after shot swept all before it. Concentrated fire was
always his policy. A single sentence would win his case. A big thought,
compressed into small compass, was fatal to his foe. It is the clear
insight of a great mind only that shaped out truth in words few and
simple. Brevity is power, wherever thought is strong. From Gaul Caesar
wrote '_Veni, vidi, vici._' Rome was electrified, and the message
immortalized. Toombs said to this Court, 'May it please your
Honor--Seizin, Marriage, Death, Dower,' and sat down. His case was won,
the widow's heart leaped with joy, and the lawyer's argument lives
forever."

CHAPTER III.

IN THE LEGISLATURE.

When Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun were waging their "irrepressible
conflict," the county of Wilkes in the State of Georgia was nursing
discordant factions. Just across the river in Carolina lived the great
Nullifier. The Virginia settlers of Wilkes sided with him, while scores
of North Carolinians, who had come to live in the county, swore by "Old
Hickory." This political difference gave rise to numerous feuds. The two
elements maintained their identity for generations, and the divisions
became social as well as political. The Virginians nursed their State
pride. The sons of North Carolina, overshadowed by the Old Dominion,
clung to the Union and accepted Andrew Jackson, their friend and
neighbor, as oracle and leader. The earliest political division in
Georgia was between the Clarke and Crawford factions. General John
Clarke, a sturdy soldier of the Revolution, came from North Carolina,
while William H. Crawford, a Virginian by birth and a Georgian by
residence, led the Virginia element. The feud between Clarke and
Crawford gave rise to numerous duels. Then came George M. Troup to
reenforce the Crawford faction and defend States' Rights, even at the
point of the sword. Troup and Clarke were rival candidates for Governor
of Georgia in 1825, and the Toombs family ardently fought for Troup.
Young Toombs was but fifteen years of age, but politics had been burnt
into his ardent soul. Wilkes had remained a Union county until this
campaign, when the Troup and Toombs influence was too strong for the
North Carolina faction. Wilkes, in fact, seemed to be a watershed in
early politics. It was in close touch with Jackson and Calhoun, with
Clarke and Crawford, and then with Clarke and Troup. On the one side the
current from the mountain streams melted into the peaceful Savannah an