33 chapters
7 hour read
Selected Chapters
33 chapters
ROBERT TOOMBS
ROBERT TOOMBS
HIS CAREER IN CONGRESS AND ON THE HUSTINGS—HIS WORK IN THE COURTS—HIS RECORD WITH THE ARMY—HIS LIFE AT HOME "The blood which mingled at Cowpens and at Eutaw cannot be kept at enmity forever."— Toombs. 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....
23 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Dedication.
Dedication.
TO ROBERT TOOMBS DU BOSE, WHOSE INTEREST AND AID WERE INVALUABLE, AND WITHOUT 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 call
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
FAMILY, BOYHOOD, LIFE AT COLLEGE.
FAMILY, BOYHOOD, LIFE AT COLLEGE.
Gabriel Toombs was one of General Braddock's soldiers who marched against Fort DuQuesne in 1755. He was a member of the sturdy Virginia line which protested against the dangerous tactics of the British martinet, and when the English regulars were ambushed and cut to pieces, Gabriel Toombs deployed with his men in the woods and picked off the savages with the steady aim and unerring skill of the frontiersman. Over one hundred years later Robert Toombs, his grandson, protested against the fruitles
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
AT THE BAR.
AT THE BAR.
After Robert Toombs left the University of Georgia, he entered Union College at Schenectady, N. Y., under the presidency of Dr. Eliphalet Knott. Here he finished his classical course and received his A. B. degree. This was in 1828, and in 1829 he repaired to the University of Virginia, where he studied law one year. In the Superior Court of Elbert County, Ga., holden on the 18th day of March, 1830, he was admitted to the bar. The license to practice recites that "Robert A. Toombs made his applic
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
IN THE LEGISLATURE.
IN THE LEGISLATURE.
When Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun were waging their "irrepressible conflict," the county of Wilkes in the State of Georgia was nursing discordant factions. Just across the river in Carolina lived the great Nullifier. The Virginia settlers of Wilkes sided with him, while scores of North Carolinians, who had come to live in the county, swore by "Old Hickory." This political difference gave rise to numerous feuds. The two elements maintained their identity for generations, and the divisions b
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
ELECTED TO CONGRESS.
ELECTED TO CONGRESS.
Entering public life about the same time, living a short distance apart, professing the same political principles, practicing in the same courts of law, were Alexander H. Stephens of Taliaferro and Robert Toombs of Wilkes. Entirely unlike in physical organism and mental make-up, differing entirely in origin and views of life, these two men were close personal friends, and throughout an eventful period of more than half a century, preserved an affectionate regard for each other. Mr. Stephens was
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
IN THE LOWER HOUSE.
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. Davis of Indiana, Speaker. The House was made up of unusually strong men, who afterward became noted in national affairs. Hannibal Hamlin was with the Maine delegation; ex-President John Quincy Adams had been elected from Massachusetts with Robert C. Winthrop; Stephen A. Douglas was there from Illinois; David Wilmot from Pennsylvania; R. Barnwell Rhett and Armi
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850.
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850.
No legislative body ever assembled with more momentous measures before it than the thirty-first Congress of the United States. An immense area of unsettled public domain had been wrested from Mexico. The Territories of California, Utah, and New Mexico, amounting to several hundred thousand square miles, remained undisposed of. They comprised what Mr. Calhoun had termed the "Forbidden Fruit," and the trouble which beclouded their annexation threatened to surpass the storms of conquest. Congress f
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE GEORGIA PLATFORM.
THE GEORGIA PLATFORM.
When Mr. Toombs came home in the fall of 1850 he found the State in upheaval. Disunion sentiment was rife. He was confronted by garbled extracts of his speeches in Congress, and made to pose as the champion of immediate secession. He had aided in perfecting the great compromise and was resolved that Georgia should take her stand firmly and unequivocally for the Union and the Constitution. Governor Towns had issued a call for a State convention; Mr. Toombs took prompt issue with the spirit and pu
14 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1852.
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1852.
In this first struggle between Secession and the Union Georgia had taken the lead, but Georgia had not been the only State involved. The fight was waged just as fiercely in Mississippi, when Henry S. Foote, the Union candidate, was elected Governor over Jefferson Davis. But the Georgia Platform was the corner-stone of the Southern victory. Her action gave peace and quiet to the whole Union, and the success of the triumvirate that year offered assurance of strength and security to the country. Th
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
TOOMBS IN THE SENATE.
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 the compromise measures. Calhoun had died before the compromise was effected, and only a short time after his last address had been read to the Senate by Mr. Mason of Virginia. Clay survived his last greatest work but two years, and on the 29th of June, 1852, was no more. Daniel Webster lived only four months longer than Mr. Clay. Among the new leaders in that bo
14 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE “KNOW-NOTHING” PARTY.
THE “KNOW-NOTHING” PARTY.
In the fall of 1854 the elections were generally adverse to the Democrats. The slavery agitation at the North, intensified by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, resulted in a large number of Free-Soil candidates and "anti-Nebraska" Whigs being elected to the House. In the West and South, the "Know-nothing" movement had arisen as in a single night, and with secrecy and strength had asserted itself on election day. The consequence was that the Democratic majority in the House which had been
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
TOOMBS IN BOSTON.
TOOMBS IN BOSTON.
In 1856, Mr. Toombs visited Boston, and delivered a lecture upon slavery. 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 extreme Southern man in the heart of abolitionism, carrying his doctrines to the very citadel of antislavery. But Toombs, with dramatic determination, decided to accept. Several Southern statesmen had been invited to appear before Boston audiences, but prudence had kept them from complying. On the
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
BUCHANAN’S ADMINISTRATION.
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. The elections of 1854 had emboldened the antislavery men to form the Republican party, and to put out, as their candidate, John C. Frémont, "pioneer and pathfinder," who had saved California to the Union. Frémont was not a statesman, but a hero of the kind who dazzled men, and was thought to be especially available as a presidential candidate. "Free soil, Free men, F
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
“ON THE STUMP” IN GEORGIA.
“ON THE STUMP” IN GEORGIA.
Among the young men on the stump that year was Benjamin H. Hill. He had come up from the plow-handles in Jasper County. Working his way to an education, he had graduated at the State University in 1845, with the first honors of his class. He was at this time barely more than thirty years of age, but he had won distinction at the bar and served his county in the State Senate. He was known for his aggressive, ringing eloquence, and a clear, searching style which had made him something more than lo
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1856.
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1856.
There was a good deal of significance in the inquiry. There was a hot campaign ahead. The opposition party, made up of Know-nothings and old-line Whigs, had nominated Benjamin H. Hill for Governor. Senator Toombs knew that it would require a strong man to beat him. Besides the Governor, a legislature was to be chosen which was to elect a successor to Senator Toombs in the Senate. He was personally interested in seeing that the Democratic party, with which he had been in full accord since the pas
14 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
JOHN BROWN’S RAID.
JOHN BROWN’S RAID.
But events were moving fast and furiously. The times needed no new Mirabeau. The people were slowly welding a revolution, which must sweep statesmen from their feet and bear upon its fierce current the strong and weak alike. It has been asserted, and with truth, that disunion was precipitated by the people, not by the politicians—by the North as well as by the South. The raid of John Brown of Kansas into Virginia was not an event which would have stirred the people in ordinary times. It was the
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION.
THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION.
It was an unfortunate time for the meeting of the Democratic National Convention. The hope that the party which had so often brought harmony from discord could unite upon the soil of an extreme Southern State was destined to be broken. The body met in Charleston on April 23, 1860. The place was worthy of the assemblage. For the first time in the party history, its convention had met south of Cincinnati or Baltimore. Redolent with the beauties of spring and the tint of historic interest, Charlest
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
TOOMBS AS A LEGISLATOR.
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 Howell Cobb. When Senator Toombs had attacked the doctrine of Mr. Douglas, the followers of the latter charged that Mr. Toombs had deserted his old ally, and was himself making a bid for the presidency. Especially was this the case, they urged, as Mr. Toombs had recommended the seceding delegates to go back to the Baltimore convention, and endeavor to effect an hon
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
ELECTION OF LINCOLN.
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 candidate being in a minority of nearly a million votes. The new House of Representatives was Democratic, and the Senate had not been won over to the antislavery party. But the trend of Northern politics was unmistakably toward the extinction of slavery. As Mr. Lincoln said in his letter to Mr. Stephens: "You think slavery is right and ought to be extended, while w
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
FAREWELL TO THE SENATE.
FAREWELL TO THE SENATE.
On the 7th of January, 1861, Robert Toombs delivered his farewell speech to the United States Senate. It received profound attention. It was full of brief sentences and bristling points. In epigrammatic power, it was the strongest summary of the demands of the South. As Mr. Blaine said, it was the only speech made by a congressman from the seceding States which specified the grievances of the South and which named the conditions upon which the States would stay in the Union. Other Senators regar
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
TOOMBS AND SECESSION.
TOOMBS AND SECESSION.
On the 16th of January, the State Sovereignty convention met in Milledgeville, Ga. The election had taken place shortly after the delivery of Senator Toombs' farewell address, and Georgia had answered to his call in the election of delegates by giving a vote of 50,243 in favor of secession, and 39,123 against it. The convention was presided over by George W. Crawford, who had lived in retirement since the death of President Taylor in 1850, and who was called on to lend his prestige and influence
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
TOOMBS AS PREMIER OF THE CONFEDERACY.
TOOMBS AS PREMIER OF THE CONFEDERACY.
One of the first acts of the new Confederate Government was to send three commissioners to Washington. John Forsyth of Alabama, Martin J. Crawford of Georgia, and A. B. Roman of Louisiana, were intrusted by the Secretary of State, Mr. Toombs, with a speedy adjustment of questions growing out of the political revolution, upon such terms of amity and good will as would guarantee the future welfare of the two sections. Mr. Toombs instructed Mr. Crawford, whom he had especially persuaded to take thi
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
BRIGADIER GENERAL IN ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA.
BRIGADIER GENERAL IN ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA.
When Robert Toombs resigned the Cabinet and took the field, he still held the seat, as was his prerogative, in the Confederate Congress. This body, like the British Parliament, sat in chairs, without desks. One morning Congress was discussing the Produce Loan. By this measure, invitations were given for contributions of cotton and other crops in the way of a loan. By the terms of the act these articles were to be sold and the proceeds turned over to the Secretary of the Treasury, who was to issu
44 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
WITH THE GEORGIA MILITIA.
WITH THE GEORGIA MILITIA.
General Toombs' next appearance in the field was as adjutant and inspector-general of General G. W. Smith's division of Georgia militia. He was present during the battles before Atlanta, the engagement at Peachtree Creek, and the siege of the city. General J. E. Johnston had just been relieved from command of the Confederate forces, and General J. 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 W
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
TOOMBS AS A FUGITIVE.
TOOMBS AS A FUGITIVE.
At the conclusion of the war, Secretary Stanton issued specific orders for the arrest of Jefferson Davis, Alexander H. Stephens, and Robert Toombs. Mr. Stephens was arrested quietly at his own home in Crawfordville on the 12th of May, 1865, two days after Mr. Davis had been overtaken. On the same day a squad of soldiers, most of them negroes, reached Washington, Ga. They were commanded by General Wilde, and their orders were to take General Toombs in charge. One of the colored troops marched up
22 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
WITHOUT A COUNTRY.
WITHOUT A COUNTRY.
From Cuba General Toombs proceeded to Paris. It was early in July before he reached his new stopping place. He found himself somewhat restricted in funds, as he had not had time to turn his property into gold to make his trip abroad. It is related that just after the departure of the famous "specie train," through Washington in the wake of Mr. Davis' party, a Confederate horseman dashed by the residence of General Toombs and threw a bag of bullion over the fence. It was found to contain five tho
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
COMMENCING LIFE ANEW.
COMMENCING LIFE ANEW.
When General Toombs finally returned to Georgia it was with a great part of his fortune gone, his political career cut off by hopeless disability, and his household desolate. These were serious calamities for a man fifty-seven years of age. He found himself forced under new and unfavorable conditions to build all over again, but he set about it in a vigorous and heroic way. His health was good. He was a splendid specimen of manhood. His once raven locks were gray, and his beard, which grew out f
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
DAYS OF RECONSTRUCTION
DAYS OF RECONSTRUCTION
In July, 1868, the people of Georgia made the first determined stand against the Republican party. John B. Gordon was nominated for Governor, and Seymour and Blair had been named in New York as National Democratic standard-bearers. A memorable meeting was held in Atlanta. It was the first real rally of the white people under the new order of things. Robert Toombs, Howell Cobb, and Benjamin H. Hill addressed the multitude. There was much enthusiasm, and crowds gathered from every part of Georgia.
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
HIS LAST PUBLIC SERVICE.
HIS LAST PUBLIC SERVICE.
One of the reforms advocated by General Toombs upon the return of the white people to the control of the State Government was the adoption of a new State Constitution. He never tired of declaring that the organic law of 1868 was the product of "aliens and usurpers," and that he would have none of it; Georgia must be represented by her own sons in council and live under a constitution of her own making. In May, 1877, an election was held to determine the question, and in spite of considerable opp
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
DOMESTIC LIFE OF TOOMBS.
DOMESTIC LIFE OF TOOMBS.
There never was a public man in America whose home life was more beautiful or more tender than that of Robert Toombs. As great as were his public virtues, his lofty character, and abilities, his domestic virtues were more striking still. He was a man who loved his family. In 1830 he was married to Julia A. Dubose, with whom he lived, a model and devoted husband, for more than fifty years. She was a lady of rare personal beauty, attractive manners, and common sense. She shared his early struggles
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
HIS GREAT FAULT.
HIS GREAT FAULT.
No just biography of Robert Toombs can be written that does not take into notice the blemishes as well as the brightness of his character. He was a man on a grand scale. His virtues were heroic, his faults were conspicuous. No man despised hypocrisy more than he did, and no one would have asked any sooner to be painted as he was, without concealment. During the latter part of his life, many people knew him principally by his faults. Few knew what the wayward Prince Hal of the evening had been to
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
HIS LAST DAYS.
HIS LAST DAYS.
In 1880 General Toombs appeared in Atlanta, and addressed the Georgia Legislature in behalf of the candidacy of General A. R. Lawton for the United States Senate. His appearance, as he walked up the aisle, grim, venerable, and determined, awoke wild applause. He preserved his power of stirring the people whenever he spoke, but his speech was not as racy and clear as it had been. "This was one of the occasions," to quote from a distinguished critic of Toombs, "when the almost extinct volcano glow
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter