- Collection:
- Robert Toombs, Letters to Julia Ann DuBose Toombs, 1850-1867
- Title:
- Letter, Mobile, [Alabama], to Julia [Ann DuBose Toombs], 1853 Dec. 28
- Creator:
- Toombs, Robert Augustus, 1810-1885
- Date of Original:
- 1853-12-28
- Subject:
- Plantation owners--Alabama--Death and burial
Decedents' estates
Male friendship
Southern States--Social life and customs--19th century
Pope family - People:
- Toombs, Julia Ann, 1830-1883--Correspondence
Toombs, Robert Augustus, 1810-1885--Correspondence - Location:
- United States, Alabama, 32.75041, -86.75026
United States, Southern States, 33.346678, -84.119434 - Medium:
- letters (correspondence)
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- image/jpeg
text/html - Description:
- In this Dec. 28, 1853 letter, written strictly for his wife, Julia Toombs, Robert Toombs, representative in the Georgia House of Representatives (1837-1843), in the U.S. Congress (1845-1853) and Senate (1853-1861), pours out his grief at the unexpected death of his friend, Mr. Pope. Toombs writes it from Mobile, where Pope's estate, Citronell, was located. Toombs accompanies Pope's remains to a steamer, which would transport them to their last resting place. He tells his wife how he steals away to a secluded corner of the boat to grieve privately. He mourns the loss of one of the world's great men, and laments the deplorable financial state Pope left his family in, telling his wife he wished Pope had come to him for assistance while still living. A lawyer, Toombs was remaining in Alabama to settle Pope's estate. He closes with quiet affection for his wife and family.
Digital image and transcription of original manuscript, scanned by the University of Georgia Libraries in 2001, as part of GALILEO. - Local Identifier:
- rat005
- External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- https://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/zlrt/id:rat005
- Digital Object URL:
- https://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/do:dlg_zlrt_rat005
- IIIF manifest:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_zlrt_rat005/presentation/manifest.json
- Language:
- eng
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: [title of item], Robert Toombs, letters to Julia Ann DuBose Toombs. Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, presented in the Digital Library of Georgia
- Extent:
- 3 pages/leaves
- Original Collection:
- Robert Toombs, letters to Julia Ann DuBose Toombs. Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries
- Holding Institution:
- Hargrett Library
- Rights:
-
Page: [1]
Mobile Wednesday 28th Decr. 1853 [December]
My Dear Wife,
This is for your eye alone -- I feel that I must pour out my sorrows to some one & who else can I look to but to one who ever faithful & True has had my whole heart from my youth till now. This has been one of the dark & sad days of my life -- The remains of my lost friend, Mr Pope, came down in the [unclear text: cars] This morning -- I met [deleted text: it] [added text: them] alone at the Depot except Gus Baldwin & the hired hands [deleted text: to] [added text: who] are going home with him, They were Taken to the undertakers who enclosed Them in another case & this evening I accompanied, [added text: them] with Mr Davis to the boat, -- & oh! it was so sad to see one That so many people professed To love, in a strange land carried by hirelings & deposited like merchandise among The freight of a steamboat on the way to his long home! I can scarcely write now at the Thought, Through the blindness of my own tears! When I saw him placed in the appointed place, among The strangers & bustle of a departing boat, careless of who or
Page: [2]
or what he was, I stole away to the most retired part of the boat, to conceal the weakness of friendship & relieved my overburthened [overburdened] heart with a flood of tears -- I felt it would be a profanation of friendship even to be seen to feel in such a crowd -- Abbe was not There, however painfull [painful] I could not but wish that she had have been. -- She will not go to Oglethorpe , -- but for my overwhelming duties to the living I would have Taken the boat & gone on with his remains to their last resting place -- This is the end of the just in This world -- He was a good & an upright man, never gave just offense to a human being -- His family are ruined, but his only fault was want of judgment & too great confidence in his kind -- He could not make money, & it really seemed that his every effort to do so but plunged him deeper in debt, It really looks to me as tho' [though] he was taken from the evil to cause, for until I looked into his papers, & saw the desperation of his
Page: [3]
affairs I had no idea of the terrible sufferings he must have borne on account of his embarrassemnts for the last year of his life -- His great fault was The concealment of his own difficulties & [unclear text: trials] I would have done any Thing [anything] to have relieved them upon a full disclosure and if he were alive he would do it. He was idolized at Citronell, & I have wept at the sorrows of the poor people in his employment upon The very mention of his death --
I wrote you last night that I had got Thro' [through] with the contract & was now only waiting for a settlement with The Company -- I shall settle or not Settle with Them in the next Three days & Then for home, I cant [can't] tell what the company will do, but they are unjust & therefore I look for the worst from them -- Give my love to all -- I know I can not [cannot] control my grief & am sensitive to my own weakness. I could not find relief without pouring out my sorrows with you, there let them rest.
Yours truly
[Signed] Toombs