Robert Toombs of Georgia (review)

68CIVIL WAR HISTORY difficult jobs in die Confederacy. He had to raise and equip troops botii for Confederate and state use, and there was never enough of manpower or equipment to meet the ever pressing needs. He had to obtain for his people scare commodities such as salt, meat, bread and clothing. His difficulties were enormously complicated by inflation, and by die stresses and strains incident to invasion. He also had to try to preserve harmony between state and confederate officials, and this was a task tiiat chronically tried his patience and consumed his energies. Professor Boney faults Letcher for lack of imagination, boldness and brilliance and for concentration on details to die neglect of larger matters of state. But he commends the governor for his sincerity, integrity, moderation, flexibility and devotion to duty. He admits tiiat by today's standards Letcher's administration leaves much to be desired but concludes tiiat "by comparison to all but a very few rebel governors, Letcher was a model of cooperativeness, a pillar of strength for the Confederacy." This judgment is sustained by abundant research, logical reasoning and common sense. Bell I. Wiley Emory University Robert Toombs of Georgia. By William Y. Thompson. ( Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1966. Pp. xiii, 281. $7.50.) It is perhaps symbolic of die vanity and frustration which marked die life of Robert Toombs that he is best known for his near election as President of the SoutJhem Confederacy. By recognizing die failure implicit in die story of Toombs's career, Professor Thompson has succeeded in bringing us closer dian ever before to an understanding of this violent and enigmatic man. As a practical conservative, Toombs resisted all efforts to expand the functions of the state in the economic arena, while never failing to justify the most radical action in defense of Southern rights in terms of security and tradition. Professor Thompson's research into die roots of Toombs's laissez faire economics reveals a devotion to unrestrained individualism which stretches from his batdes against state bank loans and stay laws during die depression of the late 1830's to Toombs's deadi as an embittered agrarian in 1885. The diemes of conservatism, aggressive individualism, and thwarted ambition are evident even in Toombs's ostensibly successful antebellum career . Although he was a leader in articulating and intensifying his state's reaction to the threat to slavery rising in the North, his political achievements were always completely personal. Toombs's ambition to sustain a viable conservative party was, in the end, unavailing. Robert Toombs's journey through the war years was a relenUess and generally futile pursuit of glory, and Professor Thompson is at his best in diese chapters which detail the quarrels and abortive military exploits of the Georgia leader. In this test of fire for Southern nationality Toombs failed his new country, his state, and ultimately himself by permitting old hatreds and jealousies to cloud his already inadequate sense of moderation. BOOK REVIEWS69 He left the Cabinet after six ineffectual months in an office (Secretary of State) totally unsuited to his capabilities, only to find himself involved almost compulsively in a series of demeaning military jaunts. For the former Senator from Georgia dus was bitter fruit indeed. Yet, even with Appomattox Toombs had not exhausted his potential for useful leadership. There was a multiplicity of problems facing die people of die Soutii—die physical rebuilding, an adjustment of die connection with the Union, and, above all, the free Negro—but that old propensity to emotional extremism and a disheartening failure to perceive the real needs of his region caused Toombs to oppose all efforts at reconstruction, both military and civil, federal and internal. Moreover, he stubbornly resisted the rise of die cadre of New South leaders, widi dieir creed which tiireatened to destroy die pastoral world tiiat Toombs yearned to perpetuate. Robert Toombs, who had brillianUy represented die sentiments of his fellow Georgians for a generation before the war, had now become detached from the reality of dieir wants and aspirations. While he did speak out for constitutional reform and fiscal integrity, his role in the postwar period was substantially one of obfuscation and obstruction...