Toombs

toomz, Robert (1810-1885), an American statesman. His father was a Georgia planter, the owner of many slaves. Young Robert attended Franklin College for a time, but, like many ambitious boys, finished at a Northern college. He took his degree at Union, Schenectady, New York, in 1828. He studied law at the University of Virginia, near the home of Thomas Jefferson. He was an able young fellow and ran the meager college course of the day before he was twenty-one years of age. In deference to family, which counted for much in his native state, a special act of the legislature was passed to enable him to begin practice without delay. He soon became a leading figure in his profession. During the Creek War in 1836 Toombs served as a captain of volunteers under General Winfield Scott. In politics Toombs was a Whig. From 1832 onward he served almost continuously either in the state legislature or in the national House and Senate. He was an uncompromising states-rights man, an insistent advocate of slavery. He was in sympathy with the ideas of J. C. Calhoun. He supported the compromise measures of Henry Clay and Stephen A. Douglas. Mr. Toombs even lectured in the North in advocacy of the system of tilling plantations with slave labor. On Lincoln's election to the presidency, Toombs was an advocate of immediate secession. He was considered for the presidency of the new confederacy. He entered President Davis' cabinet as secretary of state.

Toombs was not in favor of firing on Fort Sumter, but once hostilities were begun, he left the cabinet for the field. He was in charge of a Confederate brigade at the second battle of Bull Run and at Antietam. He disliked President Davis and lost faith in the Confederate cause. Although Toombs resigned his seat in the United States Senate, he was formally expelled by that body. At the close of hostilities he went to England to escape arrest. Later he returned to his native state and became wealthy in the practice of law. He refused to take the oath of allegiance to the general government and thereby forfeited his right to vote, but he was none the less a power in state politics. He led the movement in favor of Horace Greeley for president, and labored successfully for legislation requiring railroads to pay taxes on the basis of an assessed valuation. He won a suit for the state compelling the roads to pay up a large amount of back taxes. He was influential in the creation of a board of railroad commissioners.

Toombs was a fiery, impatient, eloquent man. He lacked the dignity of Lee and the stern devotion to principle of Stone-wall Jackson, but he was by no means the reckless, fire-eating, unprincipled demagogue of anti-slavery writers. He was a prominent, erratic figure in the scenes preceding the Civil War. During the war he found too much fault to be helpful to those in authority. His best work was done after the war in championing the cause of the people and in building up the prostrate commonwealth of which he was a disfranchised but devoted citizen.

See Davis; Yancey; Stephens; Secession; Confederacy