ubject to so many disturbing causes, both foreign and domestic, that
they are incapable of being reduced to fixed principles. Mr. Toombs did
not hesitate, however, to condemn "the theories of the South Carolina
school of politics."

Mr. Toombs opposed the acquisition of Texas. He did not believe the
North would consent. "It matters not," he said, "that Mexico is weak,
that the acquisition is easy. The question is just the same: Is it
right, is it just, is it the policy of this country to enlarge its
territory by conquest? The principle is condemned by the spirit of the
age, by reason, and by revelation. A people who love justice and hate
wrong and oppression cannot approve it. War in a just cause is a great
calamity to any people, and can only be justified by the highest
necessity. A people who go to war without just and sufficient cause,
with no other motive than pride and love of glory, are enemies to the
human race and deserve the execration of all mankind. What, then, must
be the judgment of a war for plunder?" He denounced the whole thing as a
land job, and declared that he would rather have "the Union without
Texas than Texas without the Union."

The Democratic opponent of Mr. Toombs in this canvass was Hon. Edward J.
Black of Screven, who had been in Congress since 1838. The new district
was safely Whig, but the young candidate had to fight the prestige of
McDuffie and Troup and opposition from numberless sources. It was
charged that he always voted in the Georgia Legislature to raise taxes.
He retorted, "It is right to resort to taxation to pay the honest debt
of a State. I did vote to raise taxes, and I glory in it. It was a duty
I owed the State, and I would go to the last dollar to preserve her good
name and honor."

While Mr. Toombs was making a speech in this canvass a man in the
audience charged him with having voted for the free banking law and
against the poor-school fund. "The gentleman," said Mr. Toombs, "seems
to find pleasure in reveling in my cast-off errors. I shall not disturb
him."

"How is this, Mr. Toombs," shouted a Democrat at another time, "here is
a vote of yours in the house journal I do not like."

"Well, my friend, there are several there that I do not like: now what
are you going to do about it?"

Especially was opposition bitter to Henry Clay. Cartoons were published
from Northern papers, of Clay whipping a negro slave, with this
inscription: "The Mill Boy of the _Slashes_." Pic