en him from his family. On the 29th
of August, 1850, he wrote to his wife:

We have before us the whole of the territorial questions,
and shall probably pass or reject them in a few days or at
most in a week. I am greatly in hopes that we will not pass
over them without final action of some sort, and if we can
get rid of them I shall have nothing to prevent my coming
home at the time appointed. I begin to be more anxious to
see you than to save the republic. Such is a sweet woman's
fascination for men's hearts. The old Roman Antony threw
away an empire rather than abandon his lovely Cleopatra,
and the world has called him a fool for it. I begin to
think that he was the wiser man, and that the world was
well lost for love.

CHAPTER VII.

THE GEORGIA PLATFORM.

When Mr. Toombs came home in the fall of 1850 he found the State in
upheaval. Disunion sentiment was rife. He was confronted by garbled
extracts of his speeches in Congress, and made to pose as the champion
of immediate secession. He had aided in perfecting the great compromise
and was resolved that Georgia should take her stand firmly and
unequivocally for the Union and the Constitution. Governor Towns had
issued a call for a State convention; Mr. Toombs took prompt issue with
the spirit and purpose of the call. He declared that the legislature had
endangered the honor of the State and that the Governor had put the
people in a defile. "We must either repudiate this policy, or arm," he
said. "I favor the former measure."

Mr. Toombs issued a ringing address to the people. It bore date of
October 9, 1850. He proclaimed that "the first act of legislative
hostility was the first act of Southern resistance." He urged the South
to stand by the Constitution and the laws in good faith, until wrong was
consummated or the act of exclusion placed upon the statute books.

Mr. Toombs said that the South had not secured its full rights. "But the
fugitive-slave law which I demanded was granted. The abolition of
slavery in the District of Columbia and proscription in the Territories
were defeated, crushed, and abandoned. We have firmly established great
and important principles. The South has compromised no right,
surrendered no principle, and lost not an inch of ground in this great
contest. I did not hesitate to accept these acts, but gave them my ready
support."

Addressing himself to the