Editing Robert Toombs (section)

==Early legal and political career==
Toombs was admitted to the Georgia bar and began his legal practice in 1830. He entered politics, gaining election to the [[Georgia House of Representatives]], where he served in 1838. He failed to win re-election, but was elected again in the next term, serving 1840–1841. He failed again to win re-election, but was elected in 1842, serving a third, non-successive term, 1843–1844.

Toombs won a seat in the [[United States House of Representatives]] in 1844, and would win re-election several times. He served several terms in the lower chamber until 1853. In 1852 the state legislature elected him to the US Senate. There Toombs joined his close friend and fellow representative [[Alexander H. Stephens]] from [[Crawfordville, Georgia]]. Their friendship became a powerful personal and political bond, and they effectively defined and articulated Georgia's position on national issues in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Toombs, like Stephens, emerged as a states' rights partisan and became a national [[United States Whig Party|Whig]]. After that party dissolved, Toombs aided in the creation of the short-lived [[Constitutional Union Party (United States)|Constitutional Union Party]] in the early 1850s.

As did most Whigs, Toombs considered Texas to be the 28th state, but he opposed the Mexican–American War.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=William Y. Thompson|first=William Y.|last=Thompson|title=Robert Toombs of Georgia|location=Baton Rouge|publisher=[[Louisiana State University]] Press|year=1966|lccn=66-25722|oclc=788461|page=38}}</ref>