inclined to this step, but the rank and file of the Liberal party, underthe leadership of John Bright, refused to sanction such a course towarda government whose corner stone was slavery. Mr. Seward ingeniouslypressed the point that Southern success meant a slave oligarchy aroundthe Gulf of Mexico. Russia remained the strong ally of the NorthernStates. England, with the Crimean War fresh upon her hands, hesitatedbefore engaging Russia again or imperiling India in the East. Francecould not afford to take the step without the aid of England. SecretaryToombs dispatched a Minister to Mexico to look into the interestingtumult then going on. Louis Napoleon was filled with his desire ofestablishing Maximilian in Mexico, but his movement did not succeed. Maximilian was defeated and executed, and Napoleon found himself toomuch engaged with the House of Hohenzollern in Germany to follow any newor original policy in America. 

Carlyle declared with dyspeptic acrimony that the Civil War was thefoulest chimney of the century, and should be allowed to burn out. 

Secretary Toombs had issued credentials to commissioners to theunseceded Southern States. On the 17th of April Virginia seceded; on the28th of May North Carolina went out of the Union; these were followed byTennessee and Arkansas. The border States of Kentucky and Missouri didnot formally secede, but indignantly declined to furnish troops inresponse to Mr. Lincoln's proclamation. They appointed delegates to aPeace Congress to meet in Washington. 

The tedious routine of the State Department did not suit the restlessspirit of Robert Toombs. He had established relations abroad asbelligerents, and had placed the new government in touch with itsSouthern neighbors. His dispatches were remarkable for brevity, clearness, and boldness; his public papers are models of nervous style, but he longed for a more active field in the revolution. He chafed underred-tape and convention. Toombs charged the new administration with toomuch caution and timidity. He declared that ninety per cent of war wasbusiness, and that the South must organize victory rather than trustentirety to fighting. He urged the government to send over cotton toEngland and buy arms and ships forthwith. "Joe Brown, " he impatientlydeclared, "had more guns than the whole Confederacy. No new government, "said he, "ever started with such unlimited credit. " Mr. Toombs believedthat the financial part of the Confederacy was a failure. "We could havewhipped the fight, " said he, in his impetuous way, "in the first sixtydays. The contest was haphazard from the first, and nothing butmiraculous valor kept it going. " Mr. Toombs said that had he beenPresident of the Confederacy, he would have mortgaged every pound ofcotton to France and England at a price that would have remunerated theplanters, and in consideration of which he would have secured the aid ofthe armies and navies of both countries. 

But Robert Toombs concluded that his place was in the field, not in theCabinet. Too many prominent men, he explained, were seeking bombproofpositions. He received a commission as brigadier general, and on the21st of July, 1861, joined Generals Beauregard and Johnston at Manassas. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

BRIGADIER GENERAL IN ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA. 

When Robert Toombs resigned the Cabinet and took the field, he stillheld the seat, as was his prerogative, in the Confederate Congress. Thisbody, like the British Parliament, sat in chairs, without desks. Onemorning Congress was discussing the Produce Loan. By this measure, invitations were given for contributions of cotton and other crops inthe way of a loan. By the terms of the act these articles were to besold and the proceeds turned over to the Secretary of the Treasury, whowas to issue eight per cent bonds for them. This was an extraordinarymeasure, and never really amounted to much. Colonel A. R. Lamar, at onetime Secretary of the Provisional Congress, relates that during thisdebate General Toombs walked into the hall. "He was faultlessly attiredin a black suit with a military cloak thrown over one shoulder and amilitary hat in his left hand. He made a rattling speech against themeasure. Drawing himself up, he said: "Mr. Speaker, we have been toldthat Cotton is King, that he will find his way to the vaults of thebankers of the Old World; that he can march up to the thrones of mightypotentates, and drag from the arsenals of armed nations the dogs of war;that he can open our closed ports, and fly our young flag upon all theseas. And yet, before the first autumnal frost has blighted a leaf uponhis coronet, he comes to this hall a trembling mendicant, and says, 'Give me drink, Titinius, or I perish. '" The effect was magical; ColonelLamar, in commenting upon this dramatic incident, sums up the wholecharacter of Robert Toombs:

"He was cautious and safe in counsel, while wild and exasperating inspeech. "

When Mr. Toombs was once asked by an Englishman, where were the files ofthe State Department, he answered that "He carried the archives in hishat. " When he resigned the position of Secretary of State, Hon. RobertM. T. Hunter of Virginia was appointed in his stead. General William M. Browne had been Assistant Secretary under Mr. Toombs. He was anEnglishman, who came to this country during Buchanan's administrationand edited a Democratic paper in Washington. When General Toombs joinedthe Army his staff was made up as follows; D. M. DuBose, AdjutantGeneral; R. J. Moses, Commissary General; W. F. Alexander, QuartermasterMajor; DeRosset Lamar, Aid-de-camp. 

General Toombs' entry into the field, just after the first battle ofManassas, found the army of the Confederacy flushed with victory, butbadly scattered after the first serious engagement of the war. GeneralJohnston had declared that even after the decisive advantage at BullRun, pursuit was not to be thought of, for his troops were almost asmuch disorganized by victory as the Federals by their defeat. Manysoldiers, supposing the war was over, had actually gone home. "Our men, "said General Johnston, "had in a larger degree the instincts of personalliberty than those of the North, and it was found very difficult tosubordinate their personal wills to the needs of military discipline. "

The battle of Manassas had a powerful effect upon the Northern mind. TheLincoln Cabinet was seized with fear for the safety of Washington. Newtroops were summoned to that city, and the materials for a magnificentarmy were placed in the hands of General McClellan, who had succeededMcDowell, the luckless victim of Manassas. More than one hundredthousand men were now massed in front of Washington, while Joseph E. Johnston, with fifty-four thousand, advanced his outposts toCentreville, and at Munson's Hill Toombs' brigade was in sight of thenational capital. His troops could easily watch the workmen building oneof the wings of the Capitol, and the victorious Confederates, withprestige in their ranks, were actually flaunting their flag in the faceof Mr. Lincoln. This movement, we are told by good generals, was of nomilitary value, but it kept the Northern administration in a white heat. It confused the Union commanders by crossing their counsels with popularclamor and political pressure, and it crippled McClellan when he finallymoved down the Chesapeake to the peninsula, by detaining a large part ofhis force to pacify the authorities in Washington. 

When McClellan and Mr. Lincoln were disputing over their change of base, the military situation was suddenly shifted by the evacuation ofManassas by the Confederate army, and its retirement first behind theRappahannock, then along the Rapidan. Johnston, it seems, wanted to benearer his base, and on the 8th of March skillfully managed hiswithdrawal, so that the enemy had no idea of his movements. GeneralToombs' brigade started in retreat from Centreville. He did not relishthis movement. He writes home from Culpepper:

 This has been a sad and destructive business. We were ordered to send off all our heavy baggage, but so badly did they manage that none of it was sent back, and every particle of that baggage, blankets, and every imaginable useful article, was burned up to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy. My brigade must have lost half a million of property and all the rest were in the same condition. Millions of stores with guns and ammunition were destroyed. Never was any business worse managed. The enemy had no more idea of attacking us in Centreville than they had of attacking the Peaks of Otter. Of course, when we retreated, they sent marauding parties in our trail to watch our retreat and take possession of the country, and now the whole of the beautiful Counties of Loudon, Fauquier, Prince William, Fairfax, and the Lord only knows how many more, are in the possession of the enemy. It was a sad, distressing sight, all the way along, and one that frequently drew tears from my eyes. I do not know what it means, but I would rather have fought ten battles than thus to have abandoned these poor people. We have got to fight somewhere, and if I had my way, I would fight them on the first inch of our soil they invaded, and never cease to fight them as long as I could rally men to defend their homes. The great body of the army is now in the neighborhood, and I suppose we shall abandon these people and retreat back toward Richmond. . . . My command is in excellent condition. A few broke down on the way, but I managed to have them taken care of there and lost none of them on the march. 

One of the great features of General Toombs' control of his brigade wasthe excellent care he took of his men. He never allowed them to beimposed upon by the officers or by other commands. 

This letter betrays the impatience of General Toombs over anymismanagement. He was the soul of business, and as the transportationfacilities at Manassas were meager, he chafed under the heavy loss towhich his brigade was subjected in this retreat. With impetuous ardor hecalls for resistance, not retreat. He did not approve of the "Fabianpolicy" of Joseph E. Johnston. As General Longstreet afterward remarked, "Toombs chafed at the delays of the commanders in their preparations forbattle. His general idea was that the troops went out to fight, and hethought that they should be allowed to go at it at once. " Near OrangeCourt House, he wrote to his wife on the 19th of March, 1862, "I knownot what is to become of this country. Davis' incompetency is moreapparent as our danger increases. Our only hope is Providence. "

In January, 1862, the General Assembly of Georgia elected Robert Toombsa member of the Confederate States Senate. Benjamin H. Hill was to behis colleague. But General Toombs had a different conception of hisduty. He realized that he had been prominent in shaping the events thathad led to the Civil War, and he did not shirk the sharpestresponsibility. He felt that his duty was in the field. He had condemnedthe rush for civil offices and what he called "bombproof positions, " andhe wished at least to lead the way to active duty by remaining with hisarmy. 

Two months later an effort was made by some of his friends to have himappointed Secretary of War. This would have brought him in close contactwith the army, which he was anxious to serve. The parties behind thismovement believed that the great abilities of Mr. Toombs should not behidden behind the command of a brigade. He would have made an ideal warminister. His genius for details and his ability to manage affairs andplan campaigns would have overmatched Edwin M. Stanton. But Mr. Toombspromptly cut off this movement in his behalf. 

On 22d March, 1862, he wrote to his wife from Orange Court House, Va. :

 I thought I had been very explicit on that point. I would not be Mr. Davis' chief clerk. His Secretary of War can never be anything else. I told my friends in Richmond to spare me the necessity of declining if they found it in contemplation. I have not heard that they had any occasion to interfere. . . . So far as I am concerned, Mr. Davis will never give me a chance for personal distinction. He thinks I pant for it, poor fool. I want nothing but the defeat of the public enemy and to retire with you for the balance of my life in peace and quiet in any decent corner of a free country. It may be his injustice will drive me from the army, but I shall not quit it until after a great victory, in which I shall have the opportunity of doing something for the country. The day after such an event I shall retire, if I live through it. I have grievances enough now to quit, but I shall bide my time. I get along very well with the army. I have not seen Johnston but once; he was polite and clever. George W. Smith I see every day. He is a first-rate gentleman and a good officer. I hear from Stephens constantly, but from nobody else in Richmond. . . . You say you pray for me daily. I need it. Put it in your prayers that if it be the will of God that I shall fall, a sacrifice in this great conflict, that I may meet it as becomes a gentleman. 

An instance of General Toombs' impatience under red-tape rules may berecalled. A member of his brigade was taken ill, and he secured for himentrance into the hospital of Richmond. The hospital was crowded;regulations were stringent, and under some technical ruling his sicksoldier was shipped back to his brigade. Toombs was fired withindignation. He proceeded to sift the affair to the bottom, and was toldthat General Johnston had fixed the rules. This did not deter him. Riding up to the commander's tent and securing admission, he proceededto upbraid the general as only Toombs could do. When he returned to hisheadquarters he narrated the circumstance to Dr. Henry H. Steiner, hisbrigade surgeon and lifelong friend. Dr. Steiner, who had been a surgeonin the regular army, and had served in the Mexican war, was a bettertactical officer than Toombs. He was himself fearless and upright, butfull of tact and discretion. "General, " said Dr. Steiner, "you have beentoo rash; you will be arrested. " Toombs replied that he thought so, too. He held himself in anticipation for two or three days, but he was notdisturbed. When he was finally summoned to General Johnston's tent, itwas to consult over a plan of movement, and it was noticed that Toombswas the only brigadier in counsel. General Johnston subsequentlyremarked that Toombs was the biggest brained man in the Confederacy. Theboldness and clearness of the impetuous Georgian had captured the grimhero of Manassas, who forgave the affront in the face of theovermastering mind of the man. 

General McClellan reached Fortress Monroe, April 2, 1862, and commencedhis march up the peninsula. The country is low and flat, and the seasonwas unusually wet and dismal. The objective point was Richmond, seventy-five miles away, and the first obstruction met by the Federalarmy was at Yorktown. The defense adopted by General Magruder was aseries of dams extending along the Warwick River, which stretched acrossthe peninsula from the York to the James River, a distance of thirteenmiles. The fords along the Warwick had been destroyed by dams defendedby redoubts, and the invader and defender were stationed in denseswamps. At dam No. 1 Toombs' troops were often under fire. They foughtwith spirit. Each detachment was on duty defending the dam forty-eighthours, and between long exposure in the trenches, the frequent alarms, and sharp sorties, the service was very exhausting. It was only possibleto change troops at night. On the 16th of April Toombs writes:

 One of my regiments, the 17th Georgia, had a skirmish day before yesterday. They acted splendidly, charging the Yankees, and driving them from the rifle-pits, killing, wounding, and taking prisoners over one hundred of the enemy. I lost but two killed and a few wounded. 

At the siege of Yorktown in the early part of May, 1862, General Toombscommanded a division consisting of his own and Semmes' brigades. He had2357 men in his own and 2342 in Semmes' brigade, making about 4700troops in line. During this siege General Magruder reports that GeneralToombs supported Cobb's brigade, and promptly and energetically led theremainder of his command under fire, arriving just before the enemyceased their attack, and in time to share its danger. General Magruderhad only 11, 000 men under him in the peninsula, and General Huger but8000, to oppose McClellan's march with 80, 000. Johnston and Lee bothpronounced the peninsula untenable, and on the 4th of May Yorktown wasevacuated. 

After the retreat from the peninsula, General Johnston concentrated hisentire army behind the Chickahominy River, sixteen miles from Richmond. On the 12th of May General Toombs writes home that his command near theChickahominy was "resting easily after a disagreeable march fromYorktown. I hear that there is great consternation in Richmond. . . . Theloss of New Orleans gives us a terrible blow, and, followed by Norfolk, makes it necessary for us to strike a decisive blow somewhere. " On 19thof May, 1862, he writes home from the camp near Richmond:

 We seem to have come up here to defend this city. You ask me my opinion of the present state of the country. It is bad enough. The utter incompetency of Mr. Davis and his West Point generals have brought us to the verge of ruin. If McClellan is unwise enough to fight us here, we shall whip and drive him out of Virginia. . . . As to Richmond, it will never be taken while this army is here. 

General Toombs' estimate of the army and of the futility of an attackfrom McClellan was justified when, after the 26th of June, the Army ofthe Potomac, almost in sight of the spires of Richmond, was forced toreel back, in the deadly clinch of a seven days' combat, to the JamesRiver. The Confederate army changed its position from one of retreat toa brilliant and aggressive policy, and the subtle tactics of Johnstongave way to the bold strokes of Lee. The South was thrilled withvictory. 

General Toombs frequently referred to the incompetency of Mr. Davis. Theletters which have just been quoted were written to his wife, and werenot made public then, but he did not hesitate to express his opinionopenly. Jefferson Davis and Mr. Toombs had some differences while theformer was Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce and Mr. Toombs was inthe Senate. Mr. Toombs believed that President Davis was too partial toWest Point, at which school Mr. Davis had been trained, and that in hismanagement of the army he showed the tenacity of a martinet rather thanthe breadth of a statesman. 

In February, 1859, the Army Appropriation bill had come up before theUnited States Senate. Mr. Toombs attacked, and Mr. Davis defended thewhole system. Mr. Toombs contended that the compensation of armyofficers was too great. It was more than the same talent could commandin any other walk of life. It was upon a wrong basis. "You take a boy ofsixteen and send him to West Point, and when he comes out you give him$1400 a year. In the course of a few years you carry him up to $3000, $6000, or $8000. Take the general employment of the youths of thecountry who are educated at the different colleges for all civilpurposes. You may have the highest amount of genius and intellect, andyou get nothing like such average there. It will take them many years tomake that much money. " Mr. Toombs declared that a brigadier general'scommission was higher than that of a United States Senator. "I think, "said he, "it requires as great qualifications to govern this country asit does to be a brigadier general. " Officers had increased far beyondthe wants of the country. Members of Congress appoint cadets for thedifferent districts; "they are generally associated in some way, asbrothers, sons, or cousins, with the governing power. " He thought asalary of $600 or $900 for the West Point graduates enough. Accordingto the way army commissions were valued in England, the commission of alieutenant who graduated at West Point could not be worth less than$50, 000. The pay of a captain was higher than that of a judge. Thatposition required the highest ability and integrity, and the averagesalary of a judge was but $2000, without traveling expenses. Mr. Toombscontended that West Point men seldom reflected any opinions but those ofthe government which employed them. They seldom sympathized with thepeople, and he wanted a government of the people. "You take a boy toWest Point, " he said, "give him quarters, and fuel, and clothes, andmaintain him, and you say he has rendered service. When the citizens ofthis country send their sons to college they pay their expenses or worktheir way through; but when a boy is carried to West Point he is takencare of; a house is provided for him; clothes are provided for him;instructors are provided for him, and that is called being in service. Ilay down the proposition that the true theory of wages, if you employthese people to keep the peace, is exactly the same--a constable'spay--you ought to pay them what they can be had for. "

Mr. Davis held that army officers were constantly tempted to resign byoffers of higher pay. It was the training of these men in the service, not for the service, it was their attachment for the country which madethem so valuable. It was better to instruct men for officers' places andthen appoint them, than to appoint them and then instruct them. Hethought appointments were free from partisan selection. A soldier'sdevotion was as broad as the continent. A West Point cadet is a warrantofficer; he goes there to serve the government as it may direct. Itdirects him to stay there until he has sufficient elementary instructionto properly discharge the duties of an officer. 

The debate showed the views of the two men, and indicated thedifferences which, from points of public policy, soon deepened intopersonal dislike. On the 30th of May, Toombs wrote from the army, "Davisis polite and formal; so am I. "

In the latter part of 1862 it was evident that the two armies must meetand contend for the mastery in Virginia. The day before the seven days'fighting commenced, Dr. Steiner said to General Toombs, his intimatefriend: "General, I have a favor to ask of you. Keep your mind uncloudedduring these important operations. " Dr. Steiner knew that during theheat and excitement of battle, temptation was great among soldiers totake ardent spirits, a practice that had grown somewhat upon GeneralToombs during his service in the field, and which at times deprived himof his best powers. "Why, doctor, I gladly promise, " said the greatGeorgian. Nor did he, during the week, take a glass of any sort ofliquor. 

General Toombs' brigade was the First Brigade, First Division, Army ofNorthern Virginia, and during the campaign of the peninsula, was inMagruder's division. On June 15, 1862, Toombs occupied the most exposedposition, which was held for nine days. Magruder recommended relief forhis troops, which had been suffering from lack of rest and care. Justbefore the seven days' fight Toombs' brigade was placed in D. R. Jones'division and Magruder commanded his own, Jones', and McLaw's divisions, holding about 13, 000 men. Toombs' brigade was composed of the 1st, 15th, 17th, and 20th Georgia regiments. 

On the 26th of June Toombs' brigade was posted upon the east ofGarnett's House, on Golding's farm, just in front of the enemy. Bothsides threw up breastworks so near that neither could advance its picketline. "Just before dark, " says Dr. Steiner, "Mr. Toombs received ordersto charge the enemy, firing having been heard on the left. The positionwas a dangerous one. A charge at that time of the evening was perilous. Just in front lay a deep gulch--Labor-in-Vain Ravine--which was alivewith the enemy, and the charge must be through an unprotected field ofwheat and clover. General Toombs was astonished at the order. His firstinstructions had been to put himself near Garnett House, to hold hisposition and to take advantage of any retreat of the enemy. He doubtedthe authenticity of the order, and sent word that he would not obeyunless in writing. Pretty soon written instructions were returned andGeneral Toombs prepared for what he believed to be a forlorn hope. Headvanced seven companies of the 2d Georgia Regiment, 750 men, underColonel B. M. Butt, toward the enemy in the face of a heavy front andflank fire. Colonel Williams' regiment crossed the field at double-quickunder a galling fire from the opposite side of the ravine. Unshaken byfearful odds, they held their ground and replied with spirit. The 15thGeorgia Regiment, under Colonel McIntosh then entered the fight, andthis gallant officer was mortally wounded. The 17th Georgia charged onthe left and the 20th on the right. The engagement was a very bloodyone. Over 200 of Toombs' men were lost and several valuable officerswere killed. The opposing troops were a part of General Hancock'scommand, and the firing ceased only with the night. Next morning theenemy retreated, and Toombs' men pressed forward and held theirposition. General Toombs was censured for this engagement, for which, itseems, he was in no wise responsible. 

On the 1st of July, about three o'clock in the afternoon, commenced oneof the famous battles of the war. McClellan's army had gotten away fromits perilous position astride the Chickahominy, and now found itselfunited and strongly intrenched on the heights of Malvern Hill. All hopeof destroying that army was gone, and it was evident that an engagementmust ensue, with the odds in favor of the Union army. It was in manyrespects like the battle of Gettysburg, except that the Confederateforces were not handled with the precision and effectiveness of thehistoric sorties against Cemetery Heights. The battlefield was in plainrange of the enemy's gunboats, and there was much surprise that GeneralLee should have sanctioned an engagement at that point. General D. H. Hill misunderstood the signal for attack at Malvern Hill, and late inthe afternoon ordered the charge. Toombs' brigade had been marching andcountermarching all day, and went into action much thinned from theeffects of the sharp fighting at Labor-in-Vain Ravine. There was noconcerted attack. The charge seems to have been made by brigades, evensingle regiments being thrown forward. They advanced through a swamp, and the difficulties of the charge, owing to a murderous fire whichraked the plain from the hills, 600 yards away, cannot be exaggerated. Toombs' brigade was one of the first to reach the plateau swept byfifty guns. It advanced with Anderson's brigade, but obliqued to theleft about half-way up the hill, and took position near a fence, wherethe troops, suffering fearfully from the cool, deadly aim of the Federalgunners, were ordered to lie down and secure some shelter from thecannon-shot. It was at this time that General D. H. Hill rode up toGeneral Toombs and ordered his brigade forward. Some sharp words ensuedbetween these officers, and the men moved forward handsomely to the browof the hill. At this time, however, the steady stream of fugitivespressing back from the charge, broke the alignment of the brigade andseparated the regiments. Colonel Butt's regiment went forward withKershaw's brigade. The whole Confederate charge was soon checked and thetroops fell back in disorder. Their loss was fully 5000 men, and theloss in Toombs' brigade was 219 men, making his losses in the twoengagements over one-third of his entire number. Malvern Hill was ablunder which was never repeated, but it was a disastrous one for theGeorgia troops. 

The subjoined correspondence will be understood in the light of themeeting of General D. H. Hill and General Toombs near Malvern Hillduring the progress of the charge of the Confederate forces. 

 HEADQUARTERS FIRST BRIGADE, FIRST DIVISION, In the Field, July 6, 1862. 

 MAJOR GENERAL D. H. HILL. 

 _Sir_: Military movements since Tuesday last have prevented an earlier reply to your conversation with me on the battlefield that evening. I understood you to say, among other things, that "Your (my) brigade would not fight"; that you "always knew it would not fight"; that it "pretended to want to fight, but would not"; "Where were you when I was riding in front on my horse trying to rally your brigade?" I desire first to know whether I am correct in my understanding of your language, and if not, wherein I am mistaken. 

 And secondly, to request of you such explanation of that language as you may choose to give. 

 I am sir, Your obedient servant, ROBERT TOOMBS. 

 July 6, 1862. 

 _General_: Your note has just been received. My remarks were personal to yourself and not to your brigade. I did not in the slightest degree reflect on your men. What I said was in substance this: "You have been wanting to fight, and now that you have one, you have got out of it. " There were witnesses to our conversation, and if my remarks were severer, I will let you know. 

 It may be well to suggest to you that, as the commanding officer on the field, I have an official report to make which will not be modified by your note. 

 It is notorious that you have a thousand times expressed your disgust that the commanding general did not permit you to fight. It is equally notorious that you retired from the field. These are the two facts of which I reminded you on Tuesday. I made no comment upon them, and if the simple truth has been offensive, the interpretation of it has been your own. 

 Yours truly, D. H. HILL, BRIGADIER GENERAL TOOMBS. Major General. 

 HEADQUARTERS FIRST BRIGADE, FIRST DIVISION, July 6, 1862. 

 GENERAL D. H. HILL. 

 _Sir_: Your note of this date has just been received. It is scarcely necessary for me to say it is not satisfactory. It would be inappropriate to comment upon it properly in this note, and for that reason alone I waive it for the present. 

 As to your remark that you were the commanding officer on the field on the 1st inst. , I never before heard of it, nor do I now think so, but, however that fact may be, I am at a loss to know for what reason you state it unless it was to menace and intimidate me in the pursuit of proper satisfaction for the unprovoked insult you have cast upon me. If that was your object, this note will satisfy you that you have failed in your object. I now demand of you personal satisfaction for the insult you cast upon my command and myself on the battlefield on the 1st inst. , and for the repetition and aggravation thereof in your note of this day. I refer you to my friend Colonel Benning for all necessary arrangements. 

 Your obedient servant, ROBERT TOOMBS. 

 CAMP NEAR RICHMOND, VA. , July 12, 1862. 

 _General_: Your note of the 6th was received yesterday. I must again enter my protest against your second declaration that I reflected upon your brigade in the battle of Malvern Hill. Witnesses to our interview affirm that my remarks were entirely personal to yourself. 

 In regard to your demand for satisfaction, I construe it to mean either that I must apologize to you for the language used by me on the battlefield, or that I must grant you a hostile meeting. If the first interpretation be correct, I will state that I will make full, public, and ample concessions when satisfied that I did you injustice; and this I would do without any demand. I certainly thought that you had taken the field too late, and that you left it too early. You may, however, have done your whole duty, and held your ground as long as it was possible for a brave and skillful officer to hold it. If the facts prove this to be so, no one will be more gratified than myself, and my acknowledgment of error will be cordial and complete. 

 But if your demand means a challenge, its acceptance, when we have a country to defend and enemies to fight, would be highly improper and contrary to the dictates of plain duty, without reference to higher grounds of action. I will not make myself a party to a course of conduct forbidden alike by the plainest principles of duty, and the laws which we have mutually sworn to serve. 

 Yours truly, D. H. HILL, Major General. BRIGADIER GENERAL ROBERT TOOMBS. 

Just what General Toombs replied to this is not known. The letter hasnot been preserved in this correspondence. It evidently declared thatthe explanation was not satisfactory. Major R. J. Moses, Jr. , a memberof General Toombs' staff, submitted in writing the following report ofhis recollection of General Hill's words to General Toombs at MalvernHill:

 Where is your brigade, sir? I told you that I wanted a fighting brigade, and your brigade will not fight. I knew it would not, and you are the man who pretends to have been spoiling for a fight. For shame! Rally your troops! Where were you when I was riding up and down your line rallying your troops?

Major Moses adds:

 As aid-de-camp of General Robert Toombs, I remained with him until some time after this conversation. Previous to this conversation General Toombs had been about fifteen yards to the rear of the center of his line and his troops were unbroken. There were many men coming by us, but I saw not over ten from General Toombs' brigade. The order was given "Forward, left oblique, " and General Toombs moved to the left of his line. When General Hill met him and commenced this attack on the character of himself and his brigade without the slightest provocation, General Toombs had not only been rallying the troops, but continued to use his best endeavors to rally them till late at night. I was with General Toombs the whole time from the commencement of the action until half or three-quarters of an hour after the conversation. 

The following is the concluding letter of the correspondence:

 July 15, 1862. 

 _General_: I regret that my last note, which was intended to be conciliatory, has been misunderstood or misappreciated. I take it for granted that you know enough of my previous history to be aware that a hostile meeting, under any circumstances, would be abhorrent to my principles and character. At this time it would be in the highest degree improper. I have offered you the only redress which I could make even after a meeting, viz. , an acknowledgment of error when convinced of that error. As no good can result from a continued correspondence, it will close on my part with this communication. 

 Yours truly, D. H. HILL, Major General. BRIGADIER GENERAL ROBERT TOOMBS. 

General Hill was a good man and a brave soldier. His devotion to theConfederate cause was undoubted, but his zeal sometimes made him harsh, and more than once he placed himself in the position of reflecting uponthe conduct of others. On one occasion at the battle of Chickamauga, where General Hill was in command of the extreme right of theConfederate line, on the second day of the battle information wasbrought to him of the sudden and unexpected advance of a strong Federalforce against his line. It proved to be the division of the FederalGeneral Gordon Granger. General Hill and General W. H. T. Walker, whocommanded two divisions under General Hill, proceeded at once to thethreatened point, to ascertain the situation of affairs, accompanied bysome members of their staff. Arrived at a point where this new arrivalof Federal forces could be seen, General Walker deferred to General Hilland asked him, "What do you wish me to do?"

"What do I want you to do?" said Hill with severity, and even withsomething like a snarl, "I want you to fight. "

General Walker flushed up in a moment. He was not a man to deserve anyreflection upon his courage or to bear it when offered. No man in theold army had a higher and more deserved reputation for dashing courage. He had been desperately wounded in Florida, and again wounded, supposedto be mortally, in leading the assault on Chapultepec in the MexicanWar, and had, on many occasions, given undoubted evidence of his valorand fidelity. He answered hotly, "Of course I will fight; you know that, General Hill, well enough; but, by God! sir, there are two ways offighting, one to whip and the other to get whipped. "

The point was a good one. Major Joseph B. Cumming, chief of GeneralWalker's staff, who related this incident, says it had the desiredeffect. 

When Longstreet marched against Pope he stationed General Toombs'brigade to guard one of the fords of the Rapidan. Toombs was absent atthe time and when he rode up ordered them back to camp. GeneralLongstreet heard of Toombs making stump speeches and "referring inanything but complimentary terms of his commander. " He sent GeneralToombs to Gordonsville. Afterward he received an apology from Toombs anddirected him to join his command. ["]As we were preparing for thecharge at Manassas (second battle), Toombs got there, riding rapidlywith his hat in his hand, and was much enthused. I was just sending acourier to his command with a dispatch. 'Let me take it, ' he exclaimed. 'With pleasure, ' I responded, and handed him the paper. He put spurs tohis horse and dashed off, accompanied by his courier. When he rode upand took command of his brigade there was wild enthusiasm, and, everything being ready, an exultant shout was sent up, and the mensprang to the charge. I never had any more trouble with Toombs. We wereafterward warm personal friends. "

On the 30th of August, 1862, Hon. A. H. Stephens wrote to Mrs. Toombsthat General Toombs was still at Gordonsville. He said:

 How long he will remain, I do not know. I thought at first that it would only be for a day or two, or until General Longstreet could receive and reply to two notes he had written, explaining to my mind very fully and satisfactorily his acts and conduct, which, it seems to me, General Longstreet had misunderstood. Such is still my opinion, and yet I may be mistaken. I do not know much of General Longstreet. I only know that General Toombs, who does know him, always expressed very high admiration of him as an officer. 

At the second battle of Manassas, August 29, 1862, Toombs' brigade inJones' division held the rear of Longstreet's corps. Early in themorning the brigade took up the march in the direction of the oldbattlefield of Manassas, where heavy firing was heard. Arriving at noonit was stationed on the extreme right, or upon the Manassas Gaprailroad. The brigades formed in echelon. General Longstreet in hispublished report commended especially General Toombs for gallant conductat Manassas Plain. 

General D. R. Jones, in his report of Manassas, says:

 General Toombs, released from arrest, under which he had been since the 18th of August, came upon the field shortly after his brigade went in under fire and accompanied it in action. 

Captain H. L. French, of the 17th Georgia Regiment, says: "Soon afterour engagement, to our great satisfaction, we unexpectedly met ourgallant commander, Brigadier General Robert Toombs, who, anticipatingthe fight, had ridden hard all day. He was greeted with hearty cheers, and said, 'Boys, I am proud of the report given of you by General Jones. I could not be with you to-day, but this was owing to no fault of mine. To-morrow I lead you. '"

One report of this engagement declares that as Toombs dashed into thefire and joined his men, he waved his hat and shouted, "Go it, boys! Iam with you again. Jeff Davis can make a general, but it takes GodAlmighty to make a soldier!"

The expulsion of Pope only accelerated the momentum of the Army ofNorthern Virginia. From the front of Richmond, the theater of operationswas transferred at once to the front of Washington, and the Union armywas again on the defensive. General Lee, freed from the necessity ofguarding the Confederate capital, resolved to invade Maryland. Hereasoned that the prestige of the invasion would advance the cause ofthe young nation abroad; that it would relieve Virginia from incursionsduring the winter, and that the presence of the army in Maryland wouldraise the standard of revolt and cause the liberation of that State fromthe Union cause. Lee's army, however, was not equal to such anexpedition. It was not well clothed or armed, and barely numbered40, 000, while McClellan had 80, 000. 

Toombs' brigade accompanied Longstreet's corps in its counter-march fromHagarstown to Hill's support. On the 14th of September these werewithdrawn to the valley of the Antietam. The creek of Antietam runsobliquely to the source of the Potomac, and empties into that river sixmiles above Harper's Ferry. The Confederate lines were, on the 15th, drawn up in front of Sharpsburg, Longstreet being on the right of theroad from Sharpsburg. 

In this place the creek is crossed by four stone bridges, and three ofthese were strongly guarded by the Confederates. Burnside's army corpswas stationed on the Sharpsburg Turnpike, directly in front of bridgeNo. 3. The preliminary deploy occupied the 16th of September, anartillery duel enlivening the time before the battle. Burnside laybehind the heights on the east bank of the Antietam and opposite theConfederate right, which, Swinton says, it was designed he shouldassail, after forcing the passage of the Antietam by the lower stonebridge. The part assigned to General Burnside was of the highestimportance, for a successful attack by him upon the Confederate right, would, by carrying the Sharpsburg Crest, force Lee from his line ofretreat by way of Shepherdstown. Swinton says this task should have beenan easy one, for the Confederate forces at this point had been drawnupon to recruit the left where Hooker had made his furious assaults. 

There was left in the right wing of the Confederate army but a singledivision of 2500 men under General D. R. Jones, and the force actuallypresent to dispute the passage of the stone bridge did not exceed 400. These troops were under the direction of General Robert Toombs, and thisengagement made his reputation as a fighter and was one of the mostbrilliant and memorable of the Civil War. It was one o'clock beforeBurnside charged. General Lee, in his report of the battle, said:

 In the afternoon the enemy advanced on our right, where General Jones' division was posted, who handsomely maintained his position. General Toombs' brigade, guarding the bridge on Antietam Creek, gallantly resisted the approach of the enemy, but his superior number enabling him to extend his left, he crossed below the bridge and assumed a threatening attitude on our right, which fell back in confusion. By this time, between 3 and 4 o'clock P. M. , A. P. Hill, with five of his brigades, reached the scene of action and drove the enemy from the position they had taken. The bridge was defended with two regiments of Toombs' brigade (2d and 20th) and the batteries of General Jones. General Toombs' small command repulsed five different assaults made by greatly superior forces, and maintained its position with distinguished gallantry. . . . Toombs charged the flank of the enemy, while Archer moved upon the front of the Federal line. The enemy made a brief resistance and then ran in confusion. 

Such commendation from the commander-in-chief of the Confederate armyspeaks for itself. 

Speaking of the last charge, when the Federals were driven back over thecreek in the counter-attack, General Jones says:

 General Toombs, whom I had sent for, arriving from the right with a portion of his brigade (11th Georgia Regiment) was ordered to charge the enemy. This he did most gallantly, supported by Archer's brigade, delivering fire at less than fifty yards, dashing at the enemy with the bayonet, forcing him from the crest and following him down the hill. 

General Garnett's report credits Toombs with having "reënforced theright just after it had been driven back, and restored the fortunes ofthe day in that quarter. "

From the report of General Toombs it appeared that when he first movedinto Maryland he was assigned to command a division composed of Toombs', Drayton's, and Anderson's brigades, and took possession of Hagerstown. On September 14 he was ordered to Sharpsburg, two of his regimentshaving been sent to Williamsport to protect the wagon trains. With twosmall regiments left, General Toombs took position near the bridge overthe Antietam on the road to Harper's Ferry. He took possession of theground with the 20th Georgia Regiment, commanded by Colonel Jonathan B. Cumming, and the 2d Georgia Regiment, commanded by Colonel Holmes. Thecreek was comparatively straight by this bridge. He formed his regimentsalong the creek in more open order than was desirable on account of thesmallness of his number. Subsequently the 50th Georgia, with scarcely100 men, was placed under his command. Colonel Eubanks' battery was byorder of General Longstreet placed in his rear. The enemy opened on hisposition on Tuesday evening, the 16th of September. On Wednesdaymorning, his pickets were driven in and the enemy menaced his position. The ground descended gently to the creek covered with a narrow strip ofwoods, affording slight protection. The enemy approached by the roadparallel with his line of battle, he says, exposing his flank to adestructive fire. Between 9 A. M. And 1 P. M. The Federals made fiveattempts to carry the bridge, and were repulsed by the 2d and 20thGeorgia regiments. Failing to wrest the bridge from its heroicdefenders, the enemy turned his attention to the fords. "Not being ableto get reënforcements, and seeing that the enemy would cross and attackmy front, right flank, and rear, Colonel Holmes having been killed, Major Harris wounded, both regiments having suffered heavily, ammunitionnearly exhausted, and the battery withdrawn, I withdrew my command to aposition, designated by Longstreet, opposite the lower fords. Thischange of position was made very satisfactorily and without seriousloss. The 15th and 17th Georgia regiments and part of the 11th, previously detached, now came up and occupied the new position. The 20thand 2d went to the ammunition train to replenish their cartridge boxes. The enemy moved through the bridge and ford with extreme caution, andlost nearly two hours in crossing, about which time A. P. Hill'sdivision came from Harper's Ferry. I was ordered by Longstreet to put mycommand in motion to meet the enemy. I found them in possession of theground I was ordered to occupy, including the bridge road and thesuburbs of Sharpsburg. With less than one-fifth the numbers of the enemyand within 100 paces of his lines I determined to give battle. I hadinstantly to determine either to retreat or to fight. A retreat wouldhave left the town of Sharpsburg and General Longstreet's rear open tothe enemy. The enemy advanced in good order to within sixty or eightypaces, when the effectiveness of the fire threw his column intoconsiderable confusion, perceiving which I instantly ordered a charge, which was brilliantly executed by my whole line. The enemy fled inconfusion toward the river, making two or three efforts to rally, whichwere soon defeated. The enemy brought over the bridge a battery. Iordered Richardson's battery to open upon it, and at the same time the15th and 20th Georgia charged upon it and compelled it to rejoin theflying infantry. I desired to pursue the enemy across the river, but, being deficient in artillery, I sent to General Lee for a battery, whichcame up too late. I then determined to move my troops to my firstposition along the river, but received the order to occupy the heightson the opposite side of the road leading to the bridge from Sharpsburg, and there the troops bivouacked for the night. "

The gallant conduct of Toombs' brigade at Sharpsburg was the theme onboth sides. The country rang with its exploits and the fiery Georgiabrigadier became the toast of the army. Burnside's heavy lossesabundantly proved the stoutness of the resistance and the deadliness ofthe charges of the Georgia troops. 

The next evening, on the edge of Sharpsburg, General Toombs and his aidscrossed a little branch on his way to the headquarters of ColonelBenning. General Toombs rode his famous mare "Gray Alice, " so well knownto his command. He was not very far over when a troop of cavalry rodeup. He challenged them, and they answered "We are friends. " CaptainTroup of his staff, however, detected the ruse and fired into them. Thesquad returned the fire. General Toombs was shot through the hand withwhich he was holding the reins. The gray mare at once becameunmanageable and ran back across the branch. As soon as he could controlthe mare, General Toombs rode back to Colonel Benning and, reporting hiswound, turned his brigade over to Colonel Benning. When it became knownthat General Toombs was wounded his men were deeply pained. Alwayssolicitous for their welfare, his soldiers were devotedly attached tohim. He took care of his brigade even to the extremity of violating armydiscipline. He exacted the utmost consideration for his men, and theofficer who periled their safety, or disputed their efficiency, wasquickly called to account. Whether against Johnston, Longstreet, orHill, the First Brigade, First Division, was sure of a fearless championin the person of its commander. 

The battle of Sharpsburg was a very bloody one. The losses on theFederal side were nearly 12, 500, while the Confederates lost 8000. Leewithdrew into Virginia, and McClellan was too much demoralized tofollow. Longstreet, in summing up the Manassas and Maryland campaign, declared that in one month the troops had marched over two hundred milesupon little more than half rations and fought nine battles andskirmishes. They had "killed, wounded, and captured nearly as many menas we had in our ranks, besides taking arms and other munitions of warin large quantities. " General Longstreet compliments Brigadier GeneralToombs for his "gallant defense at the bridge of Antietam and hisvigorous charge upon the enemy's flank; he was severely wounded at theclose of the engagement. "

General Toombs returned to his home after Sharpsburg, and remainedseveral months. He rejoined his command near Fredericksburg, but inMarch, 1863, wrote a touching farewell to his brigade and resigned hiscommission in the army of Northern Virginia. It seemed to him that hedid not have justice done him at Richmond. He aspired, with the ambitionof a soldier, to be promoted in his country's service. His conduct atSharpsburg, where he wrung admiration from his superior officers, appeared to call for recognition from the President, but he did notreceive his major-generalship, and, although more than once in theactual command of a division, did not secure that title. It is true thathe would have liked the promotion; but he did not expect it. He hadwritten to his wife that he would not be driven from the army untilafter some great battle, when he should have the opportunity of doingsomething for his country. "The day after such an event, I will retireif I live through it. " The battle had occurred, his record was writtenupon the stone bridge of Antietam, and his work was at an end. 

Postmaster-General Reagan was one of those who recognized the merits ofGeneral Toombs. Twice did he approach President Davis with the requestthat General Toombs be promoted to the command of a division. Thatofficial replied promptly that he did not oppose it himself, but that hecould not do it without the recommendation of the army officers, andthat recommendation had not been given. Possibly the field officersbelieved the suggestion would have been ungracious to Mr. Davis. General Toombs had not hesitated to criticise the policy andappointments of the Richmond administration. That practice had strainedhis relations with the Confederate Government, but Toombs was a man who"would not flatter Neptune for his trident. "

General Toombs was not a trained soldier, but he had some fine points ofa great commander. He was the soul of energy and common sense. He wasbold, dashing, magnetic. He had the quality of infusing his spirit intohis men. His quick mind seized the points of a campaign, and hisintellect was broad and overmastering. It is related of him that one dayin Virginia he hurried to the rear for a conference with JeffersonDavis, to which the President had summoned him, upon some point of civiladministration. This business over, he dashed back to the front, wherehe had an engagement with General Lee over a plan of attack. GeneralLongstreet said Toombs had the kindling eye and rare genius of asoldier, but lacked the discipline of a military man. This was theserious flaw in his character. He had what General Johnston declared wasthe great drawback about the Southern soldier, "a large endowment of theinstinct of personal liberty, " and it was difficult to subordinate hiswill to the needs of military discipline. He had been accustomed topriority, and in whatever company, under whatever conditions he foundhimself, his had been the part to lead and to rule. As Colonel Thomas W. Thomas had said of him, "Toombs has always been the big frog in thepond. " Men conceded to him this prestige. Under the cast-iron rule ofthe army he found himself subordinated to men intellectually beneathhim, but trained and skilled in the art of war. He was swift to detecterror, and impatient in combating blunder. The rule of mediocrity, thered tape of the service, the restraints of the corps, the tactics of thefield galled his imperious spirit. He commanded his brigade as he hadrepresented his State in the Senate--as a sovereign and independentbody, and like the heroic Helvetian had blazoned on his crest, "No oneshall cross me with impunity. "

Robert Toombs made a mistake in sinking himself in the routine of abrigade commander. He should have taken the War Department, or, likePitt, have pushed the war from the floor of the Senate. Swinton saysthat Abraham Lincoln brought the habits of a politician to militaryaffairs, in which their intrusion can only result in confusion of justrelations. There is ineradicable antagonism between the maxims whichgovern politics and those which govern war. 

During General Toombs' absence in the field, he opposed the ConscriptActs of the Confederate administration. He believed them arbitrary andunjust. He considered that this was a tendency toward centralizationwhich the Confederate Government was fighting; that it placed too muchpower in the hands of one man; that it was deadly to States' Rights andpersonal liberty, and that it would impair the efficiency of the army bylowering its patriotism. The champion of this anti-administration policyin Georgia was Linton Stephens, the brother of the vice president. Toombs in the field, the elder Stephens in Congress, and Linton Stephensin the Georgia Legislature, fought the Conscription and ImpressmentActs. Hon. Joseph E. Brown, the war Governor of Georgia, was also avigorous opponent of this policy. This influence gave rise, in the earlypart of 1864, to the Peace Resolutions of Linton Stephens, who sustainedGovernor Brown in his policy, to inaugurate State action for "thepreservation of rights and the attainment of peace. " Linton Stephens, ina strong letter to General Toombs at that time, called attention to thefact that since the war began neither side had made any effort to stopthe effusion of blood. He believed that the professional soldiers andWest Point generals would never permit the cessation of hostilities. Such men, he thought, would not, in human nature, desire peace. "How canit be explained, " he wrote, "that both governments have fought on duringthese long years of blood and tears and desolation, without either oneoffering terms of peace, and with both running a swift race of rivalryin usurping the most despotic power under the ever-recurring and falseplea of necessities of war? Have both governments formed designs thatcannot be accomplished in peace, and which seek opportunity and shelterin the confusion and panic of war?"

Mr. Linton Stephens was a leading lawyer and legislator in Georgia. Hewas a man of great ability. He had started the practice of law in theoffice of Robert Toombs, and had been a political follower and closefriend of the great Georgian. He had served upon the bench of theSupreme Court of his State, and at the close of the war his politicalinfluence was probably greater than that of any man at home. He wasfearless, inflexible, high-toned, and full of power. He did not hesitateto condemn the legislation asked for by Mr. Davis, and joined Mr. Toombsin opposing the appointment of General Bragg as supervisor of allmilitary operations. Mr. Stephens believed that the next step after theImpressment Act would be the organization of all labor into a militarysystem under government control. 

The result of the policy of Mr. Davis justified the protest of theGeorgians, but there is nothing to warrant the belief that Mr. Davis wasmoving toward military despotism or that he relished the continuance ofstrife. He saw that the South was in for the war. Desperate situationsrequired desperate remedies. He grasped the government with a stronghand, and lacked neither nerve nor patriotism. The principles of thispolicy were unsound, but the motives of Jefferson Davis were pure. Norwas there reason to sustain the wholesale denunciation of West Point. That school of soldiers was the backbone of the army, and the fact thatso many Southern men gave up commissions in the United States army andcame South when their States seceded, overthrew the idea that they weretools of the general government and had lost identity or sympathy withpeople at home. But General Toombs was bold and impatient in hispositions. 

Equally opposed was he to the policy adopted in Georgia of recommendingthe planting of all grain and no cotton. From Richmond he wrote inMarch, 1864, directions to his brother Gabriel Toombs, who managed hisplantations in Washington:

 I do not care to change my crops. I wish to raise an abundant provision crop and then as much cotton as I can. . . . Brown's and Chambers' policy is all foolishness. . . . As to what I shall choose to plant on my own estates, I shall neither refer it to newspapers, nor to public meetings, nor to legislatures. I know what sort of people compose these classes. Let them take up arms and come with me to drive the intruders away from our soil, and then we will settle what sort of seed we will put into it. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

WITH THE GEORGIA MILITIA. 

General Toombs' next appearance in the field was as adjutant andinspector-general of General G. W. Smith's division of Georgia militia. He was present during the battles before Atlanta, the engagement atPeachtree Creek, and the siege of the city. General J. E. Johnston hadjust been relieved from command of the Confederate forces, and GeneralJ. B. Hood placed in charge. General Toombs wrote from Atlanta:

 The tone of the army has greatly improved. We are now receiving reënforcements from the West. Davis, having kicked Johnston out, now feels obliged to sustain Hood, so the country is likely to get good out of evil. General Hood is displaying great energy and using his best exertions for success. I think very well of him. He is a most excellent man, and undoubtedly of great military talent. Whether equal or not to this great struggle, time must prove. 

 The militia are coming up finely. Twelve hundred of them arrived here this evening, armed and tolerably well equipped. Poor fellows! They are green and raw, undisciplined and badly officered. It keeps us at work day and night to bring order out of this confused mass, and we have but a poor chance. They march right into the trenches, and are immediately under the enemy's fire all day. We shall trust to a kind Providence alone to preserve them from a great disaster, and make them useful to the army and the country. The pressure is so great that we are compelled to put them to the work of veterans without an hour's preparation. I am doing my utmost to get them in the best possible position. Georgians are all coming up well except the cities. 

Speaking of men who try to shirk duty, Mr. Toombs wrote, "Poorcreatures! What do they want to live for?"

General Toombs had the task of organizing the recruits and getting themready for the field. He writes to his wife: "Since I began this letter, the Yankees have begun an attack on a part of our line and I was obligedto ride with General Hood to look after our defenses. " General Toombsalludes to General E. C. Walthall of Mississippi, as "a splendid officerand a gentleman. " He says: "The enemy are evidently intending to starveus rather than to fight us out. I have, at the request of General Hood, not less than twenty letters to write on that very subject. Shermanshells the town furiously every day. Not much damage yet. "

It has been customary to speak in light terms of the Georgia militia, who, late in the day, took the field to man the defenses when Shermanwas marching to the sea. They were frequently made up of old men andboys who had been exempt from the regular service, and these werehurried into action with poor equipment and scant preparation. GeneralToombs, in a letter written to his wife, July 25, 1864, says:

 The militia have behaved with great gallantry. This is sincerely true. They have far exceeded my expectations, and in the fight on Thursday equaled any troops in the line of battle. If they will stand and fight like men, our homes will be saved. God give them the spirit of men, and all will be well!

In another place he writes:

 We have a mixed crowd, a large number of earnest, brave, true men; then all the shirks and skulks in Georgia trying to get from under bullets. 

General Toombs commended and endorsed the policy of Governor Brownduring his six years' administration of the office from 1857 to 1863. These two men were warm friends and political allies. When GovernorBrown's third term was drawing to a close, he preferred the selection ofGeneral Toombs as his successor. But Toombs declined to make the race. His game now was war, not politics. He preferred the field to theCabinet. He writes with considerable feeling this letter to his wife:

 Whatever fate may befall me, I feel that this is my place, in the field and with the militia, with the men who own the country and who are struggling to preserve it for their children. I am truly thankful to God for the health he has given me to enable me to perform my part of this work. 

He called all the sons of Georgia to come, even to "die together ratherthan let the Yankee overrun and conquer Georgia. " He concludes a letterof appeal:

 Better be Where the unconquered Spartans still are free, In their proud charnel of Thermopylæ. 

General Toombs' last military service, after the fall of Atlanta, was onthe 20th of December, 1864, when as adjutant and inspector-general heserved in General G. W. Smith's division, Georgia militia, at the siegeof Savannah. General Dick Taylor, in his "Destruction andReconstruction, " gives a very graphic description of General Toombs'energy. The Georgia militia had left Macon for Savannah, and to avoidcapture by the resistless column of Sherman's army, then marching to thesea, was shipped by way of Thomasville. The trains were sometimes slowin moving, and to General Taylor, who was anxious to mass all forces atSavannah, the delay was galling. When Toombs came up, he "damned thedawdling trainmen, and pretty soon infused his own nervous force intothe whole concern. The wheezing engines and freight vans were readilyput in motion, and Governor Brown's 'army' started toward Savannah. "News reached General Taylor about that time that the Federal forces atPort Royal were coming up to capture Pocotaligo on the Charleston andSavannah road. This was a dangerous move, as General Taylor was anxiousto hold this line for coast defense. He needed reënforcements to holdthis point, and at once thought of "Joe Brown's Army. " The position ofGovernor Brown was, however, as General Taylor understood it, thatGeorgia troops were to be held to guard Georgia soil. This was one ofthe points in his discussion with Mr. Davis. General Taylor consultedwith General Toombs, however, and they arranged to have the Georgiamilitia "shunted off at a switch near Savannah and transported quietlyto Carolina. " At Pocotaligo these troops had a lively brush with theUnion forces and succeeded in holding the railroad. The Georgians wereplucky whether at home or abroad, but General Taylor declared thatToombs enjoyed his part in making them "unconscious patriots. "

Sherman's march to the sea was the concluding tragedy of the Civil War. The State which had been at the forefront of the revolution had becomethe bloody theater of battle. From the Tennessee River to Atlanta, Sherman and Johnston had grappled with deadly fury down the mountaindefiles; then Cheatham and Wheeler harassed him at Macon and united fora final siege of Savannah. The granaries and workshops of theConfederacy were gone when Georgia was devastated--as General LordWolseley said, Sherman's invasion was a swordthrust through the vitalsof the young nation. Robert Toombs had followed his own idea of meetingthe invader as soon as he struck an inch of State soil and fighting himas long as a man remained. From the fruitless defense of Savannah, Toombs hastened to discuss the situation with Governor Brown. Hehappened to be dining with him that April day when the news came of thesurrender at Appomattox. The two men looked at each other intently, whenthey realized that all was over. 

Toombs and Brown had been closely allied since the day that the latterwas nominated for Governor in 1857. They had fought campaigns together. Toombs had sustained Governor Brown's war policy almost to the letter. Now they shook hands and parted. Henceforth their paths diverged. Daysof bitterness put that friendship to an end. Both men worked his courseduring reconstruction as he saw fit. But political differences deepenedalmost into personal feud. 

General Toombs repaired to his home in Washington and, on the 4th ofMay, 1865, Jefferson Davis, his Cabinet and staff, having retreated fromRichmond to Danville, thence to Greensboro, N. C. , and Abbeville, S. C. , rode across the country with an armed escort to Washington, Ga. Here, in the old Heard House, the last meeting of the Confederate Cabinet washeld. The members separated, and the civil government of the SouthernConfederacy passed into history. There were present John C. Breckenridge, Secretary of War; John H. Reagan, Postmaster-General, besides the members of Mr. Davis' staff. The Confederate President wasworn and jaded. He looked pale and thin, but was plucky to the last. After the surrender of Lee and Johnston, he wanted to keep up thewarfare in the mountains of Virginia, and in the country west of theMississippi, but he was finally persuaded that the Confederacy mustcease to struggle. On the public square of Washington the little brickhouse, with its iron rail and its red walls, is still pointed out to thevisitor as the spot where the Davis government dissolved. It was adramatic fate which determined its dissolution at the home of RobertToombs. He had been present at its birth. His had been one of theleading spirits of the revolution. He had served it in the Cabinet andfield, he had been pressed for the position of its chief magistracy, andnow in the shadow of his own rooftree its concluding council was held. General Reagan was a guest of General Toombs during his stay inWashington, as was General St. John and Major Raphael J. Moses, who hadbeen a member of Toombs' staff. In the evening General Toombs calledGeneral Reagan into a room by himself and inquired whether the latterneeded any money. General Reagan said he had money enough to take him toTexas. Then General Toombs inquired after Mr. Davis, and asked whetherhe had any money. "I told him no, " says General Reagan, "but that I hadmoney enough to take us both West of of the Mississippi, and had toldMr. Davis so. I had no doubt but that he would rely on that. " GeneralToombs then asked if Mr. Davis was well mounted. "I told him yes, thathe had his bay horse Kentucky, and that after the surrender General Leehad sent his fine gray Traveler, by his son Robert, around throughLynchburg to Mr. Davis at Greenesboro, N. C. " "Well, " said GeneralToombs, with thoughtfulness, "Davis and I had a quarrel once, but thatis over now. I am at home and can command money and men, and if Mr. Davis wants anything, I shall be glad to furnish it. " General Toombsadded that under terms of the convention between Sherman and Johnston, Mr. Davis was entitled to go where he pleased between that point and theChattahoochee River. "I wish you would say to Mr. Davis, " said Toombs, in his bluff way, "that, if necessary, I will call my men around me andsee him safe to the Chattahoochee at the risk of my life. "

On his return to the hotel Mr. Reagan gave General Toombs' message toMr. Davis, and told the latter of the inquiries and offers. "That islike Toombs, " said Mr. Davis. "He was always a whole-souled man. "

The four men whom the Washington government wanted to arrest and holdresponsible for the war were Toombs, Davis, Slidell, and Howell Cobb. Their friends understood this perfectly, and each man was urged to makehis escape. Jefferson Davis was arrested in Irwin County, Ga. , on May10. He was rapidly making his way to the West, and was trying to reachTexas. How General Toombs finally escaped must be reserved for a moreextended recital. 

General Toombs and Mr. Davis never met but once after the war. It wasunexpected, dramatic. Some years after General Toombs had returned fromhis long exile, and Mr. Davis was just back from his trip to England, the ex-president visited Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, the guest of thepoet Sidney Lanier. He here appeared at his best in the company ofsympathetic and admiring friends, and charmed everyone by his polish andlearning. The day before Jefferson Davis left, General and Mrs. Toombsarrived at the mountain. Mr. Davis was, at that time, absent on ahorseback trip. He was fond of riding, and had gone over to see some ofthe fine views of the mountain and to inspect the fields where recentbattles had raged with so much fury. The hotel was kept by a Northernman who knew nothing of the relations between Mr. Davis and GeneralToombs, and he believed the thing to do was to put General and Mrs. Toombs in a vacant room of the cottage occupied by Mr. Davis. It was asmall house, with a piazza extending along the front. It so happenedthat the Toombses, who had just learned of Mr. Davis' presence at thehotel, were sitting on the piazza chatting with friends when Mr. Daviscame up. Mr. Davis had also heard of General Toombs' arrival at thehotel, but neither knew that the other was domiciled in the samecottage. To General Toombs the appearance was as if Mr. Davis had comeat once to make a cordial call. No one could be more hospitable andpolite than Toombs, and this apparent challenge to friendship broughtout the best side of his nature. The men met with considerable warmth. From General Toombs Mr. Davis advanced to Mrs. Toombs. Between these twothe meeting was profoundly affecting. He embraced her tenderly. Toombsand Davis had been friends and neighbors years ago in Washington City, and Mr. Davis had been extremely fond of Mr. Toombs' family. Thedistinguished party soon fell into friendly conversation. Next day Mr. Davis left Lookout Mountain. He never met Robert Toombs again. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

TOOMBS AS A FUGITIVE. 

At the conclusion of the war, Secretary Stanton issued specific ordersfor the arrest of Jefferson Davis, Alexander H. Stephens, and RobertToombs. Mr. Stephens was arrested quietly at his own home inCrawfordville on the 12th of May, 1865, two days after Mr. Davis hadbeen overtaken. On the same day a squad of soldiers, most of themnegroes, reached Washington, Ga. They were commanded by General Wilde, and their orders were to take General Toombs in charge. One of thecolored troops marched up town with the photograph of Toombs, which theyhad procured to identify him, impaled upon his bayonet. General Toombswas, at the time, in his private office at his residence. Hearing thenoise in his yard, he walked out of his basement to the corner of hisfront steps. There he perceived the squad and divined their purpose. "ByGod, the bluecoats!" was all he said. Walking quickly through his backlot, he strode across his plantation and disappeared. By this time theguard was clamoring at the front door, and Mrs. Toombs went out to meetthem. "Where is General Toombs?" the commander asked. "He is not here, "the lady answered firmly. A parley ensued, during which Mrs. Toombsmanaged to detain the men long enough to enable her husband to get outof sight. "Unless General Toombs is produced, I shall burn the house, "retorted the officer. Mrs. Toombs blanched a little at this, but, bitingher lip, she turned on her heel, and coolly replied: "Very well, burnit. " Among the listeners to this colloquy was a young man just returnedfrom the Confederate army. He was moved with indignation. He still worethe gray jacket, and was deeply anxious for the Toombs family. He hadbeen a neighbor to them all his life, as had his father before him, andhe shared the pride which the village felt for its most distinguishedresident. 

He was the son of Hon. I. T. Irvin, a prominent public man and lifelongfriend of General Toombs. Preparations were made for the threatenedfire. General Toombs did not come out. Furniture was moved and papersdestroyed, but the young Confederate was soon convinced that the threatwas a mere bluff. Relieved on that point, his loyal spirit yearnedtoward the fugitive. Charles E. Irvin was the name of the young man, andhe had seen service in the artillery under Longstreet. Not yettwenty-one years of age, he was fired with ardor and devotion, and hadalready resolved to aid General Toombs in escaping. 

Riding over to a neighbor's house, Mr. J. T. Wingfield, he failed tofind his friend, but left word for General Toombs to let him know whereto meet him with his horses. That night about two o'clock LieutenantIrvin got word from General Toombs to bring his horse to Nick Chenault'sby seven o'clock in the morning. This was a farm about eighteen milesfrom Washington, near the Broad River. Here General Toombs mounted histrusted horse and felt at home. It was the famous mare Gray Alice, whichhad carried him through all his campaigns. He had ridden her during thecharges at Antietam, and she had borne him from the fire of the scoutsthe night he had received his wound. Once more he pressed her intoservice, and Robert Toombs, for the first time in his life, was afugitive. This man, who commanded men and had gained his own way bysheer brain and combativeness, fled by stealth from a dreaded enemy. Itwas a new rôle for Toombs. His plucky young guide was resolved toaccompany him in his flight--it might be to his death; it was all thesame to Lieutenant Irvin. Riding swiftly into Elbert County, the two mencrossed over to Harrison Landing, a picturesque spot on the SavannahRiver. Here dwelt an old man, Alexander LeSeur, who led something of ahermit's life. Before the war he had been a "Know-nothing, " and had beenexposed to Toombs' withering fire upon that class of politicians. LeSeur met the fugitive with a laugh and a friendly oath. "You have beenfighting me for forty years, " he said, "and now that you are in trouble, I am the first man you seek for protection. "

[Illustration: RESIDENCE OF GENERAL B. W. HEARD, WASHINGTON, GA. , WHEREJEFFERSON DAVIS HELD LAST MEETING OF CABINET, APRIL, 1865. ]

General Toombs had not traveled too fast. The country was swarming withraiders. News of the capture of Davis and Stephens had fired these menwith desire to overhaul the great champion of secession. A Federalmajor, commanding a force of men, put up at Tate's residence, justopposite the hermit's island. While there, a negro from the LeSeur placeinformed the officer that some prominent man was at the house. "If itain't Jeff Davis, it is just as big a man, " said he. The hint was taken. The island was surrounded and carefully watched, but when the party wentover to capture Toombs, the game was gone. 

General Toombs now started out carefully up the Savannah River. InElbert, he was in the hands of his friends. This county, which had firstencouraged the struggles of the young lawyer, which had followed himsteadfastly in his political fortunes, which had furnished soldiers forhis brigade, now supplied protectors at every step. Before leaving thiscounty he was initiated into a Masonic lodge, and took the first degreesof the order. More than once the signs and symbols of the mysticbrotherhood stood him in good stead on this eventful trip. He wasafterward a high Mason, and remained to his death a devoted friend ofthe order. 

Continuing his journey alone he stopped at the Tugaloo River inHabersham County, and remained at the house of Colonel Prather untilLieutenant Irvin, whom he had sent back to Washington with letters, could rejoin him with funds and clothing. Here his young companion soonfound him, bringing, besides letters from home, some astonishing news. 

"General, " said Lieutenant Irvin, "what do you think? Your friendGeneral Joseph E. Brown has sold out the State of Georgia, and gone overto the Republican party. "

Toombs glared at him savagely. 

"For the first time on this trip, " says Lieutenant Irvin, "he lookedlike he wanted to kill me. He brought his fist down heavily upon thetable and said: 'By God, I don't believe it!'

"'Well here it is in black and white. '"

Lieutenant Irvin gave him the paper in which was printed GovernorBrown's famous address to the people of Georgia. 

"This news, " said Lieutenant Irvin, "absolutely sent the old man tobed. "

Toombs remained a week at Colonel Prather's, and in the meantime sentLieutenant Irvin to Savannah with important letters. He desired toescape, if possible, through the port of Savannah. The Savannah friendswere not at home, however, and Lieutenant Irvin, bearing these importantletters, actually fell into the hands of the enemy. 

He was a high-strung, plucky young fellow, and was reproved by a Federalofficer for continuing to wear brass buttons. Irvin retorted sharply, and was hurried into prison. Fearing that he would be searched and hispapers found, he slipped them to a friend, undetected by the guard. After remaining in prison for several hours, Lieutenant Irvin wasreleased and censured by the officer, who reminded him that there werebayonets about him. 

"Yes, " retorted young Irvin, "and brave men always avail themselves ofsuch advantages. "

Trudging back from Savannah, Lieutenant Irvin found General Toombs atthe Rembert place, near Tallalah Falls. This was a beautiful home in awild, picturesque country, where Toombs was less liable to capture thanin middle Georgia, and where he was less known to the people. GeneralToombs had already procured the parole papers of Major Luther Martin, ofElbert County, a friend and member of his former command. He traveledunder that name, and was so addressed by his young companion all alongthe route. General Toombs passed the time deer-hunting in Habersham. Hehad the steady hand and fine eye of a sportsman, and he was noted forhis horsemanship and endurance. 

Returning toward Washington through Elbert County, General Toombsdecided to spend a night with Major Martin. Lieutenant Irvin stoutlyopposed this and warned him that if the enemy were to look for himanywhere, it would certainly be at Martin's house. Turning down theroad, he finally concluded to put up at the house of Colonel W. H. Mattox. It was well he did. That night a party of thirty soldiers raidedthe Martin plantation on a hot trail, and searched thoroughly forToombs. 

During his travels General Toombs did not wear a disguise of any sort. Dressed in a checked suit, and riding his gray mare, he was a prominentobject, and to most of the people was well known. One day he wore greengoggles, but soon threw them away in disgust. The nearness of troopsforced General Toombs to abandon his plan of going home for his familybefore leaving the country. He dispatched Lieutenant Irvin to Washingtonwith letters to his wife, telling her that he would not see her againuntil he had gone abroad, when he would send for her to join him. Hehimself passed through Centreville, twelve miles from his home, anddirected his young guide where to meet him in middle Georgia. ThisLieutenant Irvin found it very hard to do. General Toombs was verydiscreet as to whom he took into his confidence. Once or twice hecautioned his companion against certain parties, to the surprise of theyoung man. Toombs, however, read human nature pretty well, and, later, when the real character of these persons developed, Irvin understood thecounsels of his older friend. So carefully did General Toombs cover histracks that Lieutenant Irvin, after his detour to Washington, was a longtime in overtaking him. Traveling straight to Sparta, Lieutenant Irvincalled on Judge Linton Stephens and asked about the general. This shrewdGeorgian came to the door and flatly denied knowing anything aboutToombs. 

"He questioned me closely, " said Lieutenant Irvin, "and finding that Iwas really who I pretended to be, finally agreed to take me to Toombs. Riding down to Old-Town, in Jefferson County, we failed to find Toombs, but receiving a clew that he had passed through the David Dicksonplantation in Hancock County, I accosted Mr. Worthen, the manager. 'Hasan old man riding a gray horse passed this way, ' Worthen was asked. Hepromptly answered, 'No. ' Believing that he was deceiving me, Iquestioned him more closely. "

Worthen tried to persuade the young man to get down and take some plums. He was evidently anxious to detain him. Finally he eyed the strangermore closely, and, convinced that he was the companion whom Toombsexpected, he confessed that General Toombs had been at his place and wasthen at the home of Major Gonder in Washington County. 

Lieutenant Irvin had ridden over two hundred miles in this search andlost two or three days out of his way. Toombs covered his trail socarefully that it was difficult even for his friends to find him. Smallwonder that he was not captured by the enemy. 

Lieutenant Irvin was not yet "out of the woods. " Reaching the home ofMajor Gonder late in the evening, he rode up to the front fence, fiftyyards from the dwelling. Mrs. Gonder and her daughter were sitting onthe piazza. Lieutenant Irvin asked the usual question about the old manand the gray horse. The lady replied that she knew nothing about them. 

Lieutenant Irvin said: "But I was directed to this place. "

Mrs. Gonder: "I should like to know who sent you. "

Lieutenant Irvin: "But has no one passed or stopped here, answering mydescription?"

Both ladies were now considerably worked up; the younger scarcelysuppressed her amusement. 

"Come, ladies, " said Lieutenant Irvin, "I see you both know more thanyou will confess. "

"If I do, I will die before I tell it, " naïvely replied the elder. 

"Now I know you know where General Toombs is. "

"Then get it out of me if you can. "

Finally the young man persuaded her that he was the friend of Toombs, and Mrs. Gonder reluctantly directed him to Colonel Jack Smith's over onthe Oconee River. 

Riding up to Colonel Smith's, his valiant pursuer spied General Toombsthrough the window. The head of the house, however, denied that Toombswas there at all. 

"But that looks very much like him through the window, " said LieutenantIrvin. 

"Young man, " retorted Colonel Smith, "what is your name?"

Of course this disclosure led to the reunion of the fugitive and hisfriend. 

Toombs realized that he was in almost as much danger from his ownfriends as from the enemy. He was careful to whom he disclosed hisidentity or his plans, for fear that they might indiscreetly comment onhis presence or embarrass him even by their willingness to befriend him. So it was that he proceeded secretly, picking his way by stealth, andactually doing much of his travel by night. 

At the home of Colonel Jack Smith, the two men remained a week to resttheir horses and take their bearings. General Toombs spent much time onthe Oconee trolling for trout, while bodies of Union cavalry werewatching the ferries and guarding the fords, seining for bigger fish. 

Passing into Wilkinson County, General Toombs stopped at the home of Mr. Joseph Deas. When Lieutenant Irvin asked if the pair could come in, Deasreplied, "Yes, if you can put up with the fare of a man who subsists inSherman's track. "

A maiden sister of Deas lived in the house. With a woman's sensitiveear, she recognized General Toombs' voice, having heard him speak atToombsboro seventeen years before. This discovery, she did notcommunicate to her brother until after the guests had retired. Deas hadbeen discussing politics with Toombs, and his sister asked him if heknew to whom he had been talking all night? Deas said he did not. 

"Joe Deas, " she said, "are you a fool? Don't you know that is GeneralToombs?"

Strange to say, a negro on the place, just as they were leaving, criedout "Good-by, Marse Bob. " He had driven the family to the speakingseventeen years before, and had not forgotten the man who defendedslavery on that day. 

"Good Lord!" said Toombs, "go give that negro some money. "

This same negro had been strung up by the thumbs by Sherman's troops afew months before because he would not tell where his master's muleswere hidden. He piloted General Toombs through the woods to the home ofColonel David Hughes, a prominent and wealthy farmer of Twiggs County. Colonel Hughes had been in Toombs' brigade, and the general remainedwith him a week. 

General Toombs was sitting on the piazza of Colonel Hughes's house oneafternoon when an old soldier asked permission to come in. He still worethe gray, and was scarred and begrimed. He eyed General Toombs veryclosely, and seemed to hang upon his words. He heard him addressed asMajor Martin, and finally, when he arose to leave, wrung the general'shand. 

"Major Martin, " he said, brushing the tears from his eyes, "I'm mightyglad to see you. I wish to God I could do something for you. "

At the gate he turned to Colonel Hughes and said: "I know who that is. It is General Toombs. You can't fool me. "

"Why do you think so?" Colonel Hughes asked. 

"Oh, I remember Gray Alice jumping the stone walls at Sharpsburg toowell to forget the rider now. "

"Colonel, " he continued, "this morning a man near here, who is aRepublican and an enemy of General Toombs, thought he recognized himnear your house. He saw him two hundred yards away. I heard him say hebelieved it was Toombs and he wished he had his head shot off. I camehere to-night to see for myself. You tell General Toombs that if he saysthe word, I will kill that scoundrel as sure as guns. "

The veteran was persuaded, however, to keep quiet and do nothing of thesort. 

It was at this time that Lieutenant Irvin found that the ferries of theOcmulgee River were guarded from one end to the other. Near this placeDavis had been captured and the Union troops were on a sharp lookout forToombs. Convinced that further travel might be hazardous, General Toombsand his friend rode back to the mountains of North Georgia, and thereremained until the early fall. It was in the month of October that thefugitives again started on their checkered flight. The May days hadmelted into summer, and summer had been succeeded by early autumn. Thecrops, planted when he started from home that spring day, were nowripening in the fields, and Northern statesmen were still declaring thatToombs was the arch-traitor, and must be apprehended. Davis was inirons, and Stephens languished in a dungeon at Fortress Monroe. 

Passing once more near Sparta, Ga. , Toombs met, by appointment, hisfriends, Linton Stephens, R. M. Johnson, W. W. Simpson, Jack Lane, EdgeBird, and other kindred spirits. It was a royal reunion, a sort ofLucretia Borgia feast for Toombs--"eat and drink to-day, for to-morrowwe may die. "

Traveling their old road through Washington County, they crossed theOcmulgee, this time in safety, and passed into Houston County. TheFederals believed Toombs already abroad and had ceased to look for himin Georgia. After the passage was made General Toombs said: "Charlie, that ferryman eyed me very closely. Go back and give him some money. "

Lieutenant Irvin did return. The ferryman refused any gift. He said: "Idid not want to take what you did give me. " Irvin asked the reason. Theferryman said: "Tell General Toombs I wish to God I could do somethingfor him. "

General Toombs had a wide personal acquaintance in Georgia. He seldomstopped at a house whose inmates he did not know, and whose relativesand connections he could not trace for generations. Sometimes, whenincognito, the two men were asked where General Toombs was. Theyanswered, "Cuba. "

At Oglethorpe, in Macon County, General Toombs rode right through agarrison of Federal soldiers. As one of his regiments came from thissection, General Toombs was afraid that some of his old soldiers mightrecognize him on the road. A Federal officer advanced to the middle ofthe street and saluted the travelers. Their hearts bounded to theirthroats, and, instinctively, two hands stole to their revolvers. Pistolsand spurs were the only resources. Chances were desperate, but they wereresolved to take them. The officer watched them intently as they rodeleisurely through the town, but he was really more interested in theirfine horses, "Gray Alice" and "Young Alice, " than in the men. Joggingunconcernedly along until the town was hidden by a hill, General Toombsurged his horse into a run, and left "his friends, the enemy, " far inthe rear. It was a close call, but he did not breathe freely yet. Therewas possibility of pursuit, and when the party reached the residence ofa Mr. Brown, a messenger was sent back to the town to mislead thesoldiers should pursuit be attempted. From the hands of the enemy, General Toombs and his friend were now inducted into pleasanter scenes. The house was decorated with lilies and orange blossoms. A wedding wason hand, and the bride happened to be the daughter of the host. Brownwas a brave and determined man. He assured General Toombs that when thewedding guests assembled, there would be men enough on hand, should anattack be made, to rout the United States garrison, horse, foot, anddragoons. At Dr. Raines' place, on the Chattahoochee River, a horsedrover happened to say something about Toombs. He gave the statesman around of abuse and added: "And yet, they tell me that if I were to meetGeneral Toombs and say what I think of him, I would either have a fightor he would convince me that he was the biggest man in the world. "

Tired of the long horseback ride, having been nearly six months in thesaddle, the men now secured an ambulance from Toombs' plantation inStewart County, and crossed the river into Alabama. His faithful mare, which he was forced to leave behind, neighed pathetically as her masterrode away in a boat and pulled for the Alabama shore. At Evergreen theytook the train, and it seemed that half the men on the cars recognizedGeneral Toombs. General Joseph Wheeler, who was on board, did not takehis eyes off him. Toombs became nervous under these searching glances, and managed to hide his face behind a paper which he was reading. AtTensas Station he took the boat for Mobile. There was a force of Federalsoldiers on board, and this was the closest quarters of his longjourney. There was now no chance of escape, if detected. The soldiersfrequently spoke to General Toombs, but he was not in the slightest waymolested. 

At Mobile General Toombs took his saddle-bags and repaired to the homeof his friend Mr. Evans, about four miles from the city. There he wasplaced in the care of Howard Evans and his sister, Miss Augusta J. Evans, the gifted Southern authoress. Anxious to conceal the identity oftheir guest, these hospitable young people dismissed their servants, andMiss Evans herself cooked and served General Toombs' meals with her ownhands. She declared, with true hospitality, that she felt it a privilegeto contribute to the comfort and insure the safety of the brilliantstatesman. She was a Georgian herself, and with her this was a labor oflove. 

These were among the most agreeable moments of General Toombs' longexile. He loved the companionship of intellectual women, and theconversation during these days was full of brilliant interest. MissEvans was a charming talker, as bright as a jewel, and Toombs was aChesterfield with ladies. The general would walk to and fro along theshaded walks and pour forth, in his matchless way, the secret history ofthe ruin of Confederate hopes. 

General Toombs wrote home, in courtly enthusiasm, of his visit toMobile. Mr. Stephens sent Miss Evans a warm letter of thanks for herattentions to his friend. "I have, " said he, "just received a letterfrom General Toombs, who has been so united with me in friendship anddestiny all our lives, giving such account of the kind attentions hereceived from you and your father while in Mobile, that I cannot forbearto thank you and him for it in the same strain and terms as if theseattentions had been rendered to myself. What you did for my friend, inthis particular, you did for me. "

While General Toombs was in Mobile, General Wheeler called upon theEvans family and remarked that he thought he had seen General Toombs onthe train. Miss Evans replied that she had heard General Toombs was inCuba. 

Lieutenant Irvin went to New Orleans and secured from the Spanish Consula pass to Cuba for "Major Luther Martin. " At Mobile General Toombs tookthe boat _Creole_ for New Orleans. He seemed to be nearing the end ofhis long journey, but it was on this boat that the dramatic incidentoccurred which threatened to change the course of his wanderings atlast. While General Toombs was at supper, he became conscious that oneof the passengers was eying him closely. He said to Lieutenant Irvin:"Charlie, don't look up now, but there is a man in the doorway whoevidently recognizes me. "

"General, probably it is someone who thinks he knows you. "

"No, " replied Toombs quietly, "that man is a spy. "

Lieutenant Irvin asked what should be done. General Toombs told him togo out and question the man and, if convinced that he was a spy, tothrow him over the stern-rail of the steamer. Lieutenant Irvin got upand went on deck. The stranger followed him. Irvin walked toward therail. The stranger asked him where he was from. He answered "NorthCarolina. "

"Who is that with you?" he questioned. 

"My uncle, Major Martin, " said Irvin. 

The man then remarked that it looked very much like Robert Toombs. Irvinanswered that the likeness had been noted before, but that he could notsee it. 

"Young man, " said the stranger, "I don't want to dispute your word, butthat is certainly Toombs. I know him well, and am his friend. "

Irvin then gave up the idea of throwing him overboard. Had the braveyoung officer not been convinced that the party questioning him wasColonel M. C. Fulton, a prominent resident of Georgia, he says he wouldcertainly have pitched him into the Gulf of Mexico. 

General Toombs, when informed of the identity of Colonel Fulton, sentfor him to come to his room, and the two men had a long and friendlyconversation. 

Arriving at New Orleans General Toombs drove up to the residence ofColonel Marshal J. Smith. On the 4th of November, 1865, he boarded thesteamship _Alabama_, the first of the Morgan line put on after the warbetween New Orleans, Havana, and Liverpool. A tremendous crowd hadgathered at the dock to see the steamer off, and Lieutenant Irvin triedto persuade General Toombs to go below until the ship cleared. But thebuoyant Georgian persisted in walking the deck, and was actuallyrecognized by General Humphrey Marshall of Texas, who had known him inthe Senate before the war. 

"No, " said Toombs to his companion's expostulations, "I want fresh air, and I will die right here. I am impatient to get into neutral waters, when I can talk. I have not had a square, honest talk in six months. "

By the time the good ship had cleared the harbor, everybody on boardknew that Robert Toombs, "the fire-eater and rebel, " was a passenger, and hundreds gathered around to listen to his matchless conversation. 

Lieutenant Irvin never saw General Toombs again until 1868. He himselfwas an officer of the Irvin artillery, Cutts' battalion, being a part ofWalker's artillery in Longstreet's corps. Entering the army at seventeenyears of age, Charles E. Irvin was a veteran at twenty-one. He wasbrave, alert, tender, and true. He recalls that when his company joinedthe army in Richmond, Robert Toombs, then Secretary of State, gave thema handsome supper at the Exchange Hotel. "I remember, " said he, "withinfinite satisfaction, that during the seven months I accompaniedGeneral Toombs, in the closest relations and under the most tryingpositions, he was never once impatient with me. " Frequently, on thislong and perilous journey, Toombs would say; "Well, my boy! suppose theYankees find us to-day; what will you do?" "General, you say you won'tbe taken alive. I reckon they will have to kill me too. "

General Toombs often declared that he would not be captured. Imprisonment, trial, and exile, he did not dread; but to be carriedabout, a prize captive and a curiosity through Northern cities, was hisconstant fear. He was prepared to sell his life dearly, and there is nodoubt but that he would have done so. 

During all these trying days, Toombs rode with the grace and gayety of acavalier. He talked incessantly to his young companion, who eagerlydrank in his words. He fought his battles over again and discussed theleaders of the Civil War in his racy style. He constantly predicted thecollapse of the greenback system of currency, and speculatedfacetiously each day upon the chances of capture. He calculated shrewdlyenough his routes and plans, and when he found himself on _terra firma_, it was under the soft skies of the Antilles with a foreign flag abovehim. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

WITHOUT A COUNTRY. 

From Cuba General Toombs proceeded to Paris. It was early in July beforehe reached his new stopping place. He found himself somewhat restrictedin funds, as he had not had time to turn his property into gold to makehis trip abroad. It is related that just after the departure of thefamous "specie train, " through Washington in the wake of Mr. Davis'party, a Confederate horseman dashed by the residence of General Toombsand threw a bag of bullion over the fence. It was found to contain fivethousand dollars, but Toombs swore he would not even borrow this amountfrom his government. He turned it over to the authorities for the use ofdisabled Confederate soldiers, and hurriedly scraped up what funds hecould command in case he should be compelled to fly. Arriving in Paris, General Toombs succeeded in selling one of his plantations, realizingabout five dollars an acre for it. He used to explain to the astoundedFrenchmen, during his residence abroad, that he ate an acre of dirt aday. 

General Toombs repaired to Enghien, where he took a course of sulphurbaths for the benefit of his throat. Constant exposure with the army andin his flight had brought on his old enemy, the asthma. He had been ahealthy man, having long passed the limit of manhood before he tastedmedicine. Late in life, an attack of scarlet fever left his throat in adelicate condition. 

Mrs. Toombs joined him in Paris in July, 1865, and he passed eighteenmonths quietly with her in Europe. It was in marked contrast to his tourin 1855, when, as United States Senator, he had gone from place toplace, observed, honored, and courted. He was now an exile without acountry. He had seen his political dreams wiped out in blood and hishome in the hands of the enemy. From the dignity and power of a UnitedStates Senator and a possible aspirant to the Presidency, he had beenbranded as a conspirator, and forced, like Mirabeau, to seek shelter indistant lands. 

France was, at that time, in a state of unrest. Louis Napoleon waswatching with anxiety the eagles of Prussia hovering over the GermanConfederation. Austria had already succumbed to Prussian power, andNapoleon had been blocked in his scheme to secure, from this disorder, his share of the Rhenish provinces. Toombs, who had fled from a restoredUnion in America, now watched the march of consolidation in Europe, andpredicted its final success. 

General Toombs was an object of interest in Europe. His position towardthe American government prevented his public recognition by the rulers, but he used to relate with zest his interviews with Carlyle, the EmpressEugenie, and other notables. He was a man to attract attention, and histalk was fascinating and bright. 

He was sometimes sought in a legal way by prominent financiers, whoasked his opinions upon fiscal matters in America. There is no doubt butthat, like Judah P. Benjamin, he could have built up a large practiceabroad, had he cared to do so; but permanent residence away from homewas entirely out of his mind. 

In December, 1866, General and Mrs. Toombs received a cable messagetelling them of the death of their only daughter, Mrs. Dudley M. DuBose, in Washington, Ga. Mrs. Toombs at once returned home, leaving thegrief-stricken father alone in Paris. Anxious to go back with her, hewas advised that matters were still unsettled in the United States. Theimpeachment of Andrew Johnson was in progress, and his conviction meantrestored martial law for the South. So the days were full of woe for thelonely exile. 

On December 25, 1866, he writes a beautiful and pathetic letter to hiswife. While the denizens of the gay city were deep in the celebrationof the joyous Christmas feast, the Southern wanderer, "with heart boweddown, " was passing through the shadows, and suffering in silence thekeenest pangs of affliction. Around him the votaries of fashion andwealth were flushed with gayety. Paris was in the ecstasy ofChristmastide. But the depths of his soul were starless and chill, andin the midst of all this mirth one heart was tuned to melancholy. Hewrites to his wife:

 The night you left I retired to the room and did not go to sleep until after two o'clock. I felt so sad at parting with you and could not help thinking what a long dreary trip you had that night. I shall have a long journey of five thousand miles to Havana, and do not know that I shall meet a human being to whom I am known, but if I keep well I shall not mind that, especially as I am homeward bound; for my hearthstone is desolate, and clouds and darkness hover over the little remnant that is left of us, and of all our poor friends and countrymen; and, when you get home, Washington will contain nearly all that is dear to me in this world. I remained alone yesterday after I got up and went to my solitary meal. I immediately came back to my room, and have seen nothing of Christmas in Paris. 

On January 1, 1867, he writes:

 This is the first of the new year. How sad it opens upon me! In a foreign land, with all that is dear to me on earth beyond the ocean, either on the way to a distant home or at its desolate fireside. Well, I shall not nurse such gloomy ideas. Let us hope that the new year may be happier and that we may grow better. God knows I cannot regret that 1866 is gone. I hope its calamities will not enter with us into 1867. I had hoped to hear from New York of your safe arrival on the other side of the ocean. 

The loss of his daughter Sallie was a severe blow to General Toombs. Buttwo of his children lived to be grown. His eldest daughter Louise diedin 1855, shortly after her marriage to Mr. W. F. Alexander. GeneralToombs had a son who died in early childhood of scarlet fever. This wasa great blow to him, for he always longed for a son to bear his name. Away off in Paris his heart yearned for his four little grandchildren, left motherless by this new affliction. He writes again from Paris:

 I almost determined to take the steamer Saturday and run the gauntlet to New York. I would have done so but for my promise to you. I know everything looks worse and worse on our side of the ocean, but when will it be any better? Is this state of things to last forever? To me it is becoming intolerable. . . . Kiss the dear little children for me. Bless their hearts! How I long to see them and take them to my arms. God bless you! Pray for me that I may be a better man in the new year than in all the old ones before in my time. 

Early in January General Toombs decided to sail for Cuba and thence toNew Orleans. If he found it unsafe to remain in the South he concludedhe could either go back to Cuba or extend his travels into Canada. Hehad promised his wife he would remain abroad for the present. But hewrites:

 The worst that can happen to me is a prison, and I don't see much to choose between my present condition and any decent fort. I feel so anxious about you and the children that it makes me very wretched. 

From Paris, January 16, 1867, he writes:

 My preparations are all complete, and I leave to-morrow on the _New World_ for Havana and New Orleans, _via_ Martinique. I am well; except my throat. I shall have a long and lonesome voyage, with not much else to cheer me but that I shall find you and our dear little ones at the end of my journey. If I am permitted to find you all well, I shall be compensated for its fatigues and dangers. God grant that we may all meet once more in this world in health!

 Yours truly and affectionately, as ever, TOOMBS. 

General Toombs returned to America and after a short residence in Canadawent to Washington, where he had a long interview with his oldsenatorial colleague, President Andrew Johnson. He went home fromWashington and was never again molested. He made no petition for reliefof political disabilities. He was never restored to citizenship. WhenHonorable Samuel J. Randall proposed his General Amnesty Act in 1875, Mr. Blaine and other Republicans desired to exclude from its provisionsthe names of Davis and Toombs. The Democrats would not accept thisamendment, and the bill was never passed. Once, when Senator Oliver P. Morton asked General Toombs why he did not petition Congress for pardon, Toombs quietly answered, "Pardon for what? I have not pardoned you allyet. "

CHAPTER XXVI. 

COMMENCING LIFE ANEW. 

When General Toombs finally returned to Georgia it was with a great partof his fortune gone, his political career cut off by hopelessdisability, and his household desolate. These were serious calamitiesfor a man fifty-seven years of age. He found himself forced under newand unfavorable conditions to build all over again, but he set about itin a vigorous and heroic way. His health was good. He was a splendidspecimen of manhood. His once raven locks were gray, and his beard, which grew out from his throat, gave him a grizzly appearance. His darkeye was full of fire and his mind responded with vigor to its new work. 

When General Toombs arrived at Washington, Ga. , he consulted some of hisfriends over the advisability of returning to the practice of law, whichhe had left twenty-five years before. Their advice was against it. Things were in chaos; the people were impoverished, and the custodiansof the courts were the creatures of a hostile government. But RobertToombs was made of different stuff. Associating himself in the practiceof his profession with General Dudley M. DuBose, who had been his chiefof staff, and was his son-in-law, an able and popular man in the fullvigor of manhood, General Toombs returned actively to the practice oflaw. He was not long in turning to practical account his greatabilities. Success soon claimed him as an old favorite. Businessaccumulated and the ex-senator and soldier found himself once more atthe head of the bar of Georgia. Large fees were readily commanded. Hewas employed in important cases in every part of Georgia, and theannouncement that Robert Toombs was to appear before judge and jury wasenough to draw large crowds from city and country. His old habits ofindomitable industry returned. He rode the circuits like a youngbarrister again. He was a close collector of claims, an admirableadministrator, a safe counselor, and a bold and fearless advocate. In ashort time General Toombs' family found themselves once more in comfort, and he was the same power with the people that he had always been. 

Cut off from all hope of official promotion, scorning to sue forpolitical pardon, he strove to wield in the courts some of the power heforfeited in politics. He figured largely in cases of a public nature, and became an outspoken tribune of the people. He did not hesitate toface the Supreme Court of Georgia, then made up of Republican judges, and attack the laws of a Republican legislature. Among the bills passedat that time to popularize the legislature with the people, was a seriesof liberal homestead and exemption laws. They were the relief measuresof 1868. By these schemes, at once rigorous and sweeping, millions ofdollars were lost in Georgia. They were intended to wipe out old debts, especially contracts made during the war, and Governor Bullock hadappointed a Supreme Court which sustained them. These laws wereabhorrent to Toombs. He thundered against them with all the powers ofhis learning and eloquence. When he arose in court, there stood withhim, he believed, not only the cause of his client, but the honor of thewhole State of Georgia. It was much easier to seduce a poverty-strickenpeople by offering them measures of relief than to drive them by thebayonet or to subject them to African domination. In the case ofHardeman against Downer, in June, 1868, he declared before the SupremeCourt that these homestead laws put a premium on dishonesty and robbedthe poor man of his capital. "But we must consider the intention of theAct, " said the Court. "Was it not the intention of the legislature toprevent the collection of just such claims as these you now bring?""Yes, may it please the Court, " said Toombs, shaking his leonine locks, "there can be no doubt that it was the intention of the legislature todefraud the creditor; but they have failed to put their intention in aform that would stand, so it becomes necessary for this Court to add itsown ingenuity to this villainy. It seems that this Court is making lawsrather than decisions. "

In one of his dissenting opinions upon these laws, Justice Hiram Warnerdeclared that he would not allow his name to go down to posteritysteeped in the infamy of such a decision. General Toombs lost his case, but the decision was subsequently overruled by the Supreme Court of theUnited States. 

The times were full of evil. The legislature was dominated byadventurers and ignorant men, and public credit was freely voted away tonew enterprises. The State was undeveloped, and this wholesale system ofpublic improvement became popular. Unworthy men were scrambling forpublic station, and the times were out of tune. In the midst of thisdemoralization Toombs was a pillar of fire. He was tireless in hiswithering satire, his stinging invective, his uncompromising war uponthe misgovernment of the day. 

Here was a fine field and a rare occasion for his pungent criticism anddenunciation. His utterances were not those of a political leader. Hewas not trimming his sails for office. He did not shape his conduct soas to be considered an available man by the North. He fought errorwherever he saw it. He made no terms with those whom he consideredpublic enemies. He denounced radicalism as a "leagued scoundrelism ofprivate gain and public plunder. "

In opposing the issue of State bonds to aid a certain railroad, hedeclared that if the legislature saddled this debt upon the taxpayers, their act would be a nullity. "We will adopt a new constitution with aclause repudiating these bonds, and like Ætna spew the monstrous fraudsout of the market!"

"You may, " he said, "by your deep-laid schemes, lull the thoughtless, enlist the selfish, and stifle for a while the voices of patriots, butthe day of reckoning will come. These cormorant corporations, theseso-called patriotic developers, whom you seek to exempt, shall pay theirdues, if justice lives. By the Living God, they shall pay them. "

"Georgia shall pay her debts, " said Toombs on one occasion. "If she doesnot, I will pay them for her!" This piece of hyperbole was softened bythe fact that on two occasions, when the State needed money to supplydeficits, Toombs with other Georgians did come forward and lift thepressure. Sometimes he talked in a random way, but responsibility alwayssobered him. He was impatient of fraud and stupidity, often full ofexaggerations, but scrupulous when the truth was relevant. Alwaysstrict and honorable in his engagements, he boasted that he never had adirty shilling in his pocket. 

The men who "left the country for the country's good" and came South tofatten on the spoils of reconstruction, furnished unending targets forhis satire. He declared that these so-called developers came for pelf, not patriotism. "Why, these men, " he said, "are like thieving elephants. They will uproot an oak or pick up a pin. They would steal anything froma button to an empire. " On one occasion he was bewailing the degeneracyof the times, and he exclaimed: "I am sorry I have got so much sense. Isee into the tricks of these public men too quickly. When God Almightymoves me from the earth, he will take away a heap of experience. Iexpect when a man gets to be seventy he ought to go, for he knows toomuch for other people's convenience. "

"I hope the Lord will allow me to go to heaven as a gentleman, " he usedto say. "Some of these Georgia politicians I do not want to associatewith. I would like to associate with Socrates and Shakespeare. "

During his arguments before the Supreme Court, General Toombs used toabuse the Governor and the Bullock Legislature very roundly. The Courtadopted a rule that no lawyer should be allowed, while conducting hiscase, to abuse a coördinate branch of the government. General Toombs wasinformed that if he persisted in this practice he would be held forcontempt. The next time Toombs went before the Court he alluded to thefugitive Governor in very sharp terms. "May it please your Honors, theGovernor has now absconded. Your Honors have put in a little rule tocatch me. In seeking to protect the powers that be, I presume you didnot intend to defend the powers that were. "

The papers printed an account of an interview between General Gordon andMr. Tilden in 1880, Gordon told Tilden that he was sorry he could notimpart to Tilden some of his own strength and vitality. "So my brothertold me last year, " answered Mr. Tilden. "I have since followed him tothe grave. " Toombs read this and remarked that Tilden did not think hewas going to die. "No one expects to die but I. I have got sense enoughto know that I am bound to die. "

On one occasion Toombs was criticising an appointment made by anunpopular official. "But, General, " someone said, "you must confess thatit was a good appointment. " "That may be, but that was not the reason itwas made. Bacon was not accused of selling injustice. He was eternallydamned for selling justice. "

General Toombs was once asked in a crowd in the Kimball House inAtlanta what he thought of the North. "My opinion of the Yankees isapostolic. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord rewardhim according to his works. " A Federal officer was standing in thecrowd. He said: "Well, General, we whipped you, anyhow. " "No, " repliedToombs, "we just wore ourselves out whipping you. "

He spoke of the spoliators in the State Legislature as "an assembly ofmanikins whose object is never higher than their breeches pockets;seekers of jobs and judgeships, anything for pap or plunder, anamalgamation of white rogues and blind negroes, gouging the treasury anddisgracing Georgia. "

He was a violent foe of exemptions, of bounties, and of all sorts ofcorruption and fraud. He was overbearing at times, but not moreconscious of power than of honesty in its use. He was generous to theweak. It was in defense of his ideas of justice that he overboreopposition. 

General Toombs kept the issues before the people. He had no patiencewith the tentative policy. He forfeited much of his influence at thistime by his indiscriminate abuse of Northern men and Southern opponents, and his defiance of all the conditions of a restored Union. He couldhave served his people best by more conservative conduct, but he had allthe roughness and acerbity of a reformer, dead in earnest. It was owingto his constant arraignment of illegal acts of the post-bellum régimethat the people finally aroused, in 1870, and regained the State forwhite supremacy and Democratic government. He challenged the authors ofthe Reconstruction measures to discuss the constitutionality of theamendments. Charles J. Jenkins had already carried the cause of Georgiainto the courts, and Linton Stephens, before United States CommissionerSwayze in Macon, had made an exhaustive argument upon the whole subject. Toombs forced these issues constantly into his cases, and kept publicinterest at white heat. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

DAYS OF RECONSTRUCTION

In July, 1868, the people of Georgia made the first determined standagainst the Republican party. John B. Gordon was nominated for Governor, and Seymour and Blair had been named in New York as National Democraticstandard-bearers. A memorable meeting was held in Atlanta. It was thefirst real rally of the white people under the new order of things. Robert Toombs, Howell Cobb, and Benjamin H. Hill addressed themultitude. There was much enthusiasm, and crowds gathered from everypart of Georgia. This was the great "Bush Arbor meeting" of that year, and old men and boys speak of it to-day with kindling ardor. "Fewpeople, " said Toombs in that speech, "had escaped the horrors of war, and fewer still the stern and bitter curse of civil war. The historiesof the greatest peoples of earth have been filled with defeats as wellas victories, suffering as well as happiness, shame and reproach as wellas honor and glory. The struggles of the great and good are the noblestlegacies left by the past to the present generation, trophies worthy tobe laid at the feet of Jehovah himself. Those whose blades glittered inthe foremost ranks of the Northern army on the battlefield, with a yethigher and nobler purpose denounce the base uses to which the victoryhas been applied. The old shibboleths of victory are proclaimed asliving principles. Whatever else may be lost, the principles of MagnaCharta have survived the conflict of arms. The edicts of the enemyabolish all securities of life, liberty, and property; defeat all therightful purposes of government, and renounce all remedies, all laws. ["]

General Toombs denounced the incompetency of the dominant party inGeorgia--"In its tyranny, its corruption, its treachery to the Caucasianrace, its patronage of vice, of fraud, of crime and criminals, its crimeagainst humanity and in its efforts to subordinate the safeguards ofpublic security and to uproot the foundations of free government it hasforfeited all claims upon a free people. "

Alluding to General Longstreet, who had been a member of the Republicanparty, General Toombs said: "I would not have him tarnish his ownlaurels. I respect his courage, honor his devotion to his cause, andregret his errors. " He denounced the ruling party of Georgia as a massof floating putrescence, "which rises as it rots and rots as it rises. "He declared that the Reconstruction Acts "stared out in their nakeddeformity, open to the indignant gaze of all honest men. "

The campaign at that time was made upon the illegality of the amendmentsto the Constitution. Enthusiasm was fed by the fiery and impetuousinvective of Toombs. The utterances of most public men were guarded andconservative. But when Toombs spoke the people realized that he utteredthe convictions of an unshackled mind and a fearless spirit. Leadersdeprecated his extreme views, but the hustings rang with his ruthlesscandor. 

The conclusion of his Bush Arbor effort was a fine sample of his fervidspeech: "All these and many more wrongs have been heaped upon you, mycountrymen, without your consent. Your consent alone can give the leastvalidity to these usurpations. Let no power on earth wring that consentfrom you. Take no counsel of fear; it is the meanest of masters; spurnthe temptations of office from the polluted hands of your oppressors. Hewho owns only his own sepulcher at the price of such claims holds aheritage of shame. Unite with the National Democratic party. Yourcountry says come; honor says come; duty says come; liberty says come;the country is in danger; let every freeman hasten to the rescue. "

It was at this meeting that Benjamin H. Hill, who made so muchreputation by the publication of a series of papers entitled, "Notes onthe Situation, " delivered one of the most memorable speeches of hislife. It was a moving, overmastering appeal to the people to go to thepolls. When this oration was over, the audience was almost wild, andRobert Toombs, standing on the platform, in his enthusiasm threw his hataway into the delighted throng. A young bright-faced boy picked it upand carried it back to the speakers' stand. It was Henry Grady. 

The defeat of the National Democratic party in 1868 disheartened theSouthern people, and the old disinclination to take part in politicsseized them stronger than before. In 1870, however, General Toombsdelivered, in different parts of Georgia, a carefully prepared lectureon the Principles of Magna Charta. It was just the reverse in style andconception to his fervid Bush Arbor oration. It was submitted tomanuscript and was read from notes at the speakers' stand. With thepossible exception of his Tremont Temple lecture, delivered in Boston in1856, it was the only one of his public addresses so carefully preparedand so dispassionately delivered. In his opinion the principles of freegovernment were drifting away from old landmarks. The times were out ofjoint, the people were demoralized. The causes which afterward led tothe great revolt in the Republican ranks in 1872 were already marked inthe quick perception of Toombs, and this admirable state paper wasframed to put the issue before the public in a sober, statesmanlike way, and to draw the people back to their old moorings. This lecture wasdelivered in all the large cities and many of the smaller towns ofGeorgia, and had a great effect. Already there had been concerted appealto Georgians to cease this political opposition and "accept thesituation. " Even statesmen like Mr. Hill had come round to the point ofadvising the people to abandon "dead issues. " The situation was moredesperate than ever. 

In his Magna Charta lecture Mr. Toombs said that Algernon Sidney hadsummed up the object of all human wisdom as the good government of thepeople. "From the earliest ages to the present time, " said he, "therehas been a continued contest between the wise and the virtuous who wishto secure good government and the corrupt who were unwilling to grantit. The highest duty of every man, a duty enjoined by God, was theservice of his country. " This was the great value of the victory atRunnymede, with its rich fruits--that rights should be respected andthat justice should be done. "These had never been denied for sevenhundred years, until the present evil days, " said Toombs. Magna Chartahad been overridden and trampled underfoot by brave tyrants and evadedby cowardly ones. There had been ingenious schemes to destroy it. Themen of '76 fought for Magna Charta. These principles had been prominentin our Constitution until a Republican majority attempted destructionand civil war. Kings had made efforts to destroy its power and subvertits influence. Not a single noble family existed in England but whichhad lost a member in its defense. Society was organized to protect it, and all good and true men are required to maintain its teachings. "Theassassins of liberty are now in power, but a reaction is coming. Standfirm, make no compromise, have nothing to do with men who talk of deadissues. It is the shibboleth of ruin. Push forward, and make a squarefight for your liberties. "

The plain but powerful summary of public obligation had a more lastingeffect than his more fiery appeals. General Toombs was a potent leaderin the campaign, though not himself a candidate or even a voter. GeneralD. M. DuBose, his law partner, was elected to Congress this year, andthe Democratic party secured a majority in the State Legislature. Amongthe men who shared in the redemption of the State Robert Toombs was thefirst and most conspicuous. 

Some of the best speeches made by General Toombs at this time weredelivered to the farmers at the various agricultural fairs. These werefrequent and, as Judge Reese declared, abounded with wisdom whichcaused him years of reflection and observation. He had been reared upona farm. His interests, as his sympathies, were with these people. Heremained in active management of his large plantation, Roanoke, inStewart County, during the period when he was a member of Congress andeven when he was in the army. Two or three times a year he made visitsto that place and was always in close communication with his overseers. He loved the work and was a successful farmer. A fondness for gardeningand stock-raising remained with him until his last years. Even in a verybusy and tempestuous life, as he characterized it in speaking to JudgeReese, a spacious garden, with orchards and vineyards, was to him anunfailing source of recreation and pleasure. 

He writes to his wife of the disasters of the army at Orange CourtHouse, Va. , but finds time to add: "The gardens and fruit are greatadditions to the family comfort, and every effort should be made to putthem in the best condition. " Writing from Richmond of the condition ofLee's army in March, 1862, he does not forget to add: "I am sorry toknow that the prospects of the crops are so bad. One of the bestreliances now is the garden. Manure high, work well, and keep plantingvegetables. " From Roanoke, in 1863, he writes; "My plantation affairsare not in as good condition as I would wish. I have lost a great manysheep, have but few lambs and little wool; cattle poor--all need lookingafter. " In the midst of the shelling of Atlanta in 1864, he writes fromthe trenches to his wife: "Tell Squire to put your cows and Gabriel's inthe volunteer oatfield. Every day we hear cannonading in front. "

It was in 1869 that General Toombs made one of his great speeches at theState fair in Columbus, in the course of which he used this expression;"The farmers of Georgia will never enjoy general prosperity until theyquit making the West their corncrib and smokehouse. " It was in that samespeech that Toombs said, referring to the soldiers of the South;"Liberty, in its last analysis, is but the sweat of the poor and theblood of the brave. " Most of the great men in Georgia have been rearedin the country. There seems to be something in the pure air, the broadfields, and even the solitude, conducive to vigor and self-reliance. Attrition and culture have finished the work laid up by the farmer boy, and that fertile section of middle Georgia, so rich in products of theearth, has given greatness to the State. 

In August, 1872, General Toombs was invited by the alumni of theUniversity of Georgia to deliver the annual address during commencementweek. A large crowd was in attendance and the veteran orator receivedan ovation. He departed from his usual custom and attempted to read awritten speech. His eyesight had begun to fail him, the formation of acataract having been felt with great inconvenience. The pages of themanuscript became separated and General Toombs, for the first time inhis life, is said to have been embarrassed. He had not read more thanone quarter of his speech when this complication was discovered, and hewas unable to find the missing sheets. Governor Jenkins, who was sittingon the stage, whispered to him; "Toombs, throw away your manuscript andgo it on general principles. " The general took off his glasses, stuffedthe mixed essay into his pocket, and advanced to the front of the stage. He was received with a storm of applause from the crowd, who hadrelished his discomfiture and were delighted with the thought of anold-time talk from Toombs. For half an hour he made one of his eloquentand electric speeches, and when he sat down the audience screamed formore. No one but Toombs could have emerged so brilliantly from thisawkward dilemma. 

General Toombs opposed the nomination of Horace Greeley for President bythe National Democratic convention in 1872. Mr. Stephens edited theAtlanta _Sun_, and these two friends once more joined their great powersto prevent the consummation of what they regarded as a vast politicalmistake. Greeley carried the State by a very reduced majority. 

In January, 1873, when Mr. Stephens was defeated for the United StatesSenate by General John B. Gordon, General Toombs called a meeting of theleaders of the eighth district in his room at the Kimball House inAtlanta, and nominated his friend Alexander Stephens for Congress. Heneeded no other indorsement. He was elected and reëlected, and remainedin Congress until he resigned in 1882, to become Governor of Georgia. Toombs and Stephens never lost their lead as dictators in Georgiapolitics. 

The man in Georgia who suffered most frequently from the criticism ofGeneral Toombs during this eventful period was ex-Governor Joseph E. Brown. His position in taking his place in the Republican party, inaccepting office, and separating himself from his old friends andallies, brought down upon him the opprobrium of most of the people. Itwas at a time when Charles J. Jenkins had carried away the great seal ofGeorgia and refused to surrender it to a hostile government. It was at atime when Linton Stephens, the most vigorous as the most popular publicman during the reconstruction period, was endeavoring to arouse thepeople. Governor Brown's apostasy was unfortunate. No man was then moreexecrated by the people who had honored him. His name, for a while, wasa byword and a reproach. Mr. Stephens defended his position asconscientious if not consistent, and gave Governor Brown the credit forthe purity as well as the courage of his convictions. Governor Brownbore the contumely with patience. He contended that he could best servethe State by assuming functions that must otherwise be placed in hostilehands, and his friends declare to-day that in accepting the amendmentsto the Constitution he simply occupied in advance the ground to whichthe party and the people were forced to come. But his position did notcompare favorably with that of the prominent Georgians of that day. 

The relations of Governor Brown and General Toombs continued strained. The latter never lost an opportunity to upbraid him in public or inprivate, and some of his keenest thrusts were aimed at the ploddingfigure of his old friend and ally, as it passed on its lonely waythrough the shadows of its long probation. 

On one occasion in Atlanta, in July, 1872, General Toombs among otherthings referred to a lobby at the legislature in connection with a claimfor the Mitchel heirs. Governor Brown had remained quiet during his longpolitical ostracism, but he turned upon his accuser now withunlooked-for severity. He answered the charge by declaring that ifToombs accused him of lobbying this claim, he was an "unscrupulousliar. " The reply did not attract much attention until it became knownthat General Toombs had sent a friend to Governor Brown to know if thelatter would accept a challenge. Colonel John C. Nicholls was thefriend, and Governor Brown returned the answer that when he received thechallenge he would let him know. General Toombs did not push the matterfurther. The affair took the form of a newspaper controversy, which wasconducted with much acrimony on both sides. Colonel Nicholls stated inprint his belief that Governor Brown would not have accepted a challengebut would have used it to Toombs' injury before the people. The prospectof a duel between these two old men created a sensation at the time. Itwould have been a shock to the public sense of propriety to have allowedsuch a meeting. It would never have been permitted; but Governor Brownseems to have been determined to put the issue to the touch. He hadprepared his resignation as a deacon of the Baptist Church, and hadplaced his house in order. He seemed to realize that this was theturning-point of his career, and there is no doubt that General Toombsgave him the opportunity to appear in a better light than he had donefor a long time; this incident was the beginning of his return topopularity and influence in Georgia. General Toombs was censured forprovoking Governor Brown into the attitude of expecting a challenge andthen declining to send it. 

Both General Toombs and Mr. Stephens were believers in the code ofhonor. Mr. Stephens once challenged Governor Herschel V. Johnson, and atanother time he called out Hon. Benjamin H. Hill. General Toombsperemptorily challenged General D. H. Hill after the battle of MalvernHill. In 1859, when United States Senator Broderick was killed by JudgeTerry in California, Mr. Toombs delivered a striking eulogy of Broderickin the United States Senate. He said; "The dead man fell in honorablecontest under a code which he fully recognized. While I lament his sadfate, I have no censure for him or his adversary. I think that no manunder any circumstances can have a more enviable death than to fall invindication of his honor. He has gone beyond censure or praise. He haspassed away from man's judgment to the bar of the Judge of all theEarth. "

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

HIS LAST PUBLIC SERVICE. 

One of the reforms advocated by General Toombs upon the return of thewhite people to the control of the State Government was the adoption ofa new State Constitution. He never tired of declaring that the organiclaw of 1868 was the product of "aliens and usurpers, " and that he wouldhave none of it; Georgia must be represented by her own sons in counciland live under a constitution of her own making. In May, 1877, anelection was held to determine the question, and in spite ofconsiderable opposition, even in the Democratic party, the peopledecided, by nine thousand majority, to have a constitutional convention. 

On July 10, 1877, that body, consisting of 194 delegates, assembled inAtlanta to revise the organic law. Charles J. Jenkins was electedpresident of the convention. He had been deposed from the office ofGovernor of Georgia at the point of the bayonet in 1866. He had carriedthe case of the State of Georgia before the national Supreme Court andcontested the validity of the Reconstruction measures. He had carriedwith him, when expelled from the State Capitol, the great seal of theState, which he restored when the government was again remitted to hisown people, and in public session of the two houses of the GeneralAssembly, Governor Jenkins had been presented with a facsimile of thegreat seal, with the fitting words cut into its face, "In ArduisFidelis. " These words are graven on his monument to-day. He was morethan seventy years of age, but bore himself with vigor and ability. There was a strong representation of the older men who had served theState before the war, and the younger members were in full sympathy withthem. It was an unusual body of men--possibly the ablest that hadassembled since the secession convention of 1861. General Toombs, ofcourse, was the most prominent. He had been elected a delegate from hissenatorial district--the only office he had occupied since the war. Hisactivity in securing its call, his striking presence, as he walked tohis seat, clad in his long summer duster, carrying his brown straw hatand his unlighted cigar, as well as his tireless labors in that body, made him the center of interest. General Toombs was chairman of thecommittee on legislation and chairman of the final committee onrevision. This body was made up of twenty-six of the most prominentmembers of the convention, and to it were submitted the reports of theother thirteen committees. It was the duty of this committee toharmonize and digest the various matters coming before it, and toprepare the final report, which was discussed in open convention. General Toombs was practically in charge of the whole business of thisbody. He closely attended all the sessions of the convention, whichlasted each day from 8. 30 in the morning to 1 o'clock P. M. The entireafternoons were taken up with the important and exacting work of hiscommittee of final revision. Frequently it was far into the night beforehe and his clerk had prepared their reports. General Toombs was in hissixty-eighth year, but stood the ordeal well. His facility, hisendurance, his genius, his eloquence and pertinacity were revelations tothe younger men, who knew him mainly by tradition. General Toombsproposed the only safe and proper course for the convention when hearose in his place on the floor and declared; "All this convention hasto do is to establish a few fundamental principles and leave the othermatters to the legislature and the people, in order to meet the evervarying affairs of human life. " There was a persistent tendency tolegislate upon details, a tendency which could not be entirely keptdown. There was an element elected to this convention bent uponretrenchment and reform, and these delegates forced a long debate uponlowering the salaries of public officers, a policy which finallyprevailed. During the progress of this debate General Toombs aroseimpatiently in his place and declared that, "The whole finances of theState are not included when we are speaking of the Governor's salary, and you spend more in talking about it than your children will have topay in forty years. "

Occasionally he was betrayed into one of his erratic positions, as whenhe moved to strike out the section against dueling, and also to expungefrom the bill of rights all restrictions upon bearing arms. He said:"Let the people bear arms for their own protection, whether in theirboots or wherever they may choose. "

But his treatment of public questions was full of sound sense anddiscretion. He warned the convention that those members who, fromhostility to the State administration, wished to wipe out the terms ofthe office-holders and make a new deal upon the adoption of the newconstitution, were making a rash mistake. They would array a new classof enemies and imperil the passage of the new law. He advocated thesubmission of all doubtful questions, like the homestead laws and thelocation of the new Capitol, to the people in separate ordinances. Heurged in eloquent terms the enlargement of the Supreme Court from threejustices to five. Having been a champion of the law calling that Courtinto being forty years before, he knew its needs and proposed a reformwhich, if adopted, would have cut off much trouble in Georgia to-day. 

General Toombs was an advocate of the ordinance which took the selectionof the judges and solicitors from the hands of the Governor and madethem elective by the General Assembly. A strong element in theconvention wanted the judiciary elected by the people. A member of theconvention turned to General Toombs during the debate and said; "Youdare not refuse the people this right to select their own judges. " "Idare do anything that is right, " replied Toombs. "It is not a reproachto the people to say that they are not able to do all the work of acomplex government. Government is the act of the people after all. " Hereminded the convention that a new and ignorant element had been thrownin among the people as voters. "We must not only protect ourselvesagainst them, but in behalf of the poor African, " said he, "I would savehim from himself. These people are kind, and affectionate, but theirprevious condition, whether by your fault or not, was such as todisqualify them from exercising the right of self-government. They wereput upon us by people to make good government impossible in the Southfor all time, and before God, I believe they have done it. "

In answer to the argument that those States which had given theselection of judges to the people liked it, General Toombs replied thatthis did not prove that it was right or best. "It is easy to take theroad to hell, but few people ever return from it. " General Toombsprevailed in this point. He was also the author of the resolutionauthorizing the legislature to levy a tax to furnish good substantialartificial limbs to those who had lost them during the war. 

General Toombs declared frequently during the debate that one of hismain objects in going to the convention, and for urging the people tovote for the call, was to place a clause in the new law prohibiting thepolicy of State aid to railroads and public enterprises. He had seenmonstrous abuses grow up under this system. He had noticed that therailroads built by private enterprise had proven good investments; thatno railroad aided by the State had paid a dividend. He declared thatGeorgia had never loaned her credit from the time when Oglethorpe landedat Yamacraw up to 1866, and she should never do it again. He wanted thislicense buried and buried forever. His policy prevailed. State aid torailroads was prohibited; corporate credit cannot now be loaned topublic enterprises, and municipal taxation was wisely restricted. General Toombs declared with satisfaction that he had locked the door ofthe treasury, and put the key into the pocket of the people. 

During the proceedings of this convention an effort was made to open thecourts to review the cases of certain outlawed bonds, which thelegislature had refused to pay, and which the people had repudiated byconstitutional amendment. Impressed by the conviction that certainclasses of these bonds should be paid, the venerable president of theconvention surrendered the chair and pled from his place on the floorfor a judicial review of this question. 

No sooner was this solemn and urgent appeal concluded than GeneralToombs bounded to the floor. He declared with energy that no power ofheaven or hell could bind him to pay these bonds. The contract was oneof bayonet usurpation. Within a few days the legislature had loaded theState down with from ten to fifteen millions of the "bogus bonds. "

The term "repudiation" was distasteful to many. The bondholders did notrelish it; but he thought it was a good honest word. No one was bound bythese contracts, because they were not the acts of the people. "I haveexamined all the facts pertaining to these claims, " said Toombs, "andlooking to nothing but the State's integrity, I affirm that the mattershall go no further without my strenuous opposition. The legislature hasagain and again declared the claims fraudulent. The people have spoken. Let the bonds die. " The convention agreed with Toombs. 

On the 16th of August the convention, then in the midst of its labors, confronted a crisis. The appropriation of $25, 000 made by thelegislature to meet the expenses of the convention had been exhausted, and the State Treasurer notified the president that he could not honorhis warrants any further. This was a practical problem. The work mappedout had not been half done. Many of the delegates were poor men from therural districts and were especially dependent upon their _per diem_during the dull summer season. To proceed required about $1000 per day. To have crippled this body in its labors would have been a publiccalamity. To check upon the public treasury beyond the limit fixed bylaw involved a risk which the State Government, not too friendly towardthe convention at best, declined to assume. To raise the money outsideby a private loan presented this risk, that in the case of the rejectionof the constitution, then in embryo, the lender might find himself theholder of an uncertain claim. The convention, however, was not left longin doubt. With a heroic and patriotic _abandon_, General Toombs declaredthat if Georgia would not pay her debts, he would pay them for her. Selling a dozen or two United States bonds, he placed the proceeds tothe credit of the president of the convention, who was authorized inturn to issue notes of $1000 each and deposit them with General Toombs. The act was spontaneous, whole-souled, dramatic. It saved the conventionand rehabilitated the State with a new constitution. By a rising andunanimous vote General Toombs was publicly thanked for hispublic-spirited act, and the old man, alone remaining in his seat in theconvention hall, covered his face with his hands, and shed tears duringthis unusual demonstration. 

When the convention had under review the bill of rights, General Toombscreated a breeze in the proceedings by proposing a paragraph that thelegislature should make no irrevocable grants of special privileges orimmunities. The proposition received a rattling fire from all parts ofthe house. Governor Jenkins assailed it on the floor as dangerous tocapital and fatal to public enterprise. It was argued that charters werecontracts, and that when railroads or other interests were put uponnotice that their franchise was likely to be disturbed, there would bean overthrow of confidence and development in Georgia. This was thefirst intimation of the master struggle which General Toombs was aboutto make, an advance against the corporations all along the line. It wasthe picket-firing before the engagement. 

General Toombs had made a study of the whole railroad question. He wasa master of the law of corporations. He maintained a peculiar attitudetoward them. He never invested a dollar in their stock, nor would heaccept a place at their council boards. He rarely ever served them asattorney. When the General Assembly resolved to tax railroads inGeorgia, the State selected General Toombs to prosecute the cases. In1869 he had argued the Collins case against the Central Railroad andBanking Company, in which the court had sustained his position that theproposed action of the Central Road in buying up the stock of theAtlantic and Gulf Railroad, to control that road, was _ultra vires_. Hehad conducted the case of Arnold DuBose against the Georgia Railroad forextortion in freight charges. 

The principles he had gleaned from this laborious record made himresolve to place restrictions upon corporate power in the newconstitution. The time was ripe for this movement. The Grangerlegislation in the West had planted in the organic law of Illinois, Ohio, and Missouri the policy of government control over the railroads. The statutes of Pennsylvania also reflected the same principles, and theSupreme Court of the United States had decided this great case on theside of the people. General Toombs was master of the legislation on thissubject in England, and had studied the American reports on the rightand duty of the state to regulate railroad companies. He declared, inproposing this new system, that these laws had been adopted by the mostenlightened governments of the world. "From the days of the Roman Empiredown to the present time, " said Toombs, "it has never been denied thatthe state has power over the corporations. "

At once the State was in an uproar. "Toombs is attempting a newrevolution, " was alleged. He was charged with leading an idolatrousmajority into war upon the rights of property. Conservative men likeJenkins deprecated the agitation. Atlanta was filled with a powerfulrailroad lobby, and the press resounded with warning that development ofthe waste places of Georgia would be retarded by this unjust andnefarious warfare. Robert Toombs was not an agrarian. His movementagainst the corporations was reënforced by delegates from the smalltowns in Georgia, who had suffered from discrimination in favor of thelarger cities. Railroad traffic had been diverted by rigid and ruthlessexactions, and a coterie of delegates from southwest Georgia stoodsolidly by Toombs. These debates drew crowds of listeners. From thegalleries hundreds of interested Georgians looked down upon the lastpublic service of Robert Toombs. He never appeared to finer advantage. His voice lacked its old-time ring, his beard was gray and his frame wasbent, but he was fearless, aggressive, alert, eloquent. He was master ofthe whole subject. Railways, he declared, were public highways. Upon noother principle could they receive land from the State, under its rightof eminent domain, than that this land was condemned for public and notfor private use. A public highway means that it must be used accordingto law. In those States where people have been fighting theencroachments of public monopolies, it had been found necessary to usethese terms, and Toombs prefaced his agitation with this announcement. 

General Toombs did not mince matters. He declared that the rapaciouscourse of the railroads in Georgia had been spoliation. Monopoly isextortion. Corporations must either be governed by the law or they willoverride the law. Competition is liberty. Keep the hand of the law oncorporations and you keep up competition; keep up competition and youpreserve liberty. It has been argued that the towns and counties inGeorgia had grown rich. That is the same argument that was made in theEnglish Parliament. They said; "Look at your little colonies, how theyhave grown under our care. " But the patriotic men of America said; "Wehave grown rich in spite of your oppressions. " Shall we not restrainthis tax-gatherer who has no judge but himself, no limit but hisavarice?

General Toombs wanted it placed in the constitution that the legislatureshall pass these laws restricting railroads. He declared he had twicedrawn bills for that purpose; they had passed the House, but crumbled asthough touched with the hand of death when they came to the forty-four(the Senate). "What, " said he, "do I see before me? The grave. Whatbeyond that? Starving millions of our posterity, that I have robbed bymy action here, in giving them over to the keeping of thesecorporations. The right to control these railroads belongs to the State, to the people, and as long as I represent the people, I will not consentto surrender it, so help me God!"

The spirit of Toombs dominated that convention. Men moved up the aisleto take their seats at his feet as he poured out his strong appeal. One-half of that body was filled with admiration, the other half withalarm. "It is a sacred thing to shake the pillars upon which theproperty of the country rests, " said Mr. Hammond of Fulton. "Bettershake the pillars of property than the pillars of liberty, " answeredthis Georgia Sampson, with his thews girt for the fray. "The greatquestion is, Shall Georgia govern the corporations or the corporationsgovern Georgia? Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve!"

The house rang with applause. Members clustered about the old man asabout the form of a prophet. The majority was with him. The articleswhich he had advocated came from the committee without recommendation, but they were substantially adopted, and are now parts of the supremelaw of the land. The victory was won, and Robert Toombs, grim andtriumphant, closed his legislative career, and claimed this work as thecrowning act of his public labors. 

These principles are contained in Article IV. Of the State constitutionof Georgia. It declares the right of taxation to be sovereign, inviolable, and indestructible, and that it shall be irrevocable by theState; that the power to regulate freight and passenger tariffs and toprevent unjust discriminations shall be conferred upon the GeneralAssembly, whose duty it shall be to pass laws for the same; that theright of eminent domain shall never be abridged; that any amendment to acharter shall bring the charter under the provisions of theConstitution; that the General Assembly shall have no authority toauthorize any corporation to buy shares of stock in any othercorporation, which shall have the effect to lessen competition orencourage monopoly. No railroad shall pay a rebate or bonus. 

Under these provisions, the Railroad Commission of Georgia was organizedin 1879. This idea, as it finally worked out, was General Toombs'. Hedid not favor fixing the rates in the law, but the creation of such acommission to carry out these provisions. The present law was framed byJudge William M. Reese, Hon. Samuel Barnett, Ex-Senator H. D. McDaniel, and Superintendent Foreacre of the Richmond and Danville Railroad. Ithas worked well in Georgia. Twice has the legislature attempted toremodel it, but the people have rallied to its support and have notpermitted it to be amended in so much as a single clause. It has servedas an example for imitation by other States, and was cited as strongauthority in Congress for the creation of the Inter-State Commerce Law. The railroad men, after fighting it for ten years, have come round toacknowledge its value. It has stood as a breakwater between thecorporations and the people. It has guaranteed justice to the citizen, and has worked no injury to the railroads. Under its wise provisionsGeorgia has prospered, and leads the Union to-day in railroad building. And when, during a recent session of the legislature, an attempt wasmade to war upon railroad consolidation, the saving, overmastering, crowning argument of the railroads themselves was that General Toombshad already secured protection for the people, and that, under hismasterly handiwork, the rights of property and the rights of the peoplewere safe. 

When the convention had concluded its labors, General Toombs went beforethe people and threw himself with enthusiasm into the canvass. He tookthe stump, and everywhere his voice was heard in favor of the adoptionof the new organic law. Many of the officers whose term had been cutoff, and whose salaries had been reduced, appeared against theconstitution. General Toombs declared that those public men who did notapprove of the lower salaries might "pour them back in the jug. " Thishomely phrase became a by-word in the canvass. It had its origin in thisway: In the Creek war, in which "Capt. Robert A. Toombs" commanded acompany made up of volunteers from Wilkes, Elbert, and Lincoln counties, a negro named Kinch went along as whisky sutler. As he served out theliquor, some of the soldiers complained of the price he asked. Hisanswer was, "Well, sir, if you don't like it, sir, pour it back in thejug. "

In the State election of December, 1877, the new constitution wasoverwhelmingly adopted, and will remain for generations the organic lawof the Empire State of the South. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

DOMESTIC LIFE OF TOOMBS. 

There never was a public man in America whose home life was morebeautiful or more tender than that of Robert Toombs. As great as werehis public virtues, his lofty character, and abilities, his domesticvirtues were more striking still. He was a man who loved his family. In1830 he was married to Julia A. Dubose, with whom he lived, a model anddevoted husband, for more than fifty years. She was a lady of rarepersonal beauty, attractive manners, and common sense. She shared hisearly struggles, and watched the lawyer grow into the statesman and theleader with unflagging confidence and love. There was never a time thathe would not leave his practice or his public life to devote himself toher. His heart yearned for her during his long separation in Washington, when, during the debate upon the great Compromise measures of 1850, hewrote that he would rather see her than "save the State. " He consideredher in a thousand ways. He never disappointed her in coming home, but, when traveling, always returned when it was possible, just at the timehe had promised. During the exciting scenes attending his first electionto the United States Senate, he writes that he feels too little interestin the result perhaps for his success, and longs to be at home. Political honors did not draw him away from his devotion to this goodwoman. He never neglected her in the smallest way. His attentions wereas pointed and courtly in her last days as when they were bright-facedboy and girl, lovers and cousins, in the twenties. During his labors inthe constitutional convention of 1877, he one day wore upon his lapel aflower she had placed there, and stopping in his speech, paid fittingtribute to the pure emblem of a woman's love. A man of great deeds andgreat temptations, of great passions and of glaring faults, he neverswerved in loyalty to his wedded love, and no influence ever divided hisallegiance there. Writing to her on May 15, 1853, while he was UnitedStates Senator, he says:

 MY DEAR JULIA:

 This is your birthday, which you bid me remember, and this letter will show you that I have not forgotten it. To-day Gus Baldwin and Dr. Harbin dropped in to dinner, and we drank your good health and many more returns in health and happiness of the 15th of May. I did not tell them that you were forty, for it might be that some time or other you would not care to have them know it, and I am sure they would never suspect it unless told. In truth I can scarcely realize it myself, as you are the same lovely and loving, true-hearted woman to me, that you were when I made you my bride, nearly twenty-three years ago. There is no other change except the superior loveliness of the full blown over the budding rose. I have thrown my mind this quiet Sunday evening over that large segment of human life (twenty-three years) since we were married, and whatever of happiness memory has treasured up clusters around you. In life's struggle I have been what men call fortunate. I have won its wealth and its honors, but I have won them by labor, and toil, and strife, whose memory saddens even success; but the pure joys of wedded love leave none but pleasant recollections which one can dwell upon with delight. These thoughts are dearer to me than to most men, because I know for whatever success in life I may have had, whatever evil I may have avoided, or whatever good I may have done, I am mainly indebted to the beautiful, pure, true-hearted little black-eyed girl, who on the 18th of November, 1830, came trustingly to my arms, the sweetest and dearest of wives. You need not fear, therefore, that I shall forget your birthday. That and our bridal-day are the brightest in my calendar, and memory will not easily part with them. 

 Yours, TOOMBS. 

So well known was this domestic trait of Mr. Toombs that Bishop Beckwithof Georgia, in delivering his funeral sermon, declared that "no knight, watching his sword before the altar, ever made a holier, truer, or purervow than when Robert Toombs stood at the marriage altar more than fiftyyears ago. The fire that burned upon the altar of his home remained aspure and unfailing as the perpetual offering of Jerusalem. "

Mrs. Toombs was a woman of warm heart and strong convictions. She wasnoted for her benevolence and piety, and these she carried through life. Her Christian example was a steadying influence often in the stormy andimpetuous career of her husband, and finally, when she had closed hereyes in peace, brought him to the altar where she had worshiped. Herhousehold and her neighbors loved to be under her influence. No one whoever saw her fine face, or her lustrous dark eyes, forgot her. Her facewas, in some respects, not unlike that of her husband. It is the besttribute that can be paid to her to say that for more than fifty yearsher influence over so strong a character as that of Robert Toombs wasmost potent. In June, 1856, while driving in Augusta, the horsesattached to the carriage ran away, and Mrs. Toombs was thrown from thevehicle and sustained a fracture of the hip. General Toombs hastened toGeorgia from Congress, and remained incessantly at her bedside forseveral weeks. In November, 1880, General and Mrs. Toombs celebratedtheir golden wedding, surrounded by their grandchildren and friends. Itwas a beautiful sight to see the bride of half a century with a newwedding ring upon her finger, playing the piano, while the old man ofseventy essayed, like Washington, to dance the minuet. The old couplesurvived their three children, and lived to bless the lives ofgrandchildren and great-grandchildren. They were fond and affectionateparents. 

A friend, who had known them in their own home, describes "the greatfire in the open fire-place; on one side the venerable statesman, withthat head which always seemed to me of such rare beauty; on the otherside, the quiet wife busy with home affairs, her eyes lighting, now andthen, the wonderful conversation that fell from his eloquent lips. "

General Toombs was a liberal provider for his family, and hisgrandchildren and connections were constant objects of his bounty. Largesums were spent in charity. No church or benevolent institution appealedto him in vain. His house was open, and his hospitality was princely andproverbial. No one was more genial at home. Few prominent persons evervisited Washington without being entertained by Toombs. His regulardinners to the bar of the circuit, as, twice a year, the lawyers came toWashington to court, are remembered by scores of Georgians to-day. Onone occasion when the townspeople were discussing the need of a hotel, General Toombs indignantly replied that there was no need for any suchplace. "If a respectable man comes to town, " said he, "he can stay atmy house. If he isn't respectable, we don't want him here at all. "

No religious conference could meet in Washington that the Toombs housewas not full of guests. Many Northern people visited the place to hearthe statesman talk. Newspaper correspondents sought him out to listen tohis fine conversation. These people were always sure of the mostcourteous treatment, and were prepared for the most candid expression. General Toombs was not solely a _raconteur_. He did not draw upon hismemory for his wit. The cream of his conversation was his bold andoriginal comment. His wit flashed all along the line. His speech attimes was droll and full of quaint provincialisms. He treated subjectsspontaneously, in a style all his own. Strangers, who sat near him in arailroad car, have been enchanted by his sage and spirited conversation, as his leonine features lighted up, and his irresistible smile andkindly eye forced good-humor, even where his sentiments might havechallenged dissent. He was the finest talker of his day. A close friend, who used to visit him frequently at his home, declares that Toombs'powers did not wait upon the occasion. He did not require an emergencyto bring him out. All his faculties were alert, and in a morning's chathe would pour out the riches of memory, humor, eloquence, and logicuntil the listener would be enthralled by his brilliancy and power. Hedelighted to talk with intellectual men and women. He was impatient withtriflers or dolts. He criticised unsparingly, and arraigned men andmeasures summarily, but he was a seeker after truth, and even whensevere, was free from malice or envy. 

General Toombs was a man of tender sympathies. Distress of his friendsmoved him to prompt relief. In 1855 a friend and kinsman, Mr. Pope, diedin Alabama. He had been a railroad contractor and his affairs were muchinvolved. General Toombs promptly went to his place, bought in hisproperty for the family, and left the place for the wife and children, just as it stood. From Mobile he writes a grief-stricken letter to hiswife, December 28, 1855:

 I feel that I must pour out my sorrows to someone, and whom else can I look to but to one who, ever faithful and true, has had my whole heart from my youth till now? This has been one of the dark and sad days of my life. The remains of my lost friend Mr. Pope came down on the cars this morning. I met them alone at the depot, except Gus. Baldwin and the hired hands. This evening I accompanied the remains to the boat. Oh, it was so sad to see one whom so many people professed to love, in a strange place, conveyed by hirelings and deposited like merchandise among the freight of a steamboat on the way to his long home. I can scarcely write now, at the thought, through the blindness of my own tears. As I saw him placed in the appointed spot among the strangers and bustle of a departing boat, careless of who or what he was, I stole away to the most retired part of the boat, to conceal the weakness of friendship and relieve my overburdened heart with a flood of tears. I felt it would be a profanation of friendship even to be seen to feel in such a crowd. But for my overwhelming duty to the living I would have taken the boat and gone on with his remains. This is the end of the just in this world. He was a good and an upright man; never gave offense to a human being. His family are ruined, but his only fault was want of judgment, and too great confidence in his kind. He could not make money, and it really seemed that his every effort to do so plunged him deeper into debt. His great fault was a concealment of his own difficulties and trials. I would have done anything to have relieved them upon a full disclosure. He was idolized at home, and I have wept at the sorrows of the poor people in his employment, upon the very mention of his death. I know I cannot control my grief and am sensitive of my own weakness. I could not find relief without pouring out my sorrows to you. There let them rest. 

 Yours, TOOMBS. 

General Toombs resided in a three-story frame house in Washington, builtafter the manner of the olden time, with the spacious piazza, heavycolumns, the wide door, and the large rooms. He lived in ease andcomfort. He was an early riser, and after breakfast devoted himself tobusiness or correspondence. At midday he was accessible to visitors, andrarely dined alone. In the afternoon he walked or drove. At night he satin his arm-chair at his fireside, and in his lips invariably carried anunlit cigar. Smoking did not agree with him. While in Europe hedelighted to test the tobacco of the different countries, but thepractice always gave him pain above the eyes. His last attempt was inthe army of Virginia. Convinced that smoking injured him, he neverresumed it. Fond of his dry smoke, he had a peculiar cigar made toorder, very closely wrapped, with fine tobacco. 

General Toombs made frequent trips away from home, even during thelatter part of his life. The State retained his services in importantcases. One of his last public acts was the prosecution of certainrailway companies for back taxes. He recovered thousands of dollars tothe State. He was summoned to Atlanta in 1880 to prosecute a defaultingState treasurer. He appeared very feeble, but his speech was a model ofclearness and logic. During the latter part of his life there was areturn of his early fault of quick, nervous, compressed speech. Hegrasped only the great hillocks of thought and left the interveningground to be filled by the listener. His terse, rapid style wasdifficult to follow. As a presiding judge said, "His leaps are like akangaroo's, and his speech gave me the headache. " But his argument inthe Jack Jones case was a model of eloquence and convincing law. A largenumber of friends attended the court, convinced that General Toombs wasnearing the end of his great career, and were astounded at the mannerin which he delivered his argument. As he concluded his address heturned in his place and caught the eye of Rev. Father J. M. O'Brien, anold friend of his. "Why, Father O'Brien, " he said, wringing his hand, "Iam glad to see you taking an interest in this case. These people aretrying to usurp your functions. They want to grant the defendantabsolution. " "But, General, " replied the quick-witted priest, "even Icould not grant absolution until he had made restitution. " "That's thedoctrine, " said the delighted lawyer, pleased to find that the point ofhis speech had taken so well. His face was all aglow with the _gaudiacertaminis_ of the forum. This was his last appearance in court, and hewon his case. 

His mother Georgia claimed his allegiance always, and he gave her hislast and best powers. He worked for the commonwealth, and gave thepeople more than he ever received in return. 

In Augusta, in 1871, when he appeared before the Georgia RailroadCommission and arraigned the lease of the State road as illegal andunhallowed, he declared in a burst of indignation; "I would rather beburied at the public expense than to leave a dirty shilling. " It was theacme of his desire to live and die like a gentleman. 

He had always been a safe financier. Scorning wealth, he had early foundhimself wealthy. It is estimated that he made more than a milliondollars by his law practice after the war. He spent his money freely, careful always to avoid debt. Further than this, he kept no account ofhis means. Like Astor, he invested much of his holdings in land, andowned a large number of fine plantations in middle Georgia. When he diedhis estate probably reached two hundred thousand dollars. 

CHAPTER XXX. 

HIS GREAT FAULT. 

No just biography of Robert Toombs can be written that does not takeinto notice the blemishes as well as the brightness of his character. Hewas a man on a grand scale. His virtues were heroic, his faults wereconspicuous. No man despised hypocrisy more than he did, and no onewould have asked any sooner to be painted as he was, withoutconcealment. During the latter part of his life, many people knew himprincipally by his faults. Few knew what the wayward Prince Hal of theevening had been to King Henry in the morning hour. Like Webster andClay, he was made up of human frailty. As his intimate friend, SamuelBarnett, said of him: "In spite of splendid physique, a man of blood andpassion, he was not only a model of domestic virtue, but he avoided thelewd talk to which many prominent men are addicted. A fine sportsman andrider, a splendid shot, he was nothing of the racer or gamester. Afterall, he was more of a model than a warning. " Among his faults, the onewhich exaggerated all the others, was his use of ardent liquors. Thishabit grew upon him, especially after the failure of the war. A proud, imperious nature, accustomed to great labors and great responsibilities, was left without its main resource and supplied with the stimulus ofwine. No man needed that stimulus less than he did. His was a manhoodvibrant in age with the warm blood of youth, and always at its best whenhis spirits and intellect alone were at play. He was easily affected bythe smallest indulgence. When he measured himself with others, glass forglass, the result was distressing, disastrous. The immediate effect ofexcess was short. The next morning his splendid vitality asserteditself, and he was bright and clear as ever. The habit, however, grewupon him. The want of a physical check was bad. This was the worst ofall his faults, and was exaggerated by special circumstances. It wasless indulged in at home and greatly circulated abroad. Frequently thepress reporters would surround him and expose in the papers a merecaricature of him. His talk, when under the influence of wine, was racy, extravagant, and fine, and his sayings too often found their way intoprint. In this way great injustice was done to the life and character ofRobert Toombs, and Northern men who read these quaint sayings andredolent vaporings formed a distorted idea of the man. 

To a Northern correspondent who approached him during one of theseperiods, General Toombs said: "Yes, a gentleman whose intelligencerevolts at usurpations must abstain from discussing the principles andpolicies of your Federal government, or receive the kicks of crossroadsputterers and press reporters; must either lie or be silent. They knowonly how to brawl and scrawl 'hot-head' and 'impolitic maniac. ' Why, myfree negroes know more than all your bosses. Now, damn it, put that inyour paper. "

Robert Toombs was built to live ninety years, and to have been, atGladstone's age, a Gladstone in power. He took little pains to explainhis real nature. He seemed to take pains to conceal or mislead. Heappeared at times to hide his better and expose his worse side. If hehad been Byron, he would have put forward his deformed foot. He wasutterly indifferent to posthumous fame. Time and again he was asked tohave his letters and speeches compiled for print, but he would neverhear of it. He waived these suggestions away with the sententiousremark, "that his life was written on the pages of his country'shistory. " With all his faults, his were strong principles and generousimpulses. "We know something of what he yielded, but we know nothing ofwhat he resisted. " Include his strength and his weakness and measure himby other men, and we have a man of giant mold. 

One who was very near to Toombs in his last days said of him when he wasdead: "It was a thing of sorrow to see this majestic old man pausing tomeasure his poor strength with a confirmed habit, rising, struggling, falling, and praying as he drifted on. "

General Toombs used to say that Webster was the greatest man he everknew, that Clay managed men better, and Calhoun was the finest logicianof the century. "The two most eloquent men I ever heard were Northernmen, " said he; "Choate and Prentiss. " "Pierce, " he used to say, "was themost complete gentleman I ever saw in the White House. He was clever andcorrect. Zachary Taylor was the most ignorant. It was amazing how littlehe knew. Van Buren was shrewd rather than sagacious. Tyler was abeautiful speaker, but Webster declared that a man who made a prettyspeech was fit for nothing else. "

Toombs met Abraham Lincoln while he was in Congress. He related that Mr. Lincoln once objected to sitting down at table because he was thethirteenth man. Toombs told him that it was better to die than to be avictim to superstition. At the Hampton Roads Conference, PresidentLincoln expressed to Judge Campbell his confidence in the honesty andability of Robert Toombs. He was a great reader. General Toombs oftensaid that if the whole English literature were lost, and the Bible andShakespeare remained, letters would not be much the poorer. Shakespearewas his standard. He was fond of Swedenborg, and in his early youthrelished Tom Paine. 

General Toombs had a great affinity for young men, upon whom he exerteda great influence. He once said to a party of friends that gambling wasthe worst of evils because it impoverished the pocket while it corruptedthe mind. "How about drinking, General?" he was asked. "Well, if a manis old and rich he may drink, for he will have the sympathy of his soberfriends and the support of his drinking ones. "

CHAPTER XXXI. 

HIS LAST DAYS. 

In 1880 General Toombs appeared in Atlanta, and addressed the GeorgiaLegislature in behalf of the candidacy of General A. R. Lawton for theUnited States Senate. His appearance, as he walked up the aisle, grim, venerable, and determined, awoke wild applause. He preserved his powerof stirring the people whenever he spoke, but his speech was not as racyand clear as it had been. "This was one of the occasions, " to quote froma distinguished critic of Toombs, "when the almost extinct volcanoglowed again with its wonted fires--when the ivy-mantled keep of thecrumbling castle resumed its pristine defiance with deep-toned culverinand ponderous mace; when, amid the colossal fragments of the totteringtemple, men recognized the unsubdued spirit of Samson Agonistes. "

His last public speech was in September, 1884, when the people ofWashington carried him the news of Cleveland's election to thePresidency. He came to his porch and responded briefly, almostinaudibly, to the serenade, but he was full of the gratification whichSouthern people felt over that event. He declared that he did not knowthat there was enough manhood in the country as to break loose fromparty ties and elect a President. The fact had revived his hope for thewhole country. He had, before this, taken a gloomy view of the nation. He had, on one occasion, declared that the injection into the bodypolitic of three million savages had made good government foreverimpossible. He had afterward said that the American Constitution restedsolely upon the good faith of the people, and that would hardly bindtogether a great people of diverse interests. "Since 1850, " he oncesaid, "I have never believed this Union to be perpetual. The experienceof the last war will deter any faction from soon making an effort atsecession. Had it not been for this, there would have been a collisionin 1876. " But the election of Cleveland he regarded as a national, rather than a sectional victory--a non-partisan triumph in fact; and itwas at this time, the first occasion since the war, that he expressedregret that he had not regained his citizenship and gone back intopublic life. 

But his great power had begun to wane. His tottering gait and hesitatingspeech pointed unmistakably to speedy dissolution. The new-born hope forhis country came just as his steps neared "the silent, solemn shore ofthat vast ocean he must sail so soon. "

In March, 1883, General Toombs was summoned to Atlanta to attend thefuneral of his lifelong friend Mr. Stephens. The latter had been aninvalid for forty years, but was kept in active life by the sheer forceof his indomitable will. Emerging from the war a prisoner, he hadfinally secured his release and had been elected United States Senator. Being prevented from taking his seat, he had returned home and finishedhis constitutional review of the "War Between the States. " In 1873 hehad been reëlected to Congress, where he had remained for ten years, resigning this position to accept the nomination for Governor ofGeorgia, which his party had offered him at a critical moment. It hadbeen the desire of the "Great Commoner" to "die in harness, " and thereis no doubt that his close attention to the arduous duties of Governorhastened his death. Thousands of Georgians repaired to the State Capitolto honor his memory, but he who attracted most attention was the grayand grief-stricken companion who stood by the coffin of the man he hadhonored for fifty years. Mr. Stephens, in his diary, recalls the factthat his first meeting with Mr. Toombs was in court, when the lattergenerously offered to lend him money and look after his practice so thatStephens could take a trip for his health. 

Like Damon and Pythias, these two men were bound by the strongest ties. They entered public life together in the General Assembly of Georgia. Together they rode the circuits as young attorneys, and each wasrewarded about the same time with a seat in the national councils. Bothwere conspicuous in the _ante-bellum_ agitation, and both were prominentin the Civil War. As age advanced their relations were closer still. 

General Toombs at the funeral of his friend pronounced a eulogium on thedead. His words were tremulous, and the trooping, tender memories ofhalf a century crowded into the anguish of that moment. Toombs andStephens, so long united in life, were not long parted in death. 

In September, 1883, Mrs. Toombs died at her summer residence inClarkesville, Ga. Their devoted friend, Dr. Steiner, was with them atthe time, and rendered the double offices of family physician andsympathetic friend. Between these two men there had been a warm and longfriendship. Dr. Steiner talked with General Toombs about his spiritualcondition. A godly man himself, the doctor thought that he might removeany doubts that might linger in the mind of the stricken husband. He wasgratified to hear that the way was clear. "Why, doctor, " said GeneralToombs, "I am a prayerful man. I read the Bible and the Prayer Bookevery day. " "Then why not be baptized, General?" "Baptize me, doctor, "was his prompt reply. Dr. Steiner answered that there was no immediateneed of that. The general was in good health. Dr. Steiner had baptizedpatients, he said, but it was in times of emergency. It was the desireof General Toombs to be baptized at the bedside of his wife. In a shorttime Robert Toombs was in communion with the Southern Methodist Church. It was his wife's beautiful example, "moving beside that soaring, stormyspirit, praying to God for blessings on it, " which brought him to aconfession of his faith, and left him in full fellowship with God'speople. 

General Toombs' health commenced visibly to fail after his wife's death, and the loss of Mr. Stephens made life lonely. His younger brotherGabriel, himself in the shadow of a great affliction, was with himconstantly. They were devotedly attached to each other. Mr. GabrielToombs is, in personal appearance, very much like his brother. The long, iron-gray hair, brushed straight out from his head, reminds one ofRobert Toombs. He is smaller in stature, and is a man of strongabilities, even temperament, and well-balanced mind. His brother hadgreat regard for his business judgment and political sagacity, and oftenconsulted him on public matters. These men lived near each other inWashington, their families grew up together, and General Toombs regardedhis brother's children almost as he did his own. 

On the 30th of September, 1885, Robert Toombs was confined to his houseby illness. It was a general breaking down of his whole system. It wasevident that he was nearing his end. During his last illness his mindwould wander, and then his faculties would return with singularclearness. He suffered little pain. As Henry Grady said of him, itseemed that this kingly power and great vitality, which had subduedeverything else, would finally conquer death. His ruling instinct wasstrong in dissolution. He still preserved to the last his faculty ofgrasping with ease public situations, and "framing terse epigrams, whichhe threw out like proverbs. "

During one of his lucid intervals he asked for the news. He was told;"General, the Georgia Legislature has not yet adjourned. "

"Lord, send for Cromwell, " he answered, as he turned on his pillow. 

Another time he was told that the Prohibitionists were holding anelection in the town. "Prohibitionists, " said he, "are men of smallpints. "

His mind at this period dwelt mainly on serious thoughts. The Bible wasread to him daily. He was perfectly aware of his condition. He said toDr. Steiner: "Looking over my broad field of life, I have not aresentment. I would not pang a heart. "

He talked in his delirium of Mr. Stephens and Dr. Steiner. The latterrecalled him and said: "General, I am here by your side; Mr. Stephens, you know, has crossed over the river. " Coming to himself, he said: "Yes, I know I am fast passing away. Life's fitful fever will soon be over. Iwould not blot out a single act of my life. "

Dr. Steiner declared that he never before realized so fully theappropriateness of Mr. Stephens' tribute to Toombs; "His was thegreatest mind I ever came in contact with. Its operations, even in itserrors, remind me of a mighty waste of waters. "

When the time came for Dr. Steiner to return to his home in Augusta, General Toombs bade him good-by. "I am sorry, " said he, "the hour iscome. I hope we shall meet in a better place. "

After Thursday, December 10, General Toombs did not regainconsciousness. On Monday, December 15, 1885, at 6 o'clock P. M. , hebreathed his last. Just as the darkness of a winter evening stole overthe land the great spirit of the statesman walked into eternal light. 

He was buried on Thursday, December 18, at twelve o'clock. The funeralexercises were held in the little brick Methodist church where his wifeand daughter had worshiped. 

The funeral was simple, according to his wishes. A large number ofpublic men in Georgia attended the services. Dr. Hillyer, a prominentBaptist divine and classmate of General Toombs, assisted in theservices. Rt. Rev. John W. Beckwith, Episcopal Bishop of Georgia, whohad been his closest religious adviser after the death of the MethodistBishop George F. Pierce, delivered a beautiful eulogium. 

The remains were interred in the Washington cemetery, by the side of thebody of his wife. A handsome marble shaft, bearing the simple andspeaking inscription "Robert Toombs, " marks the spot which is sacred toall Georgians. 

THE END. 

 * * * * *

INDEX. 

 Abolitionists, election of "Independent Democrats" by, 109; in campaign of 1856, 140; effect of Dred Scott case on, 159

 Achison, David R. , leader in U. S. Senate, 107

 Act of 1789, claim for enforcement of, 73-76

 Adams, John Q. , compact with Clay, 14; charge of corruption against, 55; member of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56

 Alabama, delegates withdraw from Charleston convention, 177; secession of, 213; escape through, 301-303

 _Alabama_, escape on the, 305

 Alexander, W. F. , joins in European trip, 125; appointed Quartermaster-major, 237

 Alexander, Mrs. W. F. , death, 312

 Aliens, Toombs' welcome for, 150, 151

 Alps, visit to the, 126

 American party, rise, 121; opposed and denounced by Toombs, 124, 128, 147, 149; successes and defeats in 1855, 128; nominates Fillmore, 140; opposition to Toombs' party, 143; principles, 148; nominates Hill for governorship of Georgia, 155; downfall, 158

 Amsterdam, visit to, 126

 Anderson, Major, besieged at Fort Sumter, 227-229

 Andrews, Judge, defeated for governorship of Georgia, 128

 Andrews' Grove, debate between Toombs and Hill in, 145-152

 Antietam, battle of, 262-269

 Anti-railroad agitation, 26

 Appleton, Nathan, entertains Toombs at Boston, 130

 Appleton, William, entertains Toombs at Boston, 130

 Arkansas, delegates leave Charleston convention, 177; secedes, 233

 Army Appropriation bill, debate between Toombs and Davis on, 247-249

 Army of Northern Virginia, 5, 262

 Army of Potomac, defeated before Richmond, 246

 Articles of Confederation, bearing on slavery question, 132

 Athens, University at, 7-12

 Atlanta, quarrel between Stephens and Cone in, 62; in the field before, 276; political meeting at, 324

 _Atlanta Sun_, edited by Stephens, 332

 Atlantic cable, opposes appropriation for, 194

 Augusta, Ga. , speeches at, 47-50, 165-168

 _Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel_, defends Toombs, 186

 Baltimore, delegate to Clay convention at, 46; Whig convention at, 97; Democratic convention at, 97

 Baltimore convention, the, action in regard to Georgia delegations, 182

 Banking, position on, 33, 39

 Bank of the United States, 32

 Bar, admission to the, 13

 Barnett, Samuel, frames railroad law, 351; tribute to Toombs, 364

 Bartow, Francis S. , deputy to Provisional Congress, 215

 Bayard, James A. , leader in U. S. Senate, 107; member of Charleston convention, 176; presides over seceders from Charleston convention, 178

 Beaverdam Creek, 3

 Beckwith, Bishop John W. , eulogium on Toombs, 355, 376

 Bell, John, leader in U. S. Senate, 107; vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 115; nominated for Presidency, 183; vote in Georgia for, 184

 Benjamin, Judah P. , Attorney General of Confederate States, 221; legal practice in England, 310

 Benning, Col. , assumes command of Toombs' brigade, 268

 Benton, Thomas H. , on disunion, 81

 Berrien, John M. , censured by Georgia Democrats, 39; represents Georgia in U. S. Senate, 68; in campaign of 1851, 93, 94

 Bill of Rights, in Constitutional convention, 345

 Bird, Edge, reunion with Toombs, 298, 299

 Black, Edward J. , opposes Toombs in campaign of 1844, 53

 Blaine, J. G. , characterization of Toombs' farewell speech in Senate, 205; on bombardment of Sumter, 229; on ravages of Confederate ships, 232; objects to Toombs' restoration to citizenship, 313

 Blair, Frank P. , nominated for Vice-presidency, 324

 Blockade of Southern ports, 229

 Bonds, repudiation of outlawed, 343, 344

 Boston, lecture in, 129-135

 _Boston Journal_, on Toombs' lecture, 131

 Boyd Amendment, 80

 Braddock, Gen. , massacre of his command, 1

 Bragg, Gen. , opposed by Toombs and Linton Stephens, 274

 Breckenridge, John C. , elected vice president, 152; nominated for Presidency, 183; vote in Georgia for, 184; last attendance at Confederate Cabinet, 282

 Bright, John, restrains recognition of Confederacy, 232, 233

 Broderick, Senator, eulogized by Toombs, 336

 Brooks, Preston S. , assaults Sumner, 141, 142; reëlected, 142

 Brown, John, raid on Harper's Ferry, 169; execution, 169; influence of, 170; Toombs' characterization of his raid, 172, 173

 Brown, Joseph E. , nominated for governorship of Georgia, 154; rise of, 156, 157; supported by Toombs, 157; ability, 158; elected governor, 158; candidate for reëlection to governorship, 166; seizes Fort Pulaski, 214; opposes Conscription and Impressment Acts, 273; commended by Toombs, 278; parting with Toombs, 281; joins Republican party, 290; strained relations with Toombs, 333-336

 Browne, W. M. , Confederate Assistant Secretary of State, 237

 Brussels, visit to, 126

 Buchanan, James, on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 114, 115; nominated for Presidency, 141; elected, 152; position on Territorial question, 159; dissolution of Cabinet, 199

 Bullock, Gov. , 317, 320, 321

 Bunker Hill Monument, denial of speech about slave roll-call, at, 119

 Burt, Armistead, member of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56

 Bush Arbor meeting, 324-327

 Butler, Benjamin F. , member of Charleston convention, 176

 Butler, Senator, Sumner's strictures on, 142

 Calhoun, John C. , compared with Toombs, 14; as a lawyer, 16; conflict with Jackson, 29; admiration of Toombs for, 31, 104, 367; railroad schemes of, 41; arraigned for the "sugar letter, " 46; characterization of acquired Mexican territory, 67; last efforts of, 68, 79, 107

 California, acquisition of, 67; question of admission of, 77-81, 85; Toombs' ideas on exclusion of slavery from, 91; supports the South in Charleston convention, 177

 Cameron, Simon, criticised by Toombs, 197

 Canada, favors purchase of, 195

 Caribbean Sea, advocates making a _mare clausum_, 196

 Carlyle, Thomas, view of the Civil War, 233; Toombs' interviews with, 310

 Cass, Lewis, defeated for the Presidency, 63; leader in U. S. Senate, 107; enmity to, by Northern men, 118

 Catlett, Miss, 3

 Central America, favors purchase of, 195

 Centreville, Johnston's advance to, 238; Toombs' retreat from, 239; escape of Toombs through, 292

 Chandler, Daniel, 9

 Charles I. , legend of Toombs' ancestors and, 1, 2, 156

 Charleston, S. C. , Yancey's speech in, 178; excitement at bombardment of Sumter, 227

 Charleston convention, the, 175-181

 Charlton, Robert M. , Democratic leader, 51; opposition to Toombs, 95

 Chase, Salmon P. , represents Ohio in U. S. Senate, 68, 107; an "Independent Democrat, " 109; vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 115

 Chattahoochee River, Toombs' escape by, 301

 Chenault, Nick, 288

 Cherokee County, sends Brown to State Senate, 157

 Chickahominy River, Johnston's retreat behind, 245

 Chickamauga, dispute between Gen. Hill and Gen. Walker at battle of, 258, 259

 Choate, Rufus, Toombs on, 367

 Cilley duel, the, 55

 Cincinnati Platform of 1856, 141, 165

 Civil war, Toombs' horror of, 120; opening of the, 227

 Clarke, Gen. John, feud with Crawford, 29, 30

 Clarkesville, Ga. , summer residence at, 372

 Clay, Henry, 14; Toombs' opinion of, 38, 50, 104, 367; nominated for Presidency, 46; Compromise measures, 52, 79; opposition to, in campaign of 1844, 54, 55; popularity, 55; position in campaign of 1848, 60; opinion on disposition of acquired territory, 67; last efforts of, 68; the "Omnibus bill, " 80; death, 107; denies framing the Missouri Compromise, 113; position on internal improvements, 188; his loss felt, 201

 Clay and Adams compact, the, 14

 Clayton Compromise, the, 61, 62, 64

 Cleveland, Grover, Toombs' speech on election of, 370

 Cobb, Gov. Howell, as a lawyer, 16, 20, 21; Democratic leader, 51; member of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56; elected Speaker of House of Representatives, 69; position on admission of California, 81; position on disunion, 82; nominated for governorship, 86; characteristics of, 87; in campaign of 1851, 92; elected governor, 93; opinion of Joseph E. Brown, 155; indorses seceders from Charleston convention, 179; prominence of, 186; deputy to Provisional Congress, 215; president of Provisional Congress, 216; addresses meeting at Atlanta, 324

 Cobb, Thomas R. R. , zeal for secession, 212; deputy to Provisional Congress, 215

 Cobb, Thomas W. , guardian of Robert Toombs, 7, 8

 College discipline, 8, 9

 Collins _v. _ Central R. R. & Banking Co. , case argued by Toombs, 346

 Colquitt, Walter T. , elected U. S. Senator, 38; Democratic leader, 51

 Columbia County, legal practice in, 15

 Columbia River, boundary line of, 57

 Commerce, Toombs' views on the power to regulate, 189

 Committee on Banking, General Assembly, chairman of, 33

 Committee on Internal Improvements, General Assembly, member of, 33; chairman of, 40

 Committee on State of the Republic, General Assembly, chairman of, 33

 Committees, views on legislation through, 196

 Compromise bill, the, 52

 Compromise of 1850, the, 67-82; indorsed by Whig and Democratic conventions at Baltimore, 97; Gen. Scott's position on, 103

 Cone, Francis H. , as a lawyer, 16; opposed to Toombs at the bar, 25; quarrel with Stephens, 62

 Confederacy, last days of the, 280-284

 Confederate commissioners, mission to Washington, 222-224; sent to Europe, 229

 Confederate navy, captures by, 232

 Confederate States, preparation of Constitution for, 219, 220; appointment of Cabinet, 221; last meeting of Cabinet, 282

 Conscription and Impressment Acts, opposition to, 272, 273

 Constitutional Union party, 81, 93, 183

 Constitutional convention, and the new constitution of Georgia, 337-352

 Conventions, Toombs' opinion of, 103, 104, 106

 Corporations, attitude toward, 346

 Crawford, George W. , as a lawyer, 16; resolution in Whig convention of 1848, 60; connection with the Golphin claim, 65; retirement of, 66; presides over State Sovereignty convention, 209

 Crawford, Martin J. , deputy to Provisional Congress, 215; Confederate commissioner to Washington, 222

 Crawford, William H. , career, 13, 14, 16; feud with Clarke, 29, 30; heads Whig electoral ticket in Georgia, 1848, 60

 Creek War, Toombs' service in, 32; anecdote of sutler, 352

 _Creole_, Toombs' escape on the, 303, 304

 Crittenden Compromise, the, 202, 203

 Cuba, favors purchase of, 195, 196; arrival in, 307

 Cumberland Gap, railroad scheme for, 41

 Cumming, Major J. B. , 259

 Cummings Point battery, fires on Fort Sumter, 227

 Cushing, Caleb, president of Charleston convention, 175; resigns chairmanship of Baltimore convention, 182; presides over seceders from Baltimore convention, 183

 Dallas, George M. , attitude on tariff question, 50; Georgia's vote for, 55

 Danburg, letter from Toombs to constituents at, 199-201

 Davis, Col. , quarrel with Henry Clay, 54, 55

 Davis, Jefferson, Toombs' advice to, 23; member of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56; on Toombs' financial ability, 59; represents Mississippi in U. S. Senate, 68; defeated by Foote, 97; debate with Douglas on popular sovereignty, 163, 164; personal traits, 163; Senate resolutions concerning Southern principles, 181; election to Presidency of Confederate States, 217, 218; appoints his Cabinet, 221; belief in Seward, 223; Toombs' opinion of, 241, 242, 246; debate with Toombs on Army Appropriation bill, 247-249; policy and character of, 274, 275; attends last meeting of Confederate Cabinet, 281, 282; tribute to Toombs, 284; arrest of, 284; last meeting with Toombs, 284, 285; in irons, 298

 Davis, John W. , elected Speaker of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56

 Dawson, William C. , as a lawyer, 16; candidate for governor of Georgia, 37; enters U. S. Senate, 68

 Deas, Joseph, aids Toombs' escape, 296

 Declaration of Independence, position on slavery question, 132

 Declaration of Paris, accepted by Confederate government, 231

 Delaware delegates leave Charleston convention, 177

 Democratic party, strength in Georgia, 30; supports central bank scheme, 38; censures Senator Berrien, 39; criticised, 48; carries additional protection measure, 51; attempt to defeat Toombs by, in 1848, 63, 64; elects Cobb Speaker of House, 69; joint action with Whigs in Georgia, 85; convention at Baltimore, 97; loss of House majority, 121; nominates Buchanan, 141; nominates Brown for governor of Georgia, 154; split over Territorial question, 166, 167; demand for new plank in platform, 167; split among Georgia Democrats, 182; success in State legislature, 329

 Depreciation of currency, 31

 District of Columbia, Clay's proposed abolition of slave trade in, 79; amendment as to slavery in, 202

 Disunion, opposition to, 81; clamor for, 83

 Dooly, Judge, 14

 "Door sill" speech, the, 170-174

 Dougherty, Robert, 9

 Douglas, Stephen A. , member of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56; enters U. S. Senate, 68; leader in U. S. Senate, 107; introduces Kansas-Nebraska bill, 108, 109; second bill on Kansas-Nebraska question, 109; burned in effigy, 115; Presidential aspirations, 140, 161; debate with Lincoln, 161, 162; accused of participation in assault on Sumner, 142, 143; eulogized by Toombs, 148, 149, 164, 165, 167; opposes Lecompton constitution, 160; indorses Dred Scott decision, 160; reëlected to U. S. Senate, 162, 163; views on popular sovereignty, 163, 164; resolution for protection of States against invasion, 170-172; rupture with Toombs, 181; nominated for Presidency, 182; vote in Georgia for, 184

 Dred Scott case, 159

 Droomgoole, George C. , member of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56

 Du Bose, Dudley M. , Toombs' adjutant-general, 237; forms partnership with Toombs, 316; sent to Congress, 329

 Du Bose, Mrs. Dudley M. , death of, 310

 Du Bose _v. _ Georgia Railroad, case argued by Toombs, 346

 Du Quesne, Fort, massacre at, 1

 Eberhart case, the, 25, 26

 Elbert County, admission to bar in, 13; legal practice in, 15, 16, 22, 23; popularity in, 22; escape through, 288, 289, 292

 Elberton, Ga. , speech at, 89

 Electoral vote, views on counting, 193, 194

 Emigrant Aid Societies, 115-118, 159

 Enghien, visit to, 309

 England, introduction of slavery into Colonies by, 134

 English compromise on Lecompton constitution, 164

 Eugénie, Empress, Toombs' interviews with, 310

 Europe, trip in, 125-128; hesitation of powers in regard to the Confederacy, 233

 Evans, Augusta J. , aids Toombs' escape, 302, 303

 Evans, Howard, aids Toombs' escape, 302, 303

 Everett, Edward, nominated for Vice-presidency, 183

 Fanning, Welcome, 6

 Felton, W. H. , opposition to, 105

 "Fifty-four forty, or fight, " 57

 Fillmore, Millard, nominated for Vice-presidency, 60; on repeal of Missouri Compromise, 115; nominated for Presidency, 140; Toombs' characterization of, 149, 150; electoral vote for, 152

 Finance Committee of Provisional Congress, chairman of, 220

 Fish, Hamilton, vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 115

 Fitzpatrick, Gov. , declines nomination for Vice-presidency, 182

 Florida, delegates leave Charleston convention, 177; secession of, 213

 Foote, Henry S. , represents Mississippi in U. S. Senate, 68; elected governor of Mississippi, 97; contest with Davis in Mississippi, 163

 "Forbidden Fruit, " 67

 Force bill, the, 51

 Foreacre, Supt. , frames railroad law, 351

 Forensic eloquence, 18, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28, 361

 Forsyth, John, Confederate commissioner to Washington, 222

 Forsythe, John C. , attitude on the Compromise bill, 52

 Forts. See their names. 

 France, Mexican schemes, 233; political events in, 309, 310

 Franklin College, 6-12

 Franklin County, legal practice in, 16

 Freemasons, joins the, 289

 Freeport, Ill. , debate between Lincoln and Douglas at, 161, 162

 Free-Soil party, 89

 Free-Soil settlers, 115, 116

 Frémont, John C. , nominated for Presidency, 140; electoral vote for, 152

 French, Capt. H. L. , account of Toombs at second battle of Manassas, 261

 Fugitive-Slave law, Clay's proposed, 79; the Georgia platform, 86; indorsed by Whig convention at Baltimore, 97; Webster's attitude on, 100; allusion to, in Boston lecture, 131

 Fugitive-Slave laws, passage of new, 170; proposed amendments, 202; demands of the South as to, 206

 Fulton, Col. M. C. , narrow escape of, 304

 Gardner, James, candidate for governorship of Georgia, 157

 Garrison, W. L. , denunciation of U. S. Constitution, 129

 General Assembly, service in the, 17, 30-46; vote for Speaker in, 33

 Geneva, visit to, 126

 Georgia, land-grant to Major Robert Toombs in, 2; distress in, 34-37; first railroad in, 40; internal improvements, 40; establishment of Supreme Court, 41; organization of Congressional districts, 44; supports Jackson in 1824, 51; Henry Clay in, 55; panegyric on, 58; formation of "Rough and Ready" clubs in, 60; the Clayton Compromise in, 60-62; formation of Constitutional Union party, 81, 183; growth of secession sentiment in, 83, 201, 204; adoption of the "Georgia Platform, " 86; nomination of Howell Cobb for governor, 86; nomination of McDonald for governor, 86; a national battle ground, 102; supports Pierce and King, 102, 103; uncertainty of politics in, 121; breaking up of Know-nothing party in, 122; campaign of 1855, 128; vote for Buchanan in convention, 141; campaign of 1856, 143-152; politics in, 145; carried by Buchanan, 152; campaign of 1857, 154; opposition to Brown's reëlection, 166; indorsement of Toombs' sentiments by, 168; position on the Fugitive-Slave law, 174; action of delegates to Charleston convention, 179; split in Democratic party, 182; vote in 1860, 184; prominence in 1860, 186; call for State convention, 200; votes for secession, 209; institution of slavery in, 211; wealth at time of secession, 213; agricultural policy during war, 275; the militia, 276-278; the March to the Sea, 280; Gov. Brown's address to people of, 290; Toombs' acquaintance in, 299; Toombs' return to, 315; in reconstruction days, 315-329; Constitutional convention, and the new constitution, 337-352; railroad commission formed, 350, 351

 Georgia Platform, the, 83, 93, 97

 Georgia Railroad, 40

 Gettysburg and Malvern Hill compared, 252

 Gillet, R. H. , vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 115

 Gilmer, George R. , as a lawyer, 16; on railroad construction, 41

 Glen Spring, Ga. , meeting between Hill and Brown at, 155

 Golphin claim, the, 65

 Gonder, Major, aids Toombs' escape, 294, 295

 Gordon, Gen. John B. , interview with Tilden, 321; nominated for governor, 324

 Gordonsville, Toombs under arrest at, 259, 260

 Grady, Henry W. , characterization of J. E. Brown, 156; at Bush Arbor meeting, 327; on Toombs' approaching death, 374

 "Gray Alice, " 5, 268, 288, 292, 297, 300, 301

 Great Britain, contention over Oregon question, 56-59; accused of lack of sympathy with the North, 230

 "Great Pacificator, " the, 201

 Greeley, Horace, nomination opposed by Toombs, 105, 332

 Greene County, partition of land in, 3; legal practice in, 16

 Gresham, J. J. , 179

 Gulf of Mexico, advocates making a _mare clausum_, 196

 Habersham County, escape through, 291

 Hagarstown, taken possession of by Toombs, 265

 Hale, Senator, contest with Toombs in Kansas debate, 117-120

 Hallet, B. F. , letter from Toombs to, 119

 Hamlin, Hannibal, member of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56; vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 115

 Hardeman, Frank, 14

 Hardeman, Judge Samuel H. , 26

 Harper's Ferry, John Brown's raid on, 169

 Harrisburg convention, demands protection, 51

 Harrison, W. H. , election of, 33; Toombs' interest in election of, 45

 Harrison Landing, Toombs' escape by, 288

 Hayne, R. Y. , challenge to Webster, 175

 Hayti, effects of emancipation in, 134

 Heard House, the, 282

 Hill, Benjamin H. , as a lawyer, 20; associated with Toombs in Eberhart case, 26; opposition to Toombs, 95; rising fame of, 144; debate with Toombs, 144-152; nominated for governorship of Georgia, 155; supports Bell and Everett, 184; Vincent's characterization of, 184, 185; deputy to Provisional Congress, 215; chosen Confederate Senator, 241; addresses meeting at Atlanta, 324, 327; challenged by Stephens, 336

 Hill, Gen. D. H. , at Malvern Hill, 252, 253; charges against Toombs, and correspondence thereon, 254-258; character, 258, 259; challenged by Toombs, 336

 Hilliard, Henry W. , member of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56

 Hillyer, Dr. , assists in Toombs' funeral services, 375, 376

 Holt, Hines, opposition to Toombs, 95

 Homestead and Exemption laws, 38, 317, 340

 Hood, Gen. J. B. , in command of Confederate forces, 276

 House of Representatives, U. S. , Toombs' action on organization of House, Dec. 22, 1850, 71-76

 Houston, Samuel, represents Texas in U. S. Senate, 68; comparison of Toombs with, 131

 Houston County, Toombs' escape through, 299

 Huger, Gen. , 245

 Hughes, Col. David, aids Toombs' escape, 297

 Huling, Catharine, 3, 4

 Hunter, Robert M. T. , member of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56; represents Virginia in U. S. Senate, 68; succeeds Toombs' as Secretary of State, 237

 Illinois, contest between Lincoln and Douglas in, 161, 162; re-election of Douglas to Senate, 163; government control of railroads, 346

 Internal improvements, views on, 188-191, 197; principles of Confederate Constitution on, 220

 Interstate Commerce Law, Georgia's influence in framing, 351

 Intoxicating liquor, use of, 364-368

 Ireland, tour through, 126

 Irvin, Charles E. , aids Toombs to escape, 287-305; arrested at Savannah, 291; war record, 305

 Jack Jones case, the, 361

 Jackson, Pres. Andrew, defeated by Adams, 14; conflict with Calhoun, 29; Toombs' vote for, 30; opposition to, by Troup, 31; attitude on tariff of 1824, 51; nullification proclamation, 52; position on internal improvements, 188

 Jackson, Chief Justice, tribute to Toombs, 27, 28

 Jamaica, effects of emancipation in, 134

 James River, Army of Potomac driven back to, 24

 Jefferson, Thomas, supports the tariff, 48; detestation of party machinery, 106; position on internal improvements, 188

 Jefferson County, on the stump in, 90

 Jenkins, Charles J. , as a lawyer, 16; elected Speaker of House, General Assembly, 33; defeated for U. S. Senatorship, 38; reports the "Georgia Platform, " 86; author of the Georgia Platform, 92, 93; opinion of Berrien, 93; nominated for Vice-presidency, 99; career of, 101; personal character, 102; disputes reconstruction measures, 323; carries off the great seal of Georgia, 333, 338; president of Constitutional convention, 337; deposed from governorship, 337; views on railroad question, 345

 Johnson, Andrew, member of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56; impeachment of, 310; Toombs' interview with, 313

 Johnson, Herschel V. , Democratic leader, 51; elected governor of Georgia, 128; leads Union wing of Georgia Democrats, 182; nominated for Vice-presidency, 183; challenged by Stephens, 336

 Johnson, R. M. , reunion with Toombs, 298, 299

 Johnson, Fort, fires on Fort Sumter, 227

 Johnston, Gen. Joseph E. , on first battle of Manassas, 238; advance on Washington, 238; withdraws from Manassas, 239; heated interview with Toombs, 243; recognizes Toombs' worth, 243, 244; retreats behind the Chickahominy, 245; criticism of Southern soldiers, 271; relieved from command, 276; struggle with Sherman, 280

 Jones, Gen. D. R. , report of second battle of Manassas, 261; reports of Toombs' actions at Antietam, 264, 265

 Judiciary Committee, General Assembly, chairman of, 33, 38

 Kansas, civil war in, 115-118, 159; Pierce's message on state of, 115, 116

 Kansas bill, opposition to, 166

 Kansas-Nebraska bill, 107-115; dissatisfaction with, in Georgia, 143; Hill on, 147-149

 Kennan, A. H. , deputy to Provisional Congress, 215

 Kentucky, partial secession measures of, 233

 Kimball House Company, financial dealings of Toombs with, 42

 Kinch, ----, sutler in Creek war, 352

 Knott, Pres. Eliphalet, 13

 Know-nothing party. See American party

 Labor, views on, 197

 Lamar, A. R. , description of Toombs, 236, 237

 Lamar, De Rosset, Toombs' aid-de-camp, 237

 Lamartine, Toombs compared with, 76

 Land-jobbing, opposition to, 53

 Lane, Jack, reunion with Toombs, 298, 299

 Lane, Joseph C. , nominated for Vice-presidency, 183

 Lanier, Sidney, 284

 Lawton, A. R. , supported by Toombs, 369

 Lecompton constitution, favored by Buchanan, 160; passes the Senate, 164

 Lee, Gen. Robert E. , captures John Brown, 169; successes of, 246; invades Maryland, 262; report of Toombs' actions at Antietam, 264

 Le Seur, Alexander, aids Toombs' escape, 288, 289

 Lewis, D. W. , defeated by Stephens, 93

 Lexington, Ga. , speech in, 92; debate between Hill and Stephens at, 144, 145

 Lincoln, Abraham, views on slavery question, 67; personal traits, 161, 162; opposes Douglas, 161, 162; letter to Stephens, 199; election of, 199; Toombs' views of his policy, 200; war pressure on, 224; compared with Seward, 225; relies on Northern unanimity, 226; proclaims blockade of Southern ports, 229; disputes with McClellan, 239; confidence in Toombs, 367

 "Little Giant, " the, 109, 161

 Longstreet, Gen. , opinion of Toombs, 106, 241, 271; quarrel with Toombs, 259, 260; report of Manassas and Maryland campaign, 269; compliments Toombs, 269; Toombs' opinion of, 325

 Lookout Mountain, last meeting of Davis and Toombs at, 284, 285

 Louisiana, Calhoun's "sugar letter" to, 46; delegates leave Charleston convention, 177; secession of, 216

 Lumpkin, Joseph H. , as a lawyer, 16; opinion of Toombs' legal skill, 20

 Lumpkin, murder case at, 23

 Lyons, visit to, 126

 Lyons, Lord, British minister at Washington, 230

 Macon County, Toombs' escape through, 299

 Madison, James, position on internal improvements, 188

 Magna Charta, lecture on, 327-329

 Magruder, Gen. , operations on Warwick River, 244; command on the peninsula, 245

 Mallory, S. B. , Secretary of Navy of Confederate States, 221

 Mallorysville, Ga. , speech at, 46

 Malvern Hill, battle of, 1, 252, 253

 Manassas, first battle of, 238; evacuated by Confederates, 239; Toombs at second battle, 260-262

 Manufactures, argument in favor of, 49

 March to the Sea, the, 280

 Marcy, Secretary, 231

 Marietta, speech in, 91

 Marque, letters of, 229-232

 Marseilles, visit to, 126

 Marshall, Chief Justice, 38

 Marshall, Humphrey, duel with Henry Clay, 55; recognizes Toombs at New Orleans, 305

 Martin, Major Luther, gives Toombs his parole papers, 291; his house raided, 292

 Maryland, invasion of, 262

 Mason, A. D. , commissioner to Europe, 229

 Mason, James M. , represents Virginia in U. S. Senate, 68; reads Calhoun's last speech, 79, 107

 Massachusetts, power of Abolitionists in, 109; withdraws from Baltimore Convention, 182

 Mattox, Col. W. H. , shelters Toombs, 292

 Maximilian, Emperor, defeat and execution of, 233

 Maybrick, Mrs. , 9

 McClellan, Gen. , succeeds McDowell, 238; disputes with Lincoln, 239; marches up the peninsula, 244

 McDaniel, H. D. , frames railroad law, 351

 McDonald, Charles J. , relief measures of, 34-37; reëlected, 37; supports central bank scheme, 38; represents Georgia at Nashville convention, 85; nominated for governor, 86; Toombs on the nomination of, 90; supported by Berrien, 93; defeated, 93; opposition to Toombs, 158

 McDowell, Gen. , succeeded by McClellan, 238

 McDuffie, George, as a lawyer, 16; Toombs' contentions with, 45-51; Democratic leader, 51

 McKennon, ----, resignation from Interior Department, 101

 McMillan, Robert, as a lawyer, 16; defeated by Toombs, 93

 Mediterranean, visit to, 126

 Memminger, C. G. , as a lawyer, 21; Secretary of Treasury of Confederate States, 221

 Merriweather, ----, Whig leader, 51

 Mexican war, fruits of, 60

 Mexico, defense of, in Texas question, 53; Toombs' opinions on conquest of, 59; the Clayton Compromise, 61; troubles over territory acquired from, 67; Toombs favors purchase of, 195; French schemes in, 233

 Might against right, 112

 Milledge, Gov. John, 7

 Milledgeville, Toombs in General Assembly at, 17; Toombs' practice in, 22, 123; doctrine of States' Rights, affirmed at convention of 1833, 52; convention of 1850 at, 86; call for State convention in 1860 at, 179; meeting of State Sovereignty convention at in 1861, 209

 Miller, Andrew J. , 16

 Mirabeau, Toombs compared with, 46, 70

 Mississippi, position in secession question, 97; delegates leave Charleston convention, 177; secession of, 213

 Mississippi River, views on appropriations for, 189-191

 Missouri, sends settlers to Kansas, 115, 159; representation at Baltimore convention, 182; partial secession measures of, 233; government control of railroads in, 346

 Missouri Compromise, refusal to extend the line of, 67; Sumner's claims for, 108; denounced by Toombs, 114; Fillmore on the repeal of, 115

 Mobile, Ala. , escape through, 301-303

 Monopolies, hatred for, 26, 348, 349

 Monroe, Fortress, McClellan's arrival at, 244; Stephens imprisoned at, 298

 Monroe, James, position on internal improvements, 188

 Montgomery, Ala. , Provisional Congress at, 216

 Morris Island fires on Sumter, 227

 Morton, Oliver P. , 314

 Moses, R. J. , Toombs' commissary general, 237; account of dispute between Toombs and Gen. Hill, 256, 257

 Moultrie, Fort, fires on Fort Sumter, 227

 Mount Pleasant battery fires on Fort Sumter, 227

 Munson's Hill, Toombs' position at, 238

 Naples, visit to, 126

 Nashville, convention at, 85

 National debt, views on, 197

 National Democratic party, defeated, 327; nominates Greeley for Presidency, 332

 Neahmatha, insurrection of, 32

 Negroes, Toombs on the status of, 133-137; Toombs' treatment of his, 138, 139; decision of Dred Scott case, 159; Toombs' position toward, after the war, 341

 New Mexico, bill to organize, 65; acquisition of, 67; question of organizing Territory, 79, 80

 New Orleans, fall of, 245; escape through, 304, 305

 Newspaper criticisms and misrepresentations, 365, 366

 _New World_, return to America on the, 313

 New York City, speech for Taylor in 1848, 64

 New York State, power of Abolitionists in, 109

 _New York Express_, on Boston lecture, 131, 132

 Nicholls, Col. John C. , messenger from Toombs to Brown, 335

 Nisbet, Eugenius A. , offers secession resolution, 209; deputy to Provisional Congress, 215

 Norfolk, loss of, 245

 North Carolina, supports Jackson, 29; secedes, 233

 Northern Circuit of Georgia, the bar of, 16

 "Notes on the Situation, " 185, 326

 Nullification, 51, 52

 O'Brien, Rev. J. M. , 362

 Ocmulgee River, watched for Toombs, 298; escape across, 299

 Oconee River, 7, 296

 Oglethorpe, Ga. , escape through, 299

 Oglethorpe County, legal practice in, 15, 16, 25

 Ohio, position in regard to the Wilmot Proviso, 60; power of Abolitionists in, 109; government control of railroads in, 346

 Olin, Stephen, 9

 Omnibus bill (Clay's), 80

 Omnibus bill (State aid to railroads), opposed by Toombs, 191

 Ordinance of Secession, 209, 214

 Oregon supports the South in Charleston convention, 177

 Oregon question, prominence in 1845, 56-59

 Outlawry, Toombs' glory in, 23

 Paine, Tom. , Toombs' liking for, 368

 Panic of 1837, 16, 31, 41

 Paris, visit to, 126; flight to, 308

 Payne, Henry B. , member of Charleston convention, 176

 Peace congress, 234

 Peace resolutions, 273

 Peach Tree Creek, in battle at, 276

 Pennsylvania, government control of railroads, 346

 Pension grabs, views on, 192, 193, 197

 Peter's Colony Grant, 152

 Phillips, Wendell, oratory of, 129

 Pickens, Gov. , Democratic leader, 51; notified in regard to Fort Sumter, 224

 Pierce, Bishop Geo. F. , 10, 11, 376

 Pierce, Pres. Franklin, Toombs' estimate of, 367; message on state of Kansas, 115, 116; vetoes Mississippi River bill, 191

 Polk, Pres. James K. , attitude toward protection, 50; Georgia's vote for, 55; position on Oregon question, 57; forced to retire from Oregon position, 59; veto of River and Harbor bill, 188; vetoes supported by Toombs, 191

 Pope, Sarah, 3

 Pope, ----, death of, and generosity of Toombs to his family, 359, 360

 Pope, Gen. , driven from Virginia, 262

 Popular sovereignty, Douglas' doctrine of, 162-164

 Postal service, views on, 197

 Pottle, Judge E. H. , 25, 26

 "Pour it back in the jug, " 352

 Prather, Col. , shelters Toombs, 290

 Prentiss, Sergeant S. , vanquished in debate by Davis, 163

 Presidential vote, Toombs' views on counting, 193

 Principles of Magna Charta, lecture, 327-329

 Privateers, 229-232

 Produce Loan, the, 236

 Prohibitionists, Toombs' opinion of, 374

 Protection, defense of, 48-50; in campaign of 1844, 51

 Provisional Congress of seceded States, 214-218

 Pulaski, Fort, seized by Gov. Brown, 214

 Railroad Commission of Georgia, 350, 351; Toombs' appearance before, 362

 Railroad corporations, Toombs' attitude toward, 342, 345-351

 Randall, S. J. , proposes General Amnesty Act, 313

 Randolph, John, duel with Henry Clay, 55

 Rapidan River, Confederate retirement along, 239; Toombs' brigade at the, 259

 Rappahannock River, Confederates retire behind, 239

 Reagan, J. H. , Postmaster General of Confederate States, 221; recognizes Toombs' merits, 270; last attendance at Confederate Cabinet, 282

 Reconstruction Acts, views on, 325, 326

 Reese, Judge William M. , on the practice of law, 15; description of Toombs by, 24; opinion of Toombs' speeches, 329, 330; frames railroad law, 351

 Religion, liberality in matters of, 124, 125

 Republican party, formation of, 140; growing strength of, 161; arraigned by Toombs, 172-174, 203; opposition to, in Georgia, 324

 Repudiation, 343, 344

 Rhett, R. Barnwell, Democratic leader, 51; member of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56

 Rhine, voyage down the, 126

 Richmond, Va. , call for convention in, 178; chosen as capital of Confederacy, 232; McClellan's march on, 244; Toombs at defense of, 245, 246

 Right to bear arms, views on, 340

 River and Harbor bills, views on, 188-191

 Roanoke, plantation at, 23, 330

 Roman, A. B. , Confederate commissioner to Washington, 222

 Roman Catholic Church, Toombs' liberality toward, 124

 Rome, visit to, 126

 Rost, A. P. , commissioner to Europe, 229

 "Rough and Ready" clubs, 60

 Russia supports the North, 233

 Sanders, Miss, 3

 Savannah, siege of, 279; arrest of Irvin at, 291

 Savannah River, views on clearing, 188; Toombs' escape by, 288

 "Scarlet Letter, " the, 178

 Schenectady, college course at, 13

 Scotland, tour through, 126

 Scott, Gen. Winfield, service under, 32; opposition to, by Southern Whigs, 98; Toombs' estimate of, 98, 99; defeats Webster, 100; vote for, in 1852, 103; rupture of Whig party in Georgia on his nomination, 121; opinion of Fort Sumter, 223

 Secession, clamor for, 83, 201; assertion of right of, 87; Toombs charged with fomenting, 94; foreseen by Toombs, 200; Toombs committed to the policy, 203; Georgia's vote for, 209; passage of Ordinance of, 209

 Seward, William H. , enters the U. S. Senate, 68, 107; an "Independent Democrat, " 109; vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 115; refuses audience to Confederate commissioners, 222; views on evacuation of Fort Sumter, 222, 223; compared with Lincoln, 225; accuses Great Britain of lack of sympathy, 230; diplomacy of, 233

 Seymour, Horatio, nominated for Presidency, 324

 Sharpsburg, battle of, 263-269

 Sherman, W. T. , March to the Sea, 280

 "Siamese Twins, " the, 182

 Simpson, W. W. , reunion with Toombs, 298, 299

 Slaughter, James M. , letter from Yancey to, 177, 178

 Slavery, Gabriel Toombs' treatment of negroes, 3; arraignment of Calhoun for the "sugar letter, " 46; Toombs' attitude toward, 46, 47, 48; the Clayton Compromise, 61, 64; Lincoln's views on, 67, 162; Toombs' actions and speeches on slavery in Territories, 69, 76-81, 164, 166, 167, 181; Clay's resolutions to abolish, in District of Columbia, 79; protest against admission of California by Nashville convention, 85; Toombs accused of unsoundness on the question of, 85; the Georgia Platform, 86; Toombs' ideas on exclusion of, from California, 91; the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 108-115; provisions for, in U. S. Constitution, 114; question reopened by Kansas-Nebraska bill, 114; lecture in Boston on, 129-135; Toombs on the status of the negro, 133-137; decision of Dred Scott case, 159; Southern view of Dred Scott decision as affecting Territories, 162; Douglas' views on, in Territories, 163, 164; anxiety in the South for protection of, 165; demand for new plank in platform of Democratic party, 167; deadlock on, in Charleston convention, 177; Lincoln's letter to Stephens, 199; tendency toward extinction, 199; measures before the House, 202; the Crittenden Compromise, 202, 203; demands of the South as to, 206; institution in Georgia, 211

 Slidell, John, member of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56; leader in U. S. Senate, 107

 Smith, Col. Jack, aids Toombs' escape, 295

 Smith, Col. Marshal J. , aids Toombs' escape, 305

 Smith, George W. , 242

 South, stability of social institutions in, 138; demands of the, as set forth by Toombs, 205-208; sacrifices by secession, 213

 South Carolina, condemnation of school of politics of, 53; supports Pierce, 103; Hayne's challenge to Webster, 175; secession of, 213

 Southern Methodist Church, Toombs' communion with, 373

 Southern Rights party, nominates Troup for Presidency, 102

 Sparta, Ga. , Toombs' escape by, 293, 298

 Speeches, i, iv, 18, 20, 21, 23-25, 27, 28, 46-50, 57, 59, 64, 69-78, 85, 88, 89, 91, 92, 98, 99, 103-105, 109-118, 145-152, 165-168, 170-174, 176, 177, 187-193, 205-208, 236, 237, 317, 318, 324-326, 329, 331, 336, 348, 349, 369, 370

 Squatter sovereignty, 153; Douglas' views on, 160, 162; Toombs' opposition to, 166, 167; before Charleston convention, 177

 Stanton, Edwin M. , orders arrests of Confederate leaders, 286

 State Railroad of Georgia, supported by Toombs, 192

 State Sovereignty convention, 209

 States' Rights, doctrine affirmed at Milledgeville, 52; Toombs' characterization of the Clayton Compromise, 61; speeches and views on, 69, 70, 76-78, 88, 110-114, 116-119, 133; claims by Nashville convention, 85; the Cincinnati Platform, 141; Hill on, 148

 States' Rights party, in campaign of 1844, 51; nominates Troup for Presidency, 102

 States' Rights Whigs, joined by Toombs, 30; policy of, 31

 Steiner, Dr. Henry H. , 119, 243; influence over Toombs, 249; talks with Toombs on spiritual condition, 372, 373; attends Toombs at the last, 374, 375

 Stephens, Alexander H. , his tutor, 6; as a lawyer, 16; compared with Toombs, 18, 20, 43; opinion of Toombs' legal skill, 20; friendship with Toombs, 43; position on slavery question, 44; elected to Congress, 44, 55, 56, 63, 122, 333; Whig leader, 51; leads campaign of 1848 in Georgia, 60; quarrel with Cone, 62; reported rupture between Pres. Taylor and, 64, 65; description of Toombs in debate, 75, 76; position on admission of California, 81; position on disunion, 82; sent to conventional Milledgeville, 86; personality of, 90; Toombs' description of, 91; in campaign of 1851, 92; defeats Lewis, 93; on the Compromise of 1850, 98; nominated for Congress by Toombs, 105, 333; breaks up Know-nothing party in Georgia, 122; debate with Hill, 144, 145; on Cincinnati Platform, 165; opinion on action of Charleston convention, 179; supports Douglas for Presidency, 183; Vincent's characterization of, 184, 185; prominence of, 186; letter from Lincoln to, 199; views of secession, 212; deputy to Provisional Congress, 215; opinion of Provisional Congress, 216; Toombs' eulogy of, 216; opposes Conscription and Impressment Acts, 273; arrested, 286; imprisoned at Fortress Monroe, 298; defeated by Gordon, 333; becomes Governor of Georgia, 333; challenges Johnson and Hill, 336; funeral of, 371, 372; tribute to Toombs, 375

 Stephens, Linton, opinion of Toombs, 26; opposes Conscript Acts, 273; introduces peace resolutions, 273; career, 274; aids Toombs' escape, 293; reunion with Toombs, 298, 299; disputes reconstruction measures, 323; activity in reconstruction times, 333

 Stewart County, Toombs' escape through, 301

 Stump-speaking, 145

 Subtreasury system, the, 31, 38

 Sumner, Charles, leader in U. S. Senate, 107; opposes Kansas-Nebraska bill, 108, 115; an "Independent Democrat, " 109; denounced by Toombs, 110; enmity to Southern propagandism, 129; Brooks' assault on, 141, 142

 Sumter, Fort, Confederate demand for surrender of, 222; abandonment favored by Lincoln's Cabinet, 223; preparations to provision, 224; orders to Beauregard, 225; bombardment of, 227-229

 Superstition, Toombs' views on, 367

 Supreme Court of Georgia, practice in, 20-22, 24, 25; establishment of, 41

 Suretyship, opposition to contracts of, 41, 42

 Swedenborg, Toombs' fondness for, 368

 Swinton, William, on Lincoln's administration, 272

 Taliaferro County, assigned to Seventh Congressional District, 44

 Taney, Roger B. , decision in Dred Scott case, 159

 Tariff, Whigs favor protective, 31; defense of the, 48-50; in campaign of 1844, 51; modified in 1832, 52; Toombs' attitude on, 52; prominence of the question in 1845, 56; bill of 1846, 59

 Taxation, attitude on Georgia, 54

 Taylor, Gen. Dick, on Toombs' energy, 279, 280

 Taylor, Zachary, nominated for President, 60; elected, 63; attitude of Cabinet toward the South, 64; reported rupture with Toombs and Stephens, 64, 65; death, 65; opinion on disposition of acquired territory, 67; Toombs' opinion of, 367

 Tennessee secedes, 233

 Territories, Toombs' position on slavery in, 69, 76-78, 80, 132, 166, 167, 181; protest by Nashville convention in regard to, 85; the Georgia Platform, 86; the slavery question in the, 87; third great sectional fight on the, 107-115; Toombs on Federal power over, 111, 132, 133; the Cincinnati Platform, 141; Hill on rights of, 148; Buchanan's position on question of, 159; Douglas' views on admission of, 160; Southern view of Dred Scott decision as affecting slavery in, 162; Buchanan's resolution in Cincinnati Platform, 165; contest over slavery in, in Charleston contention, 177; demands of the South as to, 206

 Texas, Toombs' attitude on annexation of, 53; prominence of question in 1845, 56; Toombs' purchase of lands in, 152, 153; visit to, 153; delegates leave Charleston convention, 177

 Texas and New Mexico bill, passed, 80

 "The Crime against Kansas, " 142

 Thomas, Thomas W. , as a lawyer, 16; leader of campaign of 1848 in Georgia, 60; on Toombs' characteristics, 272

 Thompson, Jacob, member of the Twenty-ninth Congress, 56; leader in U. S. Senate, 107

 Tilden, S. J. , interview with Gen. Gordon, 321

 _Times_ (London), on bombardment of Sumter, 228, 229

 Tobacco, Toombs' use of, 360, 361

 Toombs, Ann, 3

 Toombs, Augustus, 3

 Toombs, Dawson Gabriel, 3

 Toombs, Gabriel, Sr. , 1-3

 Toombs, Gabriel, Jr. , 4; manager of his brother's plantations, 275; at his brother's bedside, 373; resemblance to Robert, 373

 Toombs, James, 3

 Toombs, Louise, death of, 312

 Toombs, Gen. Robert, ancestry, 1-4; birth, 4; filial affection, 4; boyhood and education, 4-12; horsemanship, 4-6; historical learning, 6; play upon his name, 6; generosity, 10, 124, 283, 284, 357; joins Methodist Church, 11, 373; trustee of State University, 11; college legends of, 12; receives degree, 13; admitted to the bar, 13; marriage, 14; legal career, 13-28; legal ethics, 18, 19, 23; oratorical powers, 18, 21, 23-25, 27, 28; financial ability, 23, 59, 152, 220, 310, 362; morality, 23, 24; Reese's opinion of, 24; justice of, 26, 27; failing powers, 27; brilliant plea of, 28; entrance into politics, 30; elected to General Assembly, 30; popularity in Wilkes County, 32; chairman of Judiciary Committee in General Assembly, 33, 38; action on Gov. McDonald's relief measures, 34-37; financial policy, 35-39; defends Berrien, 39; support of railroad enterprise, 40; compared with A. H. Stephens, 43; friendship of the two, 43; first participation in national politics, 45; contentions with McDuffie, 45-51; charged with being an Abolitionist, 46; compared to Mirabeau, 46; delegate to Clay convention of 1844, 46; opposes acquisition of Texas, 53; sent to Congress, 55, 56, 63, 93; position on Oregon question, 57; leads in campaign of 1848 in Georgia, 60; reported rupture between Pres. Taylor and, 64, 65; leads Southern members from Whig caucus, 69; personal appearance, 72, 74, 89, 90, 130; domestic character, 82, 353-363; address to people of Georgia, 83-85; sent to convention at Milledgeville, 86; renominated for Congress, 87; prominence in campaign of 1850, 87, 88; position on the Union question, 88; a journalist's description of, 91; elected U. S. Senator, 94, 158; charged with fomenting secession, 94; letters to his wife, 95, 123-125, 158, 239, 242, 277, 278, 310-313, 354, 355, 359, 360; feeling toward the North, 98; friendship for Webster, 101; becomes a Democrat, 105; independence of, 106; enters U. S. Senate, 107; frequently misquoted, 119; horror of civil war, 120; death of his daughters, 123, 310, 312; European trip, 123, 125-128; liberality in matters of conscience, 125; physical strength, 125, 127; international reputation, 126; knowledge of human nature, 127; treatment of slaves, 138, 139; accused of participation in assault on Sumner, 142, 143; debate with Hill, 144-152; accused of being a turncoat and disunionist, 151; address to Northern Democrats, 176, 177; letter to Macon committee, 179, 180; advice on Charleston convention matters, 180, 181; fears for the Constitution, 180, 182; rupture with Douglas, 181; delegate to Democratic State convention, 183; Vincent's characterization of, 184, 185; charges of desertion of Douglas, 186; Presidential ambitions, 186, 187; activity in public duty, 187; first public office, 192; accused by Georgia "minute-men, " 201; withdrawal from the Senate, 205-208; chairman of Committee on Foreign Relations, 214; writes address to people of Georgia, 215; deputy to Provisional Congress, 215; a candidate for Presidency of Southern Confederacy, 216; machinations against, 218; curious incidents in life of, 219; chairman of Finance Committee of Provisional Congress, 220; made Secretary of State, 221; opposes assault on Sumter, 226; triumphs of diplomacy, 230; joins the army, 235; speech on the produce loan, 236, 237; the archives of the Confederacy, 237; retreat from Centreville, 239; care of his brigade, 240; impatience of mismanagement, 240; elected Confederate Senator, 241; declines Secretaryship of War, 242; impatience under red tape, 234, 243; debate with Davis on Army Appropriation bill, 247-249; use of liquor, 249, 250; position on the peninsula, 250; action at Golding's farm, 250, 251; at Malvern Hill, 252, 253; charges of cowardice, and correspondence thereon, 254-258; quarrel with Longstreet, 259, 260; under arrest at Gordonsville, 259, 260; in second battle of Manassas, 261, 262; report of actions at Antietam, 265-268; wounded, 268, 269; popularity among his troops, 269; leaves the army, 269, 270; reasons for his non-promotion, 270, 271; military abilities, 271; with the militia, 276-279; declines governorship, 273; energy of, 279, 280; parting with Gov. Brown, 281; action at close of war, 281; last meeting with Davis, 284, 285; escape, 286-307; becomes a Freemason, 289; conversational powers, 305, 306, 310, 358, 359; dread of capture, 306; vivacity, 306; arrival in Cuba, 307; arrival in Paris, 308; sells land, 308; in exile, 309-313; returns to America, 312, 313; unreconstructed, 313; return to Georgia, 315; resumes practice of law, 316; in reconstruction days, 315-329; master of invective, 318-322, 326; before the Supreme Court of Georgia, 320, 321; opinion of Yankees, 322; zeal, 322, 323; addresses meeting at Atlanta, 324-326; fondness for farming, 330, 331; strained relations with Brown, 333-336; a believer in the code of honor, 336; the Constitutional convention, and the new constitution, 337-352; pays expenses of Constitutional convention, 344, 345; golden wedding, 356, 357; hospitality, 357, 358; sympathies of, 359, 360; last appearance in court, 361, 362; wealth, 362, 363; his great fault, 364-368; love of literature, 367, 368; last days, 369-375; attends Stephens' funeral, 371, 372; at wife's death-bed, 372, 373; baptized, 373; death and burial, 375, 376; his monument, 376

 Toombs, Major Robert, 2, 3

 Toombs, Mrs. , friendship for A. H. Stephens, 62; aids her husband's escape, 286, 287; joins her husband in Paris, 309; returns to America, 310; character, 356, 357; accident to, 356; golden wedding, 356, 357; death, 372, 373

 Toombs, William, 2

 Toombs oak, the, 12

 Toucey, ----, leader in U. S. Senate, 107

 Towns, Gov. , calls State convention, 83

 Tremont Temple, Boston, lecture on slavery in, 129-135

 Trinity River, Toombs' lands on, 152

 Troup, George M. , defender of States' Rights, 30, 31; opposition to Jackson's measures, 31; attitude on the tariff question, 51; opposes Toombs in campaign of 1844, 53

 Troup, Capt. , on Toombs' staff, 268

 Tugaloo River, 290

 Turncoats, Crawford's ideas of, 91

 Tyler, Pres. , Toombs on, 367

 Union College, 13

 Union Democratic-Republican party, 30

 United States Bank, supported by Berrien, 39; defense of, 48

 United States Constitution, position on slavery, 132

 United States judges, higher pay for, supported by Toombs, 192

 United States Senate, _personnel_ in 1853, 107; debate on popular sovereignty, 163, 164; farewell speech in, 205-208

 University of Georgia, 6-12; annual address at, 331, 332

 University of Virginia, course at, 13

 Utah, acquisition of, 67; question of organization of Territory, 79

 Van Buren, Pres. Martin, censured by Toombs, 31; Toombs on, 367

 Vandyke, John, opposes Toombs in House of Representatives, 72

 Vincent, characterization of Toombs, Hill, and Stephens, 184, 185

 Virginia, ----, settlement of the Toombs family in, 2; supports Calhoun, 29; Brown's raid into, 169, 170; secedes, 233

 Waddell, Pres. Moses, 8, 9

 Wade, ----, vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 115

 Walker, Levi P. , Secretary of War of Confederate States, 221; instructions to Beauregard about Fort Sumter, 224, 225

 Walker, Robert J. , governor of Kansas, 160

 Walker, Gen. W. H. T. , dispute with Gen. Hill at Chickamauga, 258, 259

 Walthall, Gen. E. C. , 277

 War, Toombs' views on, 57

 "War between the States, " 75, 98, 185, 371

 Warner, Hiram, opinion of Homestead and Exemption laws, 318

 Warwick River, Toombs' operations on, 244

 Washington, D. C. , imperiled after first battle of Manassas, 238; Army of Northern Virginia advances on, 262

 Washington, Ga. , Mrs. Toombs' residence at, 4; distinguished men around, 16; speech at, 98, 99; debate between Toombs and Hill at, 144-152; Toombs elected commissioner, 192; the Toombs home at, 360

 Washington County, escape through, 299

 Waterloo, visit to field of, 126

 Webster, Rev. Alexander, 6

 Webster, Daniel, compared with Toombs, 14; last efforts of, 68; great Union speech of, 79; tribute to, 99, 104, 367; nominated for Presidency, 99; admiration for, in the South, 100; Secretary of State, 100; friendship with Toombs, 101; death, 102, 107; Hayne's challenge to, 175; his loss felt, 201

 Wellborn, Speaker, 39

 Wesleyan Female College, 9

 Western and Atlantic Railroad, 40

 West Indies, effects of emancipation in, 134, 137

 West Point, Toombs' opinion of training at, 246-249; criticism of officers from, 273; criticism not sustained, 275

 Wheeler, Gen. Joseph, 301, 303

 Whig party, demand internal improvements, 40; attitude toward protection, 46; in campaign of 1844, 51, 55; position in campaign of 1848, 60; caucus of 1845, 68-70; joint action with Democrats in Georgia, 85; convention at Baltimore, 97; Southern opposition to Presidential candidate Scott, 98; nominates Webster for Presidency, 99; break in, by Southern members, 100; Toombs' defection from, 105; rupture over Scott's nomination, 121; absorption into Republican party, 140

 Wilde, Gen. , attempts the capture of Toombs, 286

 Wilkes County, land-grant to Major Robert Toombs in, 2; partition of lands in, 3; birth-place of Gen. Toombs, 4; legal practice in, 15, 16, 22, 23; factions in, 29, 30; politics of, 32; defeat of Whigs in, 37; assigned to Eighth Congressional District, 44

 Wilkinson County, escape through, 296

 Willington, S. C. , speech at, 45

 Wilmot, David, member of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56

 Wilmot Proviso, Ohio's position in regard to, 60; menace to the South, 70, 79; abandoned, 79, 87; Webster's attitude on, 99, 100; how characterized by Toombs, 149

 Wingfield, J. T. , 288

 Winthrop, Robert C. , member of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56; defeated for Speakership, 69

 Wisconsin, debate on counting Electoral vote, 193, 194

 Wolseley, Gen. , on Sherman's invasion of Georgia, 281

 Worth, Fort, meeting with squatters at, 153, 154

 Wright, A. R. , deputy to Provisional Congress, 215

 Yancey, William L. , member of Twenty-ninth Congress, 56; leads seceders from Charleston convention, 177; letter to Slaughter, 177, 178; speech in Charleston, 178; commissioner to Europe, 229

 Yorktown, Toombs' operations at, 244, 245

 "Young Alice, " 300

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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:

Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully aspossible, including obsolete and variant spellings. Obvioustypographical errors in punctuation (misplaced quotes and the like) havebeen fixed. Corrections [in brackets] in the text are noted below:

page 39: typo corrected

 and declared the resolutions adopted. Mr. Toombe[Toombs] fired up at this unusual decision. He threw himself before

page 122: possible typo

 he did run for Congress and scored[should be scorned?] the secret order on every stump in the district. 

page 171: quote added in likely place

 Mr. Toombs contended that this was no new principle introduced into our Constitution. ["]It was inserted in the ordinance of 1787. The New

page 237: typo corrected

 When General Toombs joined the Army his staff was made up as follows; D. M. Dubose[DuBose], Adjutant General; R. J. Moses, page 260: quote added in likely place

 from Toombs and directed him to join his command. ["]As we were preparing for the charge at Manassas (second battle), page 268: typo corrected

 "Gray Alice, " so well known to his command. He was not very far over when a troop of calvary[cavalry] rode up. He

page 288: typo corrected

 Riding over to a neigbor's[neighbor's] house, Mr. J. T. Wingfield, he failed to find his friend, but left

page 295: comma added

 "But that looks very much like him through the window[, ]" said Lieutenant Irvin. 

page 295: typo corrected

 or his plans, for fear that they might indiscreetly comment on his presence or embarass[embarrass] him even by their

page 299: typo corrected

 Federals believed Tombs[Toombs] already abroad and had ceased to look for him in Georgia. After the passage

page 325: added missing quote

 and property; defeat all the rightful purposes of government, and renounce all remedies, all laws. ["]

page 342: typo corrected

 authorizing the legislature to levy a lax[tax] to furnish good substantial artificial limbs to those

page 375: added missing quote

 to his home in Augusta, General Toombs bade him good-by. ["]I am sorry, " said he, "the hour is come. I hope we shall meet

On page 250, a quotation begins with no conclusive end:

 "Just before dark, " says Dr. Steiner, "Mr. Toombs received orders to charge the enemy, firing having been heard on the left. The position

Inconsistent spelling:

 Greensboro (page 281)/Greenesboro (pages 9, 283)

Inconsistent spelling:

 Empress Eugenie (page 310)/Eugénie (index)

Inconsistent spelling:

 Hagerstown (page 265)/Hagarstown (page 262 and index)