been found sturdy enough to link
with this monument of a forgotten forest. The boys to this day call it
"The Toombs Oak."

[Illustration: ROBERT TOOMBS, AGE 19, LAW STUDENT, UNIVERSITY OF
VIRGINIA, 1829.

(_From a miniature painting._)]

CHAPTER II.

AT THE BAR.

After Robert Toombs left the University of Georgia, he entered Union
College at Schenectady, N. Y., under the presidency of Dr. Eliphalet
Knott. Here he finished his classical course and received his A. B.
degree. This was in 1828, and in 1829 he repaired to the University of
Virginia, where he studied law one year. In the Superior Court of Elbert
County, Ga., holden on the 18th day of March, 1830, he was admitted to
the bar. The license to practice recites that "Robert A. Toombs made his
application for leave to practice and plead in the several courts of law
and equity in this State, whereupon the said Robert A. Toombs, having
given satisfactory evidence of good moral character, and having been
examined in open court, and being found well acquainted and skilled in
the laws, he was admitted by the court to all the privileges of an
attorney, solicitor, and counsel in the several courts of law and equity
in this State."

The license is signed by William H. Crawford, Judge, Superior Court,
Northern Circuit. Judge Crawford had served two terms in the United
States Senate from Georgia. He had been Minister to Paris during the
days of the first Napoleon. He had been Secretary of War and of the
Treasury of the United States. In 1825 he received a flattering vote for
President, when the Clay and Adams compact drove Jackson and Crawford to
the rear. Bad health forced Mr. Crawford from the field of national
politics, and in 1827, upon the death of Judge Dooly, Mr. Crawford was
appointed Judge of the Northern Circuit. He held this position until his
death in Elbert County, which occurred in 1834. Crawford was a friend
and patron of young Toombs. The latter considered him the full peer of
Webster and of Calhoun.

Robert Toombs was married eight months after his admission to the bar.
His career in his profession was not immediately successful. A newspaper
writer recently said of him that "while his contemporaries were fighting
stubbornly, with varying luck, Toombs took his honors without a
struggle, as if by divine right." This was no more true of Toombs than
it is true of other men. He seems to have reached excellence in law by
slow degrees of toil. Hon