Rhodes.^o And elsewhere, " When Toombs said he was willing to take the will of the people [of Kansas] in a proper and just manner and abide by the result, he was sincere. An old Whig, he had the Whig love of the Union." "
Still another curious case of Toombs's moderation is the Boston speech above referred to. In going straight into the centre of the hostile country and speaking on the subject of bitterest contention, slavery, he was indulging all his native instincts of combativeness. But once there, the speech he made was a model of simple, honest, rea- sonable statement of the very best that could be said for his fellows and himself. No more persuasive, more manly, more human argument for negro servitude was ever uttered than Toombs presented in the headquarters of abolition on the platform of Tremont Temple in 1856.
And so, when we come to the last great crisis of all, we find Toombs, the revolutionist, the hothead, the fire- eater, not doing his best at every opportunity to foment sedition and urge an outbreak, but keeping his temper, counseling moderation, anxious, to the very end, to cling to the old ties, if it w^ere possible. " The temper of the North," he writes at one time, **is good, and with kind- ness and patronage skilfully adjusted, I think we can work out of our present troubles, preserve the Union, and disappoint bad men and traitors." ^^ It is true, he had his moments of forgetfulness. ** Toombs has just delivered a speech of the most abusive and inflammatory character
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