Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Life of Robert Toombs
Toombs's favorite character in literature was Falstaff; and he himself more or less unconsciously showed certain Falstaffian characteristics. But his braggadocio was'com bined with matter-of-fact-ness and high purpose; his comedy was mingled with tragedy; his self-indulgence stopped short at conviviality; and in public affairs he was among the most austere of men. When he quoted, as he often did, F al staff's request to Prince Henry, Rob me the exchequer, he invariably put the words into the mouths of the plunder ers whom he was opposing. Colonel Reed was fond of discussing Toombs's F alstaffian phases, and his book would have been rich in humor. Something of these qualities in Toombs will doubtless appear in my narrative, but most of it must be read between the lines. I have been chie?y concerned with his incisive criticism of public issues and his now moderate, now headlong championship of public programmes. With little manifest mirth at his antics or fellow-feeling in his grief, I have endeavored to use his career as a central theme in describing the successive prob lems which the people of Georgia and the South confronted and the policies which they followed in their efforts at solving them. In regard to the personal career of Toombs, my narrative probably demonstrates, what my studies have made plain to me, that Toombs was primarily an American statesman with nation-wide interests and a remarkable talent for public finance, but the stress of the sectional quarrel drove him, as it had driven Calhoun before him.
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