ost in the public mind of that day were the Oregon
question, Texas, and the ubiquitous tariff. It looked at one time as if
war with Great Britain were unavoidable. President Polk occupied an
extreme position, and declared in his message to Congress that our title
to the whole of Oregon was clear. The boundary of the ceded territory
was unsettled. The Democrats demanded the occupation of Oregon, with the
campaign cry of "fifty-four forty or fight."

Mr. Toombs did not accept President Polk's position. His first speech in
the House was made January 12, 1846, and at once placed him in the front
rank of orators and statesmen. He said that it was not clear to him that
our title was exceptional up to 54 deg.40'. Our claim to the territory north
of the Columbia River was the Spanish title only, and this had been an
inchoate right.

Mr. Toombs wanted the question settled by reason. He impetuously
declared that "neither the clamors within nor without this hall, nor the
ten thousand British cannon, floating on every ship, or mounted on every
island, shall influence my decision in a question like this." He was for
peace--for honorable peace. "It is the mother of all the virtues and
hopes of mankind." No man would go further than he to obtain honorable
peace; but dishonorable peace was worse than war--it was the worst of
all evil.

War was the greatest and the most horrible of calamities. Even a war for
liberty itself was rarely compensated by the consequences. "Yet the
common judgment of mankind consigned to lasting infamy the people who
would surrender their rights and freedom for the sake of a dishonest
peace."

"Let us," cried the speaker, turning to his Southern colleagues, "let us
repress any unworthy sectional feeling which looks only to the
attainment of sectional power."

His conclusion was an apotheosis of Georgia as a Union State. He said:
"Mr. Speaker, Georgia wants peace, but she would not for the sake of
peace yield any of her own or the nation's rights. A new career of
prosperity is now before her; new prospects, bright and fair, open to
her vision and lie ready for her grasp, and she fully appreciates her
position. She has at length begun to avail herself of her advantages by
forming a great commercial line between the Atlantic and the West. She
is embarking in enterprises of intense importance, and is beginning to
provide manufactures for her unpaid laborers. She sees nothing but
prosperity ahead, and peace i