tures appeared in the
Democratic papers of a human figure surmounted by a pistol, a bottle,
and a deck of cards. To this a _resume_ of Clay's misdeeds was appended:

"In 1805 quarreled with Colonel Davis of Kentucky, which led to his
first duel. In 1808 challenged Humphrey Marshall, and fired three times
at his breast. In 1825 challenged the great John Randolph, and fired
once at his breast. In 1838 he planned the Cilley duel, by which a
murder was committed and a wife made a mourner. In 1841, when sixty-five
years old, and gray-headed, is under a five thousand dollar bond to keep
the peace. At twenty-nine he perjured himself to secure a seat in the
United States Senate. In 1824, made the infamous bargain with Adams by
which he sold out for a six thousand dollar office. He is well known as
a gambler and Sabbath-breaker."

But the eloquent Harry of the West had a large and devoted following. He
visited Georgia in March of this year, and charmed the people by his
eloquence and magnetism. Robert Toombs had met him at the social board
and had been won by his superb mentality and fine manners. Women paid
him the tribute of their presence wherever he spoke, and little children
scattered flowers along his path. But the November election in Georgia,
as elsewhere, was adverse to the party of Henry Clay. Toombs and
Stephens were sent to Congress, but the electoral vote of Georgia was
cast for Polk and Dallas, and the Whigs, who loved Clay as a father,
regarded his defeat as a personal affliction as well as a public
calamity.

CHAPTER V.

IN THE LOWER HOUSE.

Robert Toombs took his seat in the twenty-ninth Congress in December,
1845. The Democrats organized the House by the election of John W. Davis
of Indiana, Speaker. The House was made up of unusually strong men, who
afterward became noted in national affairs. Hannibal Hamlin was with the
Maine delegation; ex-President John Quincy Adams had been elected from
Massachusetts with Robert C. Winthrop; Stephen A. Douglas was there from
Illinois; David Wilmot from Pennsylvania; R. Barnwell Rhett and
Armistead Burt from South Carolina; Geo. C. Droomgoole and Robert M. T.
Hunter of Virginia, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, were members, as were
Henry W. Hilliard and W. L. Yancey of Alabama, Jefferson Davis and Jacob
Thompson of Mississippi, and John Slidell of Louisiana. Toombs,
Stephens, and Cobb were the most prominent figures in the Georgia
delegation.

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