sage of the Kansas-Nebraska
bill, in 1854, and had been arraigned by Mr. Toombs for opposing the
party policy. He was one of the thirteen who voted against it in the
Senate.

The contest in Georgia waged with much vigor. Robert Toombs supported
Breckenridge. He was a delegate to the Democratic State convention which
put out a Breckenridge and Lane electoral ticket. He cut out the
business of that convention, and declared that the Constitution and
equality of the States was the only bond of everlasting union. Mr.
Stephens headed the Douglas ticket. Senator Douglas himself came to
Georgia and spoke during the campaign. The Bell and Everett ticket was
championed by Benjamin H. Hill. The vote in Georgia was: Breckenridge,
51,893; Douglas, 11,580; Bell, 42,855.

Of these three Georgians, so strikingly arrayed against each other in
this critical campaign, Mr. Vincent, a gifted Texan, thus wrote with
dramatic power: "Hill, Stephens, Toombs--all eloquent, all imbued with
the same lofty patriotism. They differed widely in their methods; their
opinions were irreconcilable, their policies often diametrically
opposite. Hill was quick, powerful, but unpersistent; Stephens, slow,
forcible and compromising; Toombs, instantaneous, overwhelming, and
unyielding. Hill carried the crowd with a whirlwind of eloquence;
Stephens first convinced, then moved them with accelerating force;
Toombs swept them with a hurricane of thought and magnetic example.
Hill's eloquence was in flights, always rising and finally sublime;
Stephens' was argumentative with an elegant smoothness, often flowing in
sweeping, majestic waves; Toombs' was an engulfing stream of impetuous
force, with the roar of thunder. Hill was receptive, elastic, and full
of the future; Stephens was philosophical, adaptable, and full of the
past; Toombs was inexhaustible, original, inflexible, and full of the
now. It was Hill's special forte to close a campaign; Stephens' to
manage it; Toombs' to originate it. In politics as in war, he sought,
with the suddenness of an electric flash, to combat, vanquish, and slay.
Hill's eloquence exceeded his judgment; Stephens' judgment was superior
to his oratorical power; in Toombs these were equipollent. Hill
considered expediency; Stephens, policy; Toombs, principle always; Hill
would perhaps flatter, Stephens temporize, Toombs neither--never. At
times Hill would resort to the arts of the dialectician; Stephens would
quibble over the niceties