116 



COBB, HOWELL. 



he obtained a fair academical education. He 

 was not brought into contact with the Meth- 

 odists until he was nineteen years of age, and 

 the succeeding year (1Y98) united with a Meth- 

 odist church, and soon became active as a 

 class-leader and exhorter. He commenced 

 preaching in 1800, and in 1801 joined the New- 

 York Conference, and entered upon the itin- 

 erant work, in which he continued with un- 

 flagging zeal and great success for fifty years, 

 in New England, New York, and Canada. He 

 attained a high reputation as a successful and 

 able preacher. In 1819 he offered the first res- 

 olution in favor of forming the Missionary So- 

 ciety of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and, 

 in conjunction with Nathan Bangs and Free- 

 born Garretson, prepared its constitution. He 

 was also one of the founders, and most 

 active and zealous patrons, of the Wesleyan 

 University at Middletown, Conn., and when he 

 had passed his half century in the itinerancy, 

 he withdrew from active labor in preaching 

 (in 1851) and settled himself at Middletown, 

 that he might the better watch over the uni- 

 versity. He was a man of clear intellect and 

 decided opinions, a voluminous reader and a 

 soun,d and able thinker, and withal of genial, 

 cheerful nature, winning in a remarkable de- 

 gree the love and esteem of all with whom he 

 was brought in contact. 



COBB, HOWELL, a Southern statesman, born 

 at Cherry Hill, Jefferson County, Ga., Septem- 

 ber 7, 1815 ; died suddenly in New York City, 

 October 9, 1868. He was educated at Frank- 

 lin College, Athens, where he graduated in 

 1834. He then turned his attention to the 

 study of the law, and was admitted to the bar 

 in 1836. The first office held by him was that 

 of Solicitor-General of the Western Circuit of 

 Georgia, to which position he was elected by 

 the Legislature in 183T. He held the office for 

 three years, and during that period laid the 

 foundations of an extensive and lucrative prac- 

 tice. In 1843 commenced his long and stormy 

 congressional career. He was elected a mem- 

 ber of the House of Representatives four times 

 in succession, serving from 1843 to 1851, and 

 distinguished himself by his familiarity with 

 the rules of the House, his skill as a debater, 

 his vehement professions of love for the Union, 

 and his equally earnest advocacy of State 

 rights. His imperiousness, and his bold cham- 

 pionship of slavery, naturally made him the 

 leader of the Southern party in the House in 

 the Thirtieth Congress, and at the commence- 

 ment of the Thirty-first Congress he was their 

 candidate for the speakership. The contest 

 was a long one, sixty-three ballots being cast, 

 and the effort to elect a Speaker under the 

 majority rule proving unsuccessful, a plurality 

 was declared sufficient to elect, and he was 

 chosen, receiving one hundred and two votes, 

 Robert 0. "Winthrop, of Massachusetts, having 

 ninety-nine, and twenty (Free-Soil) scattering. 

 He demanded the extension of slavery into Cal- 

 ifornia and New Mexico by Federal authority, 



and advocated the Compromise measures of 

 1850. An issue being taken on this latter ques- 

 tion by the Southern rights extremists of 

 Georgia, he was nominated for Governor by 

 the Union party in 1851, and after a violent 

 contest elected by a large majority. At the 

 expiration of his term of service as Governor, 

 in 1853, he resumed the practice of law, but 

 still took an active part in politics. In 1855 

 he was again elected to Congress, and in the 

 canvass of 1856 advocated Mr. Buchanan's 

 election throughout the Northern States. Im- 

 mediately on Mr. Buchanan's accession to the 

 presidency, he nominated Mr. Cobb Secretary 

 of the Treasury. His administration of this 

 important department of the Government was 

 creditable to the administration of which he 

 was a member. He early believed that seces- 

 sion was necessary for the security of the South, 

 and soon began to make preparations for it. 

 He found the Treasury full, and the bonds rep- 

 resenting the national debt at a premium of 

 sixteen to eighteen per cent. He used the sur- 

 plus funds in the Treasury in purchasing this 

 indebtedness at this high premium, but the 

 approach of the struggle so affected the na- 

 tional credit that he was compelled to attempt 

 to borrow at an exorbitant discount the money 

 necessary to defray the ordinary expenses of 

 the Government. On the 10th of December, 

 1860, he resigned, giving as his reason that the 

 State of Georgia (then about to secede) required 

 his services, and that he regarded it as his duty 

 to give his services first of all to his native 

 State, and, as she was about to separate from 

 the Union, to join his fortunes with hers. 

 Returning to Georgia, he at once entered heart 

 and soul into the contest, addressed the peo- 

 ple of the State, and urged forward the seces- 

 sion movement. He was one of the delegates 

 from Georgia to the Congress of the seceded 

 States which met at Montgomery, Alabama, 

 February 4, 1861, and, on its assembling, was 

 chosen President. This Congress (subsequently 

 known as the Provisional Congress) prepared 

 and adopted the constitution of the Confed- 

 eracy, and continued in power for a year, 

 having four sessions, two at Montgomery and 

 two at Richmond, over all of which Mr. Cobb 

 presided. Of the First Confederate Congress, 

 which assembled February 18, 1862, Mr. Cobb 

 was not a member ; but, having done his utmost 

 to organize the opposition, he was withdrawn 

 from civil office, not being a favorite with Mr. 

 Davis. On the demand of the Georgian mem- 

 bers, the Confederate Congress appointed him 

 brigadier-general, and subsequently promoted 

 him to a major-generalship, but, though not 

 lacking personal courage, he had but little mili- 

 tary experience, and never distinguished him- 

 self as an officer, and indeed was not a par- 

 ticipator in any very considerable engagement. 

 At the close of the war, he was still strongly 

 opposed and hostile to all the new measures 

 for reconstruction, introduced and adopted by 

 Congress, as calculated to retard the restora- 



