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THE BANNER. SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 19, 1907.
Lipscomb & Company
Fire Insurance
Phone 109
8 Strong Companies
Over Twenty-Five Millions of Assets
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The Civilian Leaders of the Confederacy
By JOHN GOODE of Virginia
Sometime Member of the Confederate Congress, of the
Virginia Secession Convention, of the Congress of the
United States and President of the Virginia Constitution
al Convention of 1901 -2.
NO. 6.
ROBERT TOOMBS.
Mirabeau declared that three
things are necessary for the suecess-
ful conduct of a revolution: “Auda
city, audacity, audacity.” It is cer
tain that Robert Toombs acted upon
this principle. When the Confeder
ate States sereded from the Ameri
can Union he espoused their cause
with all the energy and enthusiasm
of his manly nature. Although a
Whig in politics, he belonged to the
.States' rights wing. He loved his
native South, and believed that the
highest energies of Ills lature and
the best affections of his heart were
due to her. He would have freely
offered at any time in her defense
his fortunes and his sacred honor.
When Georgia was financially em
barrassed and needed money, he
loaned the State from his own funds
a large sum, and used his personal
credit to obtain a much larger sum.
He was an earnest disciple of the
States’ rights school, of which Jef
ferson, Madison and Mason were the
great exemplars. He fully believed
•that the Constitution was not made
by any man or any set of men, but
that it was made by the States as
States, and that in entering into the
compact, or union, they had not sur
rendered their sovereignty as free
and independent Commonwealths.
His Statement of Rights.
At the first session of the Provis
ional Congress at Montgomery he
was appointed Secretary of State
for the Confederate States. In his
diplomatic correspondence with Wil
liam L. Yancey, Pierre A. Rost and
A. W. Mann, in which he sent their
commissions to Great Britain,
France, Russia and Belgium, ac
crediting them to represent the Con
federate States near the govern
ments of those countries, he took
advantage of the opportunity to In
form the governments of the world
that the several Commonwealths
' comprising the Confederate States
of America had, by act of their peo
ple. in convention assembled, sever
ed their collection with the United
States; had reassumod the powers
which they delegated to the Federal
government for certain specified pur
poses, and had formed an independ
ent government, perfect in all Us
branches and endowed with every
attribute of sovereignty and power
necessary to entitle them to assume
a place among the nations of the
world.
Mr. Toombs was born in Wilkes
ounty, Ga., July 2, IS 10. His grand
father was a soldier in Braddock’s
disastrous campaign. His father.
Major Robert Toombs, commanded
a Virginia regiment during tlie Rev
olutionary War. rendering conspic
uous service in that, capacity. Rob
ert Toombs entered the University
of Georgia in 1824, but not being
willing to submit to the severe dis
cipline to which the students were
subjected, he was granted a dis
charge. He then entered Union Col
lege, New York, from which he grad
uated in 1S2S. He studied law at
the University of Virginia in 1829-
'30. and although he had not at
tained the requisite age. he was ad
mitted to the bar on the 18«h of
March, 1830. In November, 1840,
he was married to Julia Dubose, and
in 1880 celebrated his golden wed
ding with his children, grandchild
ren and great-grandchildren around
•him to wish him Joy and extend their
felicitations.
Fought Indians.
He commanded a company In the
Creek War, represented his county
in the Legislature In 1837-M0 and
1841-’44 at which time he served as
chairman of the Committee of the
Judiciary. He was the Whig candi
date for Speaker of the House in
1842, -delegate to the Democratic
National Convention In 1844, mem
ber of the House of Representatives
-from the Twenty-Ninth to the Thir
ty-second Congress, and United
States Senator from 1858 to 1861,
when he retired.
i 1, i' f> . . \-x
On January 7. 1861, he made his
last speech in the United States Sen
ate and announced his retirement
from that body. He was a member
of file State convention that passed
the ordinance of secession, and on
the ITtli of April. 1861, voted with
207 other delegates in favor of se
cession. He was unanimously se
lected as the first delegate at large
to the Provisional Congress at Mont
gomery. His name was presented to
the Congress as the first choice for
President, but four States having
agreed on Mr. Davis as the candi
date he was unanimously chosen.
He took to the Field.
Mr. Toombs was made chairman
of the Finance Committee of the
Provisional Congress. He opposed
the proposed attack on the United
States forts in Charleston Harbor as
a movement fatal to the Confederacy
and thereby demonstrated his far-
amassed a considerable fortune.
He was a delegate to the State
convention in 1 877, was made chair
man of the committee on legislation
and final revisioh. When the con
vention was embarrassed lor want
of funds he insisted on advancing
the money from his own pocket.
One of the last aets of his life was
to pronounce a great eulogy on the
life and character of his intimate,
bosom friend. Alexander H. Steph
ens. He died at his home in Geor
gia, December IS, 1SS5. universally
beloved and lamented.
In 1844 Toombs was elected to
Congress, was re-elected and served
for eight years in the House; sup
ported tor President. William Henry
Harrison, in 1840, and Mr. Clay, iu
1S44. His first speech in the House
was made on the Oregon question; he
was an earnest advocate of the com
promise measures in 1850, took his
seeing statesmanship. On July 21.'seat in the Senate in March. 1853,
1861. he joined the Confederate' and ‘remained in that body un-
Army as brigadier-general, and com- 1 til 1 SCI.
manded the First Brigade of the! Mr. Toombs was one of the most
First Division of the Army of North- remarkable men whom it has been
ern Virginia. I miy pleasure to know personally. He
In January, 1862, the General As- was able, eloquent, impetuous and
senibly of Georgia elected him to the entered into a debate with the fiery
Senate of the Confederate States, energy of one who felt that he most
with Benjamin H. Hill as his col- do his full part in the fray. As an
league, but be continued to com- evidence of his great honesty of pur-
mand bis brigade during the Penin- pose and unyielding resolution, he
sula campaign and in the siege of refused, as I have said, to make an
Yorktown.
At the battle of Malvern Hill his
brigade lost one-third of Us entire
number. After a controversy with
D. H. Hill, and his arrest by order
of President Davis, he rejoined his
brigade during the fight at the sec
ond battle of Manassas, in August,
1862. He received the highest com
mendation for his gallantry and
courage in guarding the bridge over
Antietanr with 401 men. He was
severely wounded in that engage
ment, and was sent home to recover
from his wounds, but rejoined his
command in the spring of 1862.
In the following March, however,
he resigned his commission In the
army. After his return to Georgia
he offered his services to Governor
Brown, and was made adjutant and
inspector-general of the Georgia mili
tia, taking part' in the battles be
fore Atlanta, the siege of Savannah,
and in the battle of Pocotallgo, S.C.
Never Reconstructed.
When the Confederacy finally col
lapsed he escaped to Europe, but -Now lies as mute on Tara's walls
never asked for pardon, and always
insisted that he was an “unrecon-
structed and unrepentant rebel.” Af
ter the war he practiced. law and
application fotj pardon after the
close of the war. He insisted that
he had done nothing for which he
should sue for executive clemency,
and that he would live and die
"unreconstructed.” During the last
years of his life, it was his custom
to pass the summer months at the
Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs,
and 1 have often listened to him as
he gave his views about public men
and public measures.
Sitting beneath the patrimonial
oaks at that famous resort, with a
crowd around him, especially of
Northern listeners, eagerly attend
ing to every word that dropped
from his lips, he declared that he
bad no country since the subjuga
tion of his beloved South, that he
felt as an exile in the land of his
nativity, and in the language of
the bard of Erin, he felt like ex
claiming:
“The harp that once -through Tara's
halls.
The soul of music shed.
As though that soul were dead.
A Dordly Life
Not long prior to his death a
public journal in his State said of
him: “The people of Georgia never
loved any-man better than they lov
ed General Toombs, and the signs
that his race has been nearly run
have awakened a tender interest in
him and in all that to him pertains.
He is tlie most remarkable man in
many respects that the South has
ever produced, and it is doubtful it
the records of a lordlier life than
his can he found in the history of
our republic. He has never moved
as other men, nor worked by ordi
nary methods. He has been kingly
in all his ways, lavish in his opin
ions, disdaining all expedients or de
liberation, and moving to his ambi
tions with a princely assumption
that has never been gainsaid by the
people and seldom by circumstan
ces.”
He was earnest and zealous in the
cause of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, of
which he became a member of the
thirty-third, or the highest, degree,
and from 1872 to 1880 he was an
active member of the rite in the
State of Georgia. After his death
Albert Pike, the most eminent Ma
son in this county, who had known
him long and intimately, wrote of
him as follows: “A great man, old
and full of days, has been, gathered
unto his fathers, a matt of transcen
dent ability, pre-eminently gifted
with logical faculty; of strong, clear
intellect; a great lover of the truth
and singularly keen in distinguish
ing it from the false; a man quick
in determining, resolute and adher
ing to and bold in announcing his
conclusions and convictions: an
oomplished lawyer, are ardent and
impassioned orator, vehement and
imperious in debate; a student who
had accumulated great stores of
knowledge of many kinds; a man of
antique greatness of soul, of true
nobility of character, and of perfect
integrity, scorning concealment and
deceit and the rascalities of dialec
tics; impetuous and sometimes in
his utterances harsh, indiscreet and
reckless, as if moved by passion and
intolerance of opinion; and yet, for
all this outward seeming, genial and
generous, most hospitable, kindhear-
ted, amiable, forgiving; a man whom
one could not long be with without
coming to lovei him; a man who,
take him all in. all, had in his prime
of life no equal In intellect in the
Southern States of the Union.”
His Defiance to the Senate.
In his last address to the Senate
•Mr. Toombs was very defiant, and
spoke as follows:
"You will not regard Confederate
obligations; you will not regard
constitutional obligations: you will
not regard your oaths. What, then,
am I to do Am I a free man? is
my State a tree State? We are free
men; we have rights; I have stated
them. We have wrongs; I have re
counted them. I have demonstrated
tbat tlie party now coming into pow
er lias declared us outlaws, and is
determined to exclude thousands of
millions of our property from tlie
common territories; that it has de
clared es under the ban of the Un
ion. and out of the protection of the
laws of the United States every
where. They have refused to pro
tect us from invasion and insurrec
tion bv the Federal power and the
Constitution denies to us in the Un
ion the right to raise fleets or armies
for our defense.
“All these charges I have proven
l>y the record; and I put them before
the civilized world and demand the
judgment of today, of tomorrow, of
distant ages, and of heaven itself
upon the justice of these causes. 1
a.m content, whatever it be. to peril
all in so noble, so holy a cause. We
have appealed time and time again
for these constitutional rights; you
have refused them.
“We apiieal again. Restore us
tlu-se rights as we had them, as
your court adjudges them to he.
just as our people have said they
are; redress these flagrant wrongs,
seen of all men. and it will restore
fraternity and peace and unity to
all of us. Refuse them, and what
then We shall then ask you: ‘Let
us depart in peace.’ Refuse that
and you present us war. We accept
it; and inscribing upon our banners
the glorious words, ‘Liberty and
Equality,' we will trust to the blood
of the brave and the God of battles
for security and tranquility.”
Toombs and Stephens.
In a publication entitled "South
ern Statesman of the Old Regime.”
in which a very striking contrast is
drawn between two great Georgians
—Alexander H. Stephens and Robert
Toombs—shorn-ing the predominant
characteristics of each, the writer
says; "As to the actual eloquence of
the two men. It is hard to reach any
conclusion. Both could carry away
a Jury or a crowd upon the hustings,
and the secret of their power lay not
so much in the matter of their
speeches as In the way they deliver
ed them. Yet, never did two orators
present a greater contrast. Toombs,
with his strength of Ibody and voice
and Impetuous force of conviction;
Stephens, with his puny frame, thin