at the polls for the Whig ticket, and although his candidate for
Governor received a majority of one in Wilkes County, the Whigs were
defeated for the legislature. When he returned to the Assembly in 1842
he still found Governor McDonald and the Democrats supporting a central
bank and the sub-treasury. They clamored to restore public finances to
the old system. The Democrats held the legislature and elected to the
United States Senate Walter T. Colquitt over Charles J. Jenkins.
Although a member of the minority party, Mr. Toombs was appointed
chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Here his high character and moral
courage shone conspicuously. He proved a stone wall against the perfect
flood of legislation designed for popular relief. To use his own words:
"The calendar was strong with a heterogeneous collection of bills
proposing stay-laws." He reported as "unwise, inexpedient, and
injurious," proposed Acts "to protect unfortunate debtors"; "to redeem
property in certain cases"; also a bill to "exempt from levy and sale
certain classes of property." He held with Marshall the absolute
inviolability of contracts; he believed in common honesty in public and
private life; he was strict in all business obligations; he denounced
the Homestead Act of 1868, and declared in his last days that there was
"not a dirty shilling in his pocket." Mr. Toombs was nothing of the
demagogue. He was highminded, fearless, and sincere, and it may be said
of him what he afterward declared so often of Henry Clay, that "he would
not flatter Neptune for his trident or Jove for his power to thunder."
He was called upon at this session to fight the repeal of the law he had
framed in 1840, to regulate the system of banking. He declared in
eloquent terms that the State must restrict the issue of the banks and
compel their payment in specie. The experiment of banking on public
credit had failed, he said. It had brought loss to the government,
distress to the people, and had sullied the good faith of Georgia.

It was at this session of the legislature that the Democrats proposed a
vote of censure upon John McPherson Berrien, United States Senator from
Georgia, for his advocacy of a national bank. Mr. Toombs ardently
defended Senator Berrien. He said that the State legislature was not the
custodian of a senator's conscience, and held that the people of Georgia
sanctioned the expediency and utility of a national bank. When the
resolution of censure came up