disunionists he said: "They have abandoned
their errors, but not their object. Being bent upon the ruin of the
republic they use truth or error for its accomplishment, as best suits
the exigencies of the hour. If these people are honest in their
convictions, they may find abundant consolation in the fact that the
principle is neither conceded, compromised, nor endangered by these
bills. It is strengthened, not weakened by them, and will survive their
present zeal and future apostasy."

Mr. Toombs called on all men of integrity, intellect, and courage to
come into the service of the State and prove their devotion to the
Constitution and the Union. "With no memory of past differences," he
said, "careless of the future, I am ready to unite with any portion or
all my countrymen in defense of the integrity of the republic."

Mr. Toombs took the stump, and his words rang out like an alarm bell.
Men speak to-day of his activity and earnestness in that great campaign,
as with "rapid and prompt perception, clear, close reasoning, cutting
eloquence, and unsparing hand he rasped the follies of disunion and
secession." A prominent journal of that day, speaking of his speech in
Burke County, Ga., declared that "his manly eloquence has shaken and
shivered to the base the pedestal upon which the monument of American
ruin was to be erected."

In November of that year a convention of delegates from Southern States
was held at Nashville. Ex-Governor Charles J. McDonald represented
Georgia. That meeting protested against the admission of California with
slavery restriction; charged that the policy of Congress had been to
exclude the Southern States from the Territories, and plainly asserted
that the powers of the sovereign States could be resumed by the States
separately. On November 3 the election of delegates to the Georgia
convention was held. Toombs had already turned the tide. A great
majority of Union men were chosen. Whigs and Democrats united to save
the State. Toombs stood convicted before many of his old followers of
"unsoundness on the slavery question"--but he was performing his
greatest public work.

Among the delegates elected by the people to the Georgia convention,
which met at Milledgeville, December 10, 1850, were Toombs and Stephens
and many of the best men in the State.

The work of the distinguished body was memorable. They adopted the
celebrated "Georgia Platform," whose utterances were talismanic. Charles
J.