een over-thrown and party lines shattered in every State
in the Union. He boldly declared that a continuance of the Union was not
incompatible with the rights of every State. He asserted that the
animating spirit of his opponents, the States' Rights party, was
hostility to the Union. Some of the members still submitted to the
humiliation of raising the cry of "the Union," he said, but it was a
"masked battery," from which the very Union was to be assailed. Mr.
Toombs announced on the stump that "the good sense, the firmness, the
patriotism of the people, would shield the Union from assault of our own
people. They will maintain it as long as it deserves to be maintained."

Mr. Toombs admitted that the antislavery sentiment of the North had
become more violent from its defeat on the compromise measures.

"What did this party demand, and what did it get?" he asked on the
stump. "It was driven from every position it assumed. It demanded the
express prohibition of slavery, the Wilmot Proviso, in the Territories.
It lost it. It demanded the abolition of slavery in the District of
Columbia, and the slave trade between the States. It lost both. It
demanded the affirmance of the oft-repeated declaration that there
should be no more slave States admitted into the Union. Congress
enacted that States hereafter coming into the Union should be admitted
with or without slavery, as such States might determine for themselves.
It demanded a trial by jury for fugitives at the place of arrest. It
lost this also. Its acknowledged exponent is the Free-Soil party. The
Whig party has succumbed to it. It is thoroughly denationalized and
desectionalized, and will never make another national contest. We are
indebted to the defeat of the policy of these men for the existence of
the government to-day. The Democratic party of the North, though
prostrated, is not yet destroyed. Our true policy is to compel both
parties to purge themselves of this dangerous element. If either will,
to sustain it. If neither will, then we expect to preserve the Union. We
must overthrow both parties and rally the sound men to a common
standard. This is the only policy which can preserve both our rights and
the Union."

On the 1st of August, 1851, Mr. Toombs spoke in Elberton. He was in the
full tide of his manhood, an orator without equal; a statesman without
fear or reproach. Personally, he was a splendid picture, full of health
and vitality. He had been prosperous i