Title: The union that shaped the Confederacy : Robert Toombs & Alexander H. Stephens /
Authors: Davis, William C., 1946-
Publisher: University Press of Kansas,
Year: 2001
Subjects: Stephens, Alexander H. Friends and associates.; Toombs, Robert Augustus, Friends and associates.; Stephens, Alexander H. Friends and associates.; United States. Biography.; Friendship Confederate States of America Case studies.; Vice-presidents Confederate States of America Biography.; Statesmen Confederate States of America Biography.; Legislators United States Biography; Governors Georgia Biography; Confederate States of America Politics and government.
Abstract: One was a robust charmer given to fits of passion, whose physical appeal could captivate women as easily as his words cajoled colleagues. The other was a frail, melancholy man of quiet intellect, whose ailments drove him eventually to alcohol and drug addiction. Born into different social classes, they were as opposite as men could be. Yet these sons of Georgia, Robert Toombs and Alexander H. Stephens, became fast friends and together changed the course of the South. William C. Davis has written a biography of a friendship that captures the Confederacy in microcosm. He tells how Toombs and Stephens dominated the formation of the new nation and served as its vice president and secretary of state. After years of disillusionment, each abandoned participation in southern politics and left to its own fate a Confederacy that would not dance to their tune. Davis traces the unlikely relationship of Stephens and Toombs from their early days in the Georgia legislature through the trials of secession and war, revealing how both men persevered during the war and developed a deep animosity toward Jefferson Davis. He then chronicles their postwar lives up to the emotional moments when Toombs stood eulogizing his long-time friend at his funeral, just four months after Stephens was elected governor of the Georgia they had loved as much as one another. Drawing on primary sources, including Stephens's voluminous letters and Toombs's widely scattered papers, Davis tells how two men of different temperaments remained friends, out of step with all but a few and occasionally even with each other. He concentrates on their Confederate years, when the fraternity they shared had its greatest impact, to show how together they embodied both the strengths and the weaknesses of the Confederacy.
Contents: Disunion and Reunion -- The Making of a Friendship -- The Breaking of a Friendship -- Founding Fathers -- Disillusionment -- Loyal Opposition? -- Enemies Front and Rear -- Uncivil War -- Exultations, Agonies, and Love.