owell and Thomas Cobb were employed, but in
this splendid fight of Titans, Justice Lumpkin declared that the finest
legal arguments he ever heard were from the lips of Robert Toombs.

Hon. A. H. Stephens said the best speech Mr. Toombs ever made was in a
case in which he represented a poor girl who was suing her stepfather
for cruel treatment. The defendant was a preacher, and the jury brought
in a verdict for $4000, the maximum sum allowed, and petitioned the
Judge to allow them to find damages in a heavier amount.

One of the most celebrated causes Mr. Toombs was engaged in before the
war was a railroad case heard in Marietta, Ga., in September, 1858.
Howell Cobb and Robert Toombs were employed on one side, while Messrs.
Pettigru and Memminger, of Charleston, giants of the Carolina bar, were
ranged in opposition. The ordeal was a very trying one. The case
occupied seven days. Mr. Toombs, always an early riser, generally
commenced his preparation in this case at half-past five in the morning.
The hearing of the facts continued in the courthouse until seven in the
evening, and the nights were passed in consultation with counsel.
Attendants upon this celebrated trial declared that Toombs's manner in
the courtroom was indifferent. That, while other lawyers were busy
taking notes, he seemed to sit a listless spectator, rolling his head
from side to side, oblivious to evidence or proceeding. And yet, when
his time came to conclude the argument, he arose with his kingly way,
and so thorough was his mastery of the case, with its infinite detail,
its broad principles, and intricate technicalities, that his argument
was inspiring and profound. His memory seemed to have indelibly pictured
the entire record of the seven days, and to have grouped in his mind the
main argument of counsel. It was a wonderful display of retentiveness,
acumen, learning, and power. On one occasion, while a member of the
United States Senate, he came to Georgia to attend a session of the
Supreme Court in Milledgeville. He writes his wife: "I have had a hard,
close week's work. The lawyers very kindly gave way and allowed my cases
to come on this week, which brought them very close together, and as I
was but ill prepared for them, not having given them any attention last
winter, and but little this spring, I have been pretty much speaking all
day and studying all night." In March, 1856, Mr. Toombs wrote to his
wife, whom he had left in Washington City, t