Editing Robert Toombs (section)

== Secession ==
[[File:Confederate Cabinet.jpg|thumb|The original [[Confederate States of America#Executive|Confederate Cabinet]]. L-R: [[Judah P. Benjamin]], [[Stephen Mallory]], [[Christopher Memminger]], [[Alexander Stephens]], [[LeRoy Pope Walker]], [[Jefferson Davis]], [[John Henninger Reagan|John H. Reagan]] and Robert Toombs.]]
In the [[U.S. presidential election, 1860|presidential campaign of 1860]], Toombs supported [[John C. Breckinridge]]. After the election of Republican [[Abraham Lincoln]] Toombs initially urged caution "to test Republican willingness to do the South justice".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bryan |first=T. Conn |date=June 1947 |title=The Secession of Georgia|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40577110 |journal=The Georgia Historical Quarterly |volume=31 |issue=2 |page=90|jstor=40577110 }}</ref> On December 22 Toombs sent a telegram to Georgia that asserted that "secession by March 4 next should be thundered forth from the ballot-box by the united voice of Georgia." He delivered a farewell address in the US Senate (January 7, 1861) in which he said: "We want no negro equality, no negro citizenship; we want no negro race to degrade our own; and as one man [we] would meet you upon the border with the sword in one hand and the torch in the other."<ref>[http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/the-south-rises-again-and-again-and-again/#more-78437 "The South Rises Again and Again and Again"], ''Opinionator blog'', ''The New York Times'', January 27, 2011</ref> He returned to Georgia, and with Governor [[Joseph E. Brown]] led the fight for secession against Stephens and [[Herschel V. Johnson]] (1812–1880). His influence was a powerful factor in inducing the "old-line Whigs" to support immediate secession.

[[File:Robert Toombs House, (Wilkes County, Georgia).jpg|thumb|left|Toombs' house in [[Washington, Georgia]], seen here in 1934.]]

Unlike the crises of 1850, these events galvanized Toombs and energized his ambitions of becoming the president of the new [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] nation.