nd our necks. Will that
satisfy the honorable senator from Kentucky? You cannot intimidate my
constituents by talking to them of treason.

"You will not regard confederate obligations; you will not regard
constitutional obligations; you will not regard your oaths. What, then,
am I to do? Am I a freeman? Is my State a free State? We are freemen; we
have rights; I have stated them. We have wrongs; I have recounted them.
I have demonstrated that the party now coming into power has declared us
outlaws, and is determined to exclude thousands of millions of our
property from the common territory; that it has declared us under the
ban of the Union, and out of the protection of the laws of the United
States everywhere. They have refused to protect us from invasion and
insurrection by the Federal power, and the Constitution denies to us, in
the Union, the right to raise fleets and armies for our own defense. All
these charges I have proven by the record; and I put them before the
civilized world and demand the judgment of to-day, of to-morrow, of
distant ages, and of Heaven itself upon the justice of these causes. I
am content, whatever it be, to peril all in so holy a cause. We have
appealed, time and again, for these constitutional rights. You have
refused them. We appeal again. Restore us those rights as we had them;
as your Court adjudges them to be; just as our people have said they
are. Redress these flagrant wrongs--seen of all men--and it will restore
fraternity, and unity, and peace to us all. Refuse them, and what then?
We shall then ask you, 'Let us depart in peace.' Refuse that, and you
present us war. We accept it, and, inscribing upon our banners the
glorious words, 'Liberty and Equality,' we will trust to the blood of
the brave and the God of battles for security and tranquillity."

This speech created wide attention. It closed the career of Robert
Toombs as a member of the national councils. For sixteen years he had
served in the two Houses in Washington, holding his rank among the first
men in the country.

He was then fifty-one years old, full of strength and confidence. His
leadership among Southern men was undisputed; his participation in
public business had been long and honorable; upon matters of home and
foreign policy his word had been law in the Senate; his influence had
been preponderating.

[Illustration: RESIDENCE OF GENERAL TOOMBS, WASHINGTON, GA.]

CHAPTER XX.

TOOMBS AND SECESSION.