Robert Toombs

Robert Toombs – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Dive into the life and legacy of Robert Augustus Toombs (1810–1885), a towering and controversial figure in American politics, Confederate statesman, orator, and postwar Georgia leader. Explore his biography, career, and evocative quotations.

Introduction

Robert Augustus Toombs (July 2, 1810 – December 15, 1885) was a prominent Georgian politician, lawyer, orator, and Confederate leader whose life spanned the greatest convulsions of 19th-century America. He served in the U.S. House and Senate, became the first Confederate States Secretary of State, later a Confederate general, and after the Civil War resumed influence in Georgia’s politics and law. Toombs remains a complex and provocative figure: staunch defender of states’ rights and slavery, gifted rhetorician, adversary to both union and centralizing nationalism. His story offers insight into sectionalism, secession, and the Reconstruction era’s aftershocks.

Early Life and Family

Robert Toombs was born near Washington, Georgia, in Wilkes County, to Catherine Huling Toombs and Major Robert Toombs. His father died when Robert was about five years old.

He was educated privately in his youth and entered the University of Georgia’s Franklin College as early as age fourteen. However, after a disciplinary issue (reportedly involving gambling), he was dismissed or left, and continued his studies at Union College in Schenectady, New York, graduating in 1828. He then studied law at the University of Virginia before being admitted to the Georgia bar circa 1830.

In November 1830, Toombs married his childhood sweetheart, Martha Juliann “Julia” DuBose. The couple had three children, though all died young: a son died in infancy, and two daughters died in childbirth or its complications.

Toombs also became a planter and, as with many Southern elites, owned enslaved persons. Over time his slaveholdings grew: in 1840 he owned six, by 1850 about 17, and by 1860 he had holdings across multiple plantations—including 16 slaves in Wilkes County and 32 on a Stewart County plantation.

Early Political Career

Shortly after admission to the bar, Toombs began a legal practice in Washington, Georgia. He entered politics at the state level, serving multiple terms in the Georgia House of Representatives (1837–1840, and again in 1842–1843).

In 1844, Toombs won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served several terms until 1853. In 1852 the Georgia legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate, where he took office in 1853 and remained until 1861, when he resigned.

During his congressional years, Toombs was initially associated with the Whig Party, later aligning with Constitutional Union and then the Democratic Party. He was known as an adept speaker and a defender of states’ rights, while also supporting southern economic interests and expansion of slavery.

He participated in national debates over the Kansas–Nebraska Act, the Lecompton Constitution, and the balance of power between free and slave states.

Role in Secession and the Confederacy

Turning toward Secession

In the years leading to 1860, Toombs’ position evolved. Although he initially counseled caution and sought to test Republican willingness to accommodate Southern concerns after Lincoln’s election, he ultimately became a forceful advocate for Georgia’s secession. In his Senate farewell address in January 1861, he declared:

“We want no negro equality, no negro citizenship; we want no negro race to degrade our own; and as one man [we] would meet you upon the border with the sword in one hand and the torch in the other.”

He returned to Georgia, joining Governor Joseph E. Brown’s push for secession, persuading “old-line Whigs” to support immediate withdrawal from the Union.

Confederate States Secretary of State & Resignation

On February 25, 1861, President Jefferson Davis appointed Toombs as the first Confederate Secretary of State. Yet, Toombs had deep disagreements with Davis’s approach—especially over military strategy and the timing of war.

He was opposed to initiating attack on Fort Sumter, believing such aggression to be disastrous and premature. After only a few months, he resigned on July 25, 1861, and joined the Confederate military instead.

Military Service

Commissioned a Brigadier General on July 19, 1861, Toombs served in the Army of Northern Virginia and later other commands. He participated in major campaigns (Peninsula, Seven Days, Maryland, Northern Virginia), and was wounded in the hand at the Battle of Antietam (in defense of Burnside’s Bridge).

Frustration with Confederate centralization, conscription policy, and certain strategic decisions led him to resign his commission on March 3, 1863, returning to Georgia to lead militia and state defense. He remained critical of Davis and Confederate war policies, at times accused of near-treasonous dissent in the press.

In the war’s final phase, he commanded forces in Georgia, including during the Battle of Columbus late in 1865. Toombs once refused to use canister fire on mixed Union/Confederate forces, resulting in loss of a key bridge.

As Union troops approached, Toombs fled the country to avoid arrest, traveling through the South and ultimately into exile in Europe. He returned to the U.S. in 1867 but refused to formally request a pardon from President Johnson.

Postwar Life, Return, and State Leadership

During Reconstruction, Toombs was barred from holding office or voting, but he rebuilt his law practice and remained influential behind the scenes in Georgia politics.

In 1877, he played a central role in the Georgia constitutional convention, helping to disenfranchise Black voters and reassert white supremacist governance after federal troops withdrew. He also publicly criticized railroad and internal improvements under prior regimes, fashioning himself as a populist reformer in his later years.

In personal life, after the death of his wife Julia in 1883 and the death of his close political friend Alexander Stephens, Toombs descended into depression and deteriorating health. He increasingly withdrew from public affairs. He died December 15, 1885, in Washington, Georgia, and was interred at Resthaven Cemetery alongside his wife and daughter.

Historical Milestones & Context

• From Union to Secession: Toombs represents a trajectory common among Southern elites—initial hope for compromise, growing skepticism of the federal government, and final embrace of secession when conflict seemed inevitable.

• Early Confederate leadership: His appointment as the first Confederate Secretary of State placed him at the heart of nascent Confederate diplomacy, though his resignation reflects the fissures within the Confederate leadership.

• Military dissent within the Confederacy: Toombs’ criticism of conscription, suspension of habeas corpus, and overreaching central authority distinguished him from hardline Confederate centralists.

• Reconstruction and Redemption: His return to power in Georgia epitomizes the “Redemption” period—white Southern elites reclaiming dominance, rolling back Reconstruction gains, and imposing new state constitutions favoring their rule.

• Legacy of oratory and controversial stance: Toombs remains known for his fiery speeches, rhetorical skill, and severe stances on race, states’ rights, and Southern nationalism.

Legacy and Influence

Robert Toombs is remembered as one of Georgia’s most formidable 19th-century politicians—an orator of high caliber, staunch defender of Southern interests, and a man of fierce convictions.

His house in Washington, Georgia, the Robert Toombs House State Historic Site, preserves his memory and serves as a museum, with his library and period rooms open to public view.

Toombs County, Georgia, bears his name, as do other places and circuits.

However, his legacy is deeply tied to the cause of slavery, secession, and white supremacist resurgence—making his memory morally contested. Contemporary historians continue to debate how to contextualize his contributions without glossing over the oppressive systems he defended.

Personality, Strengths & Weaknesses

Toombs was charismatic, sharp-witted, and fearless in debate. His oratory often blended biting satire, stern conviction, and dramatic appeal—earning both admiration and enmity.

Yet his temperament was volatile; he had reputations for heavy drinking, erratic behavior, disheveled personal appearance, and personal excesses. He sometimes alienated allies by his unyielding stance and refusal to compromise—even within the Confederate leadership.

His strength was his conviction and rhetorical force; his weakness was inflexibility, personal demons, and a moral vision rooted in a cause that would ultimately fail and be judged by history.

Famous Quotes of Robert Toombs

Below are several attributed quotations that capture his tone and worldview (as collected by quotation anthologies).

“We have not sought this conflict; we have sought too long to avoid it; our forbearance has been construed into weakness, our magnanimity into fear, until the vindication of our manhood, as well as the defence of our rights, is required at our hands.”

“Certainly there was no just cause of complaint from the Northern States — no advantage was ever sought or obtained by them for their section of the Republic.”

“The basis, the corner-stone of this Government, was the perfect equality of the free, sovereign, and independent States which made it.”

“Give us equality of enjoyment, equal right to expansion — it is as necessary to our prosperity as yours.”

“The door of conciliation and compromise is finally closed by our adversaries, and it remains only to us to meet the conflict with the dignity and firmness of men worthy of freedom.”

These quotes reflect Toombs’s deep commitment to arguments about states’ equality, expansion, and Southern honor—even as those ideas became inexorably bound with the defense of slavery and secession.

Lessons from Robert Toombs

1. Oratory as political force
   Toombs’ life shows how powerful rhetoric can mobilize public sentiment, influence opinion, and shape political action—even for deeply divisive causes.

2. Conviction vs. flexibility
   His rigid consistency often inspired loyalty, but it also limited his capacity to adapt or moderate when circumstances changed.

3. Complexity of political actors
   He began as a unionist-leaning Whig, then became a secessionist leader. His evolution illustrates that political identities in turbulent eras are not static.

4. The danger of moral blindness
   Toombs’s defense of slavery and white supremacy reminds us how charismatic statesmen can promote deeply unjust systems—underscoring the need for ethical scrutiny of ideas, not merely eloquence.

5. Resilience in adversity
   After the Confederacy’s collapse, Toombs rebuilt a legal career and regained influence in Georgia politics, demonstrating personal resourcefulness even in defeat.

Conclusion

Robert A. Toombs was one of the most compelling and polarizing figures of his era—a man of eloquence, unwavering resolve, and deeply held convictions. Yet his legacy is inseparable from the burdens of the cause he championed: the defense of slavery, the secession of the South, and the re-imposition of white dominance in the postwar South. His life invites reflection on how ideas and oratory can be used for both public inspiration and profound injustice.

For those interested, a visit to the Robert Toombs House State Historic Site offers a tangible connection to his life and times, and studying his letters and recorded speeches can shed further light on how politics, personality, and principle intertwined in the mid-19th century American South.