Part 7 (1/2)
I feel more and more anxious to get abroad and out of this country; to be relieved of the thousand hara.s.sments of business, and look for a great deal of pleasure in our quiet and uninterrupted strolling over the hills and plains of Europe, where n.o.body knows us and n.o.body can hara.s.s me with business or their troubles. I wish I could, like our darling child, thank G.o.d there was rest in Heaven.
Just before he left the State, he attended the Supreme Court of Georgia, at Milledgeville. At that time he wrote his wife:
I have had a hard, close week's work. The lawyers very kindly gave way and allowed my cases to come this week, which brought them very close together, and, as I am but ill prepared for them, not having given them any attention last winter, and but little this spring, I have been pretty much speaking all day and studying all night--and that without the benefit of ”specks,” which I am beginning to need.
All the old Whigs here have joined the Know-nothings, and keep very shy of me, as I have spoken not softly of the miserable wretches who expect to govern a great country like this with imbecility, if they can only cover it with secrecy. I have been greatly beset not to go to Europe this summer, as the political campaign is likely to be hot. I shall go, and the rather that I may avoid such an event, and take that leisure and repose with my family in foreign countries which I seem to be totally incapable of getting at home.
Mr. Toombs left no doubt as to how he regarded the American party. In a speech on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, he had declared that the country could a.s.similate the foreigners from Europe and the Chinamen from Asia, and gather under the ample folds of the American flag every nation on earth.
It is related that in the early part of Mr. Toombs' political career he was accused of having subscribed to build a Catholic church in Georgia.
The charge was repeated secretly from ear to ear until it came to his friends. It was on the eve of an election in Wilkes County, and a delegation, in spite of the lateness of the hour, went to Mr. Toombs'
residence, awoke him, and asked for an authoritative denial of what they considered a damaging charge. Mr. Toombs listened to the delegation, and then declared with emphasis, not free from profanity, that it was so. ”I have responded to their calls just as I have those of other denominations. You can tell the people that the distribution of my money is none of their business.”
This bold and prompt reply did not prevent his reelection to the legislature the next day.
No man was more liberal in matters of religion and conscience than Mr.
Toombs. In 1851 he wrote his wife in reply to a letter informing him that his daughter wanted to join the Methodist Church:
I am content if she desires, and you wish it. My opinions about revivals, to which you refer, have been long formed and much strengthened by my experience in the world, but I am not at all desirous that they should be the rule of anybody's conduct but my own. I have therefore endeavored to stand upon the Protestant principle in matters of conscience, of judging for myself and allowing others to do the same. The Judge of the Earth will do right at the final hearing.
On June 6, 1855, Mr. Toombs set sail from New York, in company with his wife and daughter, and Mr. W. F. Alexander, his son-at-law. In ten days, after a smooth trip, he landed in Liverpool, with just enough roughness off the coast of Ireland to show old Neptune in his element. Mr. Toombs was in the very prime of a vigorous life. He had acc.u.mulated a competency at the law, was in fine physical condition, and had a mind broad, sensitive, and retentive. He could stand any amount of travel--this man who rode his circuits on his horse, and who endured the wearing trips from Georgia to the national capital. He remarked at the outset of his European trip that he had more money than time, so he secured special conveyances at every available place, and pushed his journey to all points of interest. From London he went to Paris, Lyons, Ma.r.s.eilles, thence to the Mediterranean, where he pa.s.sed the Fourth of July plowing his way to Naples, sleeping on deck to escape the stuffy stateroom of the little steamer, and catching all the cinders from the smokestack. Embarking at Naples, he went to Rome, where he was entranced to see the historic spots of the Eternal City. Rome had for him more charms than Paris. Crossing the Alps, he went to Geneva, and striking the Rhine, he proceeded by boat to Amsterdam, thence to Brussels, where he walked over the field of Waterloo. Leaving his family in Paris, he crossed to England and made a tour alone through Ireland and Scotland.
As an American senator, Robert Toombs bore letters of introduction to prominent people in Europe. His reputation was international, his acquaintance with the diplomatists of the Old World was extensive, and his knowledge of the history and government of the different countries was complete. But he did not seek notoriety in his trip abroad. He presented none of his letters. He preferred to travel among the people, and at night, like Jean Valjean, he loved to see the _bourgeois_ in their gardens and at their ease, in order to study their habits and condition. He took great interest in the laborers. On one occasion he got down from his _diligence_ to ask a man, who was drawing water from a well to irrigate the land, how much he was paid for this slow and c.u.mbersome process. He was astonished to hear that it was but twelve cents a day.
Mr. Toombs spoke the French language; he studied the people, and no man was a better judge of human nature. He said when he returned that the Southern slave was better treated and was a better laborer than most of the peasants whom he had seen.
His conversation during his European trip was bright and racy. He never f.a.gged in body or mind. He never became a trifler or a tease. He was not a man who cared for his personal comforts or appet.i.tes. Occasionally he would abuse the hotels as being far behind the American hostelry. Now and then he would jest with his guide or indulge in bright raillery over the Italian peddler with the inevitable cigarette. He made it a rule to smoke a cigar in every country, to test the tobacco, and also to sample the wine of every nation. He drank but little at that time, never touching ardent spirits in any way. Good-humor, good health, and happiness followed him as he made the circuit of the Continent.
Just three months were pa.s.sed by him in the Old World. He arrived in New York in September, 1855, where telegrams awaited him, summoning him to a desperate campaign in Georgia.
The contest in Georgia that year was sharp. The American party elected several members of Congress, but their candidate for Governor, Judge Andrews, was defeated by Herschel V. Johnson. The latter was one of the strongest Democrats in Georgia. He had, in 1853, been elected Governor over so able a man as Charles J. Jenkins.
Mr. Toombs plunged at once into the canva.s.s and proceeded, in his own vigorous way, to fight the Know-nothings.
CHAPTER XI.
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 evening of the 24th of January, Mr. Toombs ascended the stage at Tremont Temple. A large audience greeted him. There was great curiosity to see the Southern leader. They admired the splendid audacity of this man in coming to the place where Garrison had inveighed against slavery and had denounced the Const.i.tution as a ”league with h.e.l.l and a covenant with the Devil”; where Wendell Phillips had exerted his matchless oratory, and where Charles Sumner had built up his reputation as an unflagging enemy of Southern propagandism. Mr. Toombs was in good trim for this supreme effort. Inspired by the significance of his mission, he seemed possessed of unusual strength. His fine eye lighted with his theme, and his brow seemed stamped with confidence rather than defiance.
His long, black hair was brushed from his forehead, and his deep voice filled the historic hall. He was indeed a fine specimen of a man--a Saul among his fellows. Possibly he was moved by the thought that he stood where Webster had pleaded for the Union, for concession, and for harmony six years before, when the people for the first time had turned from him and when Fanueil Hall had been closed against him.
Senator Toombs was attended upon the stage by William and Nathan Appleton, whose guest he was. Their presence was a guarantee that the speaker should receive a respectful hearing. It was noticed at the outset that he had abandoned his fervid style of speaking. He delivered his address from notes in a calm and deliberate manner. He never prepared a speech with so much care. His discourse was so logical and profound, his bearing so dignified and impressive, that his hearers were reminded of Webster.
It was evident early in the evening that his lecture would produce a powerful effect. To many of his hearers his views were novel and fresh, as they had never heard the Southern side of this great question. ”With the exception of Sam Houston,” said a New York paper, ”Mr. Toombs is the only Southern man who has had the pluck to go into the antislavery camp and talk aloud of the Const.i.tution. Other Southern men, not afraid to face Boston, have been afraid to face opinion at home.”