hat the spring term of
Wilkes court would be the most laborious and disagreeable he ever
attended. Says he: "For the first time in my life, I have business in
court of my own--that is, where I am a party. The Bank of the State of
Georgia has given me a year's work on my own account. If I live I will
make the last named party repent of it."

At another time he wrote: "I had fine weather for Elbert, and a
delightful trip. Everything went well in Elbert with my business." It
usually did. There was no county in which he was more of an autocrat
than in Elbert. He never failed to carry the county in politics, even
when Elbert had a candidate of her own for Congress. His legal advice
was eagerly sought, and he was more consulted than any other man in
Georgia about public and private affairs. The reason of his phenomenal
success as counsel was that, united with his learning and forensic
power, he had a genius for detail. He was a natural financier. He used
to tell President Davis, during the early days of the Confederacy, that
four-fifths of war was business, and that he must "organize" victory.

During the sessions of Elbert court his arguments swept the jury, his
word was law outside. His talk was inspiring to the people. His rare and
racy conversation drew crowds to his room every night, and to an
occasional client, who would drop in upon his symposium to confer with
him, he would say, with a move of his head, "Don't worry about that now.
I know more about your business than you do, as I will show you at the
proper time." His fees at Elbert were larger than at any other court
except his own home in Wilkes. It was during the adjournment of court
for dinner that he would be called out by his constituents to make one
of his matchless political speeches. He never failed to move the crowds
to cheers of delight.

On one occasion he was at Roanoke, his plantation in Stewart County, Ga.
He writes his wife: "I was sent for night before last to appear in
Lumpkin to prosecute a case of murder: but as it appeared that the act
was committed on account of a wrong to the slayer's marital rights, I
declined to appear against him." Mr. Toombs was the embodiment of
virtue, and the strictest defender of the sanctity of marriage on the
part of man as well as woman. His whole life was a sermon of purity and
devotion.

Judge William M. Reese, who practiced law with Mr. Toombs, and was his
partner from 1840 to 1843, gives this picture of Toomb