sive rebels--for a longer time the Toombses have been
dauntless and intolerant followers of the King. At the siege of
Londonderry, Margaret and James Brown were within the walls, starving
and fighting for William and Mary; and I have no doubt there were
hard-riding Toombses outside the walls, charging in the name of the
peevish and unhappy James. Certain it is that forty years before, the
direct ancestors of Robert Toombs, in their estate, were hiding the good
King Charles in the oak at Boscobel, where, I have no doubt, the father
and uncle of the Londonderry Brown, with cropped hair and severe mien,
were proguing about the place with their pikes, searching every bush in
the name of Cromwell and the psalm-singers. From these initial points
sprang the two strains of blood--the one affluent, impetuous, prodigal,
the other slow, resolute, forceful. From these ancestors came the two
men--the one superb, ruddy, fashioned with incomparable grace and
fullness--the other pale, thoughtful, angular, stripped down to brain
and sinew. From these opposing theories came the two types: the one
patrician, imperious, swift in action, and brooking no stay; the other
democratic, sagacious, jealous of rights, and submitting to no
opposition. The one for the king, the other for the people."

Young Joe Brown had taught school, studied law, finally completing his
course at Yale College. He was admitted to the bar in 1845. In 1849 he
was elected as a Democrat to the State Senate by Cherokee County. In
1851 he had been a Southern Rights' man, voting for McDonald against
Cobb, the Union candidate for Governor. In 1852 he was Democratic
elector for Pierce. In 1855 he was elected by the people judge of the
Blue Ridge Circuit. He was very strong in North Georgia. The convention
which selected him as the candidate for Governor met in Milledgeville,
June 24, 1857. The Democrats had no lack of eminent men. There were
candidates enough. James Gardner, the brilliant and incisive editor of
the Augusta _Constitutionalist_, led the ballot, but Brown was finally
brought in as a compromise man. His nomination was a surprise.

When Senator Toombs met the young nominee, by appointment, to talk over
the campaign, he found that he was full of good sense and sagacity. He
joined him in his canvass, lending his own name and prestige to the
Democratic meetings. But he found much shrewdness and homely wisdom
about Joseph E. Brown, and he became convinced that he was