2025-01 Raynors Historical Collectible Auctions
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/26/2025
Robert Augustus Toombs (July 2, 1810 – December 15, 1885) was an American politician from Georgia, who was an important figure in the formation of the Confederacy. From a privileged background as a wealthy planter and slaveholder, Toombs embarked on a political career marked by effective oratory, although he also acquired a reputation for hard living, disheveled appearance, and irascibility. He was identified with Alexander H. Stephens's libertarian wing of secessionist opinion, and in contradiction to the nationalist Jefferson Davis, Toombs believed a Civil War to be neither inevitable or winnable by the South. Appointed as Secretary of State of the Confederacy (which lacked political parties) Toombs was against the decision to attack Fort Sumter, and resigned from Davis's cabinet. He was wounded at the Battle of Antietam, where he performed creditably. Autograph Note Signed, “Appendix to Congressional Globe. Containing speeches of Sessions 1849-50. Appendix to Congressional Globe. Containing speeches of Sessions 1853-54. Yr. R. Toombs.” There is a pencil notation, “Jan 14th ‘56, Robert Toombs”. Perhaps related the 1856, Toombs Bill, which proposed a constitutional convention in Kansas under conditions that were acknowledged by various anti-slavery leaders as fair. This marked the greatest concessions made by pro-slavery senators during the struggle over Kansas.
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