nd are now parts of the supreme
law of the land. The victory was won, and Robert Toombs, grim and
triumphant, closed his legislative career, and claimed this work as the
crowning act of his public labors.

These principles are contained in Article IV. of the State constitution
of Georgia. It declares the right of taxation to be sovereign,
inviolable, and indestructible, and that it shall be irrevocable by the
State; that the power to regulate freight and passenger tariffs and to
prevent unjust discriminations shall be conferred upon the General
Assembly, whose duty it shall be to pass laws for the same; that the
right of eminent domain shall never be abridged; that any amendment to a
charter shall bring the charter under the provisions of the
Constitution; that the General Assembly shall have no authority to
authorize any corporation to buy shares of stock in any other
corporation, which shall have the effect to lessen competition or
encourage monopoly. No railroad shall pay a rebate or bonus.

Under these provisions, the Railroad Commission of Georgia was organized
in 1879. This idea, as it finally worked out, was General Toombs'. He
did not favor fixing the rates in the law, but the creation of such a
commission to carry out these provisions. The present law was framed by
Judge William M. Reese, Hon. Samuel Barnett, Ex-Senator H. D. McDaniel,
and Superintendent Foreacre of the Richmond and Danville Railroad. It
has worked well in Georgia. Twice has the legislature attempted to
remodel it, but the people have rallied to its support and have not
permitted it to be amended in so much as a single clause. It has served
as an example for imitation by other States, and was cited as strong
authority in Congress for the creation of the Inter-State Commerce Law.
The railroad men, after fighting it for ten years, have come round to
acknowledge its value. It has stood as a breakwater between the
corporations and the people. It has guaranteed justice to the citizen,
and has worked no injury to the railroads. Under its wise provisions
Georgia has prospered, and leads the Union to-day in railroad building.
And when, during a recent session of the legislature, an attempt was
made to war upon railroad consolidation, the saving, overmastering,
crowning argument of the railroads themselves was that General Toombs
had already secured protection for the people, and that, under his
masterly handiwork, the rights of property and the rights