Robert Toombs Statesman, Speaker, Soldier, Sage   By: Pleasant A. Stovall (1857-1935)

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

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 IN THE COURTS HIS RECORD WITH THE ARMY HIS LIFE AT HOME

BY

PLEASANT A. STOVALL

"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.

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 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.

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