TOOMBS, ROBERT (1810-1885)

This article appears in Volume V27, Page 47 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: TOO-TUM

TOOMBS, ROBERT (1810-1885) , American political leader, was born near Washington, Wilkes county, Georgia, on the 2nd of July 181o. He was educated at Franklin College (university of Georgia), at Union College, Schenectady, New

York

, from which he graduated in 1828, and at the law school of the university of Virginia. He was admitted to the bar in 1830, and served in the Georgia

House

of Representatives (1838, 1840-1841 and 1843-1844), in the Federal House of Representatives (1845-1853), and in the United States Senate (1853-1861). He opposed the annexation of

Texas

TEXAS

, the Mexican War, President Polk's Oregon policy, and the Walker Tariff of 1846. In common with Alexander H. Stephens and Howell Cobb, he supported the Compromise Measures of 185o, denounced the Nashville Convention, opposed the secessionists in Georgia, and helped to

frame

FRAME

the famous Georgia platform (185o). His position and that of Southern Unionists during the decade 1850-186o has often been misunderstood. They disapproved of secession, not because they considered it wrong in principle, but because they considered it inexpedient. On the dissolution of the Whig party Toombs went over to the Democrats. He favoured the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution, and the English Bill (1858), and on the 24th of June 1856 introduced in the Senate the Toombs Bill, which proposed a constitutional convention in Kansas under conditions which were acknowledged by various anti-slavery leaders as

fair

FAIR

, and which mark the greatest con-47
cessions made by the pro-slavery senators during the Kansas struggle. The bill did not 'provide for the submission of the constitution to popular vote, and the silence on this point of the territorial law under which the Lecompton Constitution of Kansas was framed in 1857 was the crux of the Lecompton struggle (see KANSAS). In the presidential campaign of 1860 he supported John C. Breckinridge, and on the 22nd of December, soon after the election of Lincoln, sent a telegram to Georgia which asserted that " secession by the 4th of March next should be thundered forth from the ballot-box by the united voice of Georgia." He delivered a farewell address in the Senate (Jan. 7, 1861), returned to Georgia, and with

Governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

Joseph E. Brown led the fight for secession against Stephens and Herschel V. Johnson (1812-188o). His influence was a most powerful factor in inducing the " old-line Whigs " to support immediate secession. After a short term as secretary of state in President Davis's cabinet, he entered the army (July 21, 1861), and served first as a brigadier-general in the Army of Northern Virginia and after 1863 as adjutant and inspector-general of General G. W. Smith's division of Georgia militia. He then spent two years in

exile

EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap,
consul
- CONSUL
- CONSUL (in Gr. generally ihraros,ashortened form of errpavgybs 8hraeos, i.e. praetor maximus)
, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)

in Cuba, France and England, but returned to Georgia in 1867, and resumed the practice of law. Owing to his refusal to take the oath of allegiance, he was never restored to the full rights of citizenship. He died at his home in Washington, Georgia, on the 15th of December 1885.
See Pleasant A. Stovall, Robert Toombs, Statesman, Speaker, Soldier, Sage (New

York

YORK
YORK (HOUSE OF)
YORK, EDMUND OF
LANGLEY
- LANGLEY, SAMUEL PIERPONT (1834-1906)
, DUKE OF (1341-1402)
YORK, EDWARD
YORK, FREDERICK
AUGUSTUS
- AUGUSTUS (a name 1 derived from Lat. augeo, increase, i.e. venerable, majestic, Gr. Ee0avr6s)
, DUKE OF (1763-1827)
YORK, RICHARD, DUKE

, 1892).

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