to which Mr. Toombs devoted great attention during
his legislative term was the establishment of a State Supreme Court.
This bill was several times defeated, but finally in 1843 passed the
house by a vote of 88 to 86. It was the scene of many of his forensic
triumphs. He also introduced, during the sessions of 1842 and 1843,
bills to abolish suretyship in Georgia. This system had been severely
abused. In the flush times men indorsed without stint, and then during
the panic of 1837 "reaped the whirlwind." Fortunes were swept away,
individual credit ruined, and families brought to beggary by this
reckless system of surety. What a man seldom refused to do for another,
Mr. Toombs strove to reach by law. But the system had become too firmly
intrenched in the financial habits of the people. His bill, which he
distinctly stated was to apply alone to future and not past contracts,
only commanded a small minority of votes. It was looked upon as an
abridgment of personal liberty. Mr. Toombs exerted all of his efforts in
behalf of this bill, and it became quite an issue in Georgia. It is not
a little strange that when Robert Toombs was dead, it was found that his
own estate was involved by a series of indorsements which he had given
in Atlanta to the Kimball House Company. Had he maintained the activity
of his younger days, he would probably have turned this deal into a
profitable investment. The complication was finally arranged, but his
large property came near being swept away under the same system of
surety he had striven to abolish.

CHAPTER IV.

ELECTED TO CONGRESS.

Entering public life about the same time, living a short distance apart,
professing the same political principles, practicing in the same courts
of law, were Alexander H. Stephens of Taliaferro and Robert Toombs of
Wilkes. Entirely unlike in physical organism and mental make-up,
differing entirely in origin and views of life, these two men were close
personal friends, and throughout an eventful period of more than half a
century, preserved an affectionate regard for each other.

Mr. Stephens was delicate, sensitive, conservative, and sagacious, while
Toombs was impetuous, overpowering, defiant, and masterful. Stephens was
small, swarthy, fragile, while Toombs was leonine, full-blooded, and
majestic. And yet in peace and war these two men walked hand in hand,
and the last public appearance of Robert Toombs was when, bent and
weeping, he bowed his gra