romise. Mr. Toombs and five other Democratic members refused to
vote, as they appropriately declared that no measure could be of value
to the South, unless it had the support of Republican senators from the
North. They sat still and waited to see whether those senators offered
any guarantees. The twenty-five votes showed that the Republicans were
not in a conciliatory mood. This, in the opinion of Senator Toombs, was
conclusive that the best interests of the South lay in immediate
separation.

Once convinced that this was the proper course, Senator Toombs bent all
his powers to bring about that result. He saw that if the Southern
States must secede, the quicker they did so the better. If the North
cared to recall them, a vigorous policy would react more promptly upon
the Republicans. He did not go into this movement with foreboding or
half-heartedness. There was no mawkish sentiment--no melancholy in his
make-up. His convictions mastered him, and his energy moved him to
redoubled effort. On the 22d of December he sent his famous telegram to
his "fellow-citizens of Georgia." He recited that his resolutions had
been treated with derision and contempt by the Republican members of the
committee of thirteen. The amendments proposed by Mr. Crittenden had
"each and all of them been voted against unanimously by the Republican
members of the committee." These members had also declared that they had
no guarantees to offer. He believed that the House Committee only sought
to amuse the South with delusive hope, "until your election, in order
that you may defeat the friends of secession. If you are deceived by
them it shall not be my fault. I have put the test fairly and frankly.
It has been decided against you, and now I tell you upon the faith of a
true man, that all further looking to the North for security for your
constitutional rights in the Union, ought to be instantly abandoned. It
is fraught with nothing but menace to yourselves and your party.
Secession by the 4th of March next should be thundered forth from the
ballot-box by the united voice of Georgia. Such a voice will be your
best guaranty for liberty, security, tranquillity, and glory."

CHAPTER XIX.

FAREWELL TO THE SENATE.

On the 7th of January, 1861, Robert Toombs delivered his farewell speech
to the United States Senate. It received profound attention. It was full
of brief sentences and bristling points. In epigrammatic power, it was
the strongest sum