562 TROUP COUNTY. 



parties to that instrument. If slavery be an evil, it is our own 

 — if it be a sin, we can implore the forgiveness of it. / be- 

 seech you most earnestly, now that it is not too late, to step 

 forth, and, having exhausted the argument, to stand by your 

 arms." 



He retired from the government in November, 1827, with 

 a popularity equal to that of any former Chief Magistrate. 

 In 1828, he was recalled to the United States Senate. This 

 appointment was accepted by him with unfeigned regret. Ill- 

 health and other circumstances had determined him to live in 

 domestic seclusion. It is not generally known that, when 

 apprised of the legislative intention to send him to Washing- 

 ton, he, to prevent it, hastened from his home in Laurens, to 

 Milledgeville, where he arrived only a few hours after his 

 election. He continued in Congress until 1834, enjoying the 

 respect and veneration of his fellow-citizens of Georgia. In 

 the Senate, his feebleness of health forbade participation in 

 debate. The same cause produced his final resignation. By his 

 more intimate friends Gov. Troup is regarded as the living apos- 

 tle of State Rights, the champion of State Sovereignty. It was 

 under the conviction that these were imperilled, that he de- 

 clared, in 1833, that "he would have been carried on his 

 death- bed to the Capitol, rather than not have given his vote 

 against the Force Bill." His opinions upon topics of public 

 interest are given unreservedly when solicited ; and the ac- 

 knowledged consistency of his life — the admitted integrity of 

 his heart — the soundness of his intellect — give them a weight 

 felt by all. Witness his letter upon State Sovereignty and 

 State Interposition, long regarded in Georgia as a text-book 

 for State Rights men. So also his letters upon the Tariff, the 

 Annexation of Texas, and others. He may not be considered 

 as identified with either of the present parties dividing the 

 * State. He enunciates great principles, and sustains or opposes 

 great measures, leaving his opinions to operate on the public 

 mind according to their merits. He has been a man of sor- 

 rows. He is taciturn, and, hence, is charged with pride ; but 

 no man's heart is more tender, or more benevolent. He is 

 not a professor of the Christian religion, in which, neverthe- 

 less, one who has a right to know, assures the writer that he is 



