[C19fan]

Sen Robert Toombs was such an emphatic “man of the republic” he advocated secession and served in the Confederacy as its Secretary of State.

[BroJoeK]

C19fan: "Sen Robert Toombs was such an emphatic “man of the republic” he advocated secession and served in the Confederacy as its Secretary of State."

Toombs didn't last long as Jefferson Davis' Secretary of State, famously warning Davis against starting Civil War at Fort Sumter:

""Mr. President, at this time it is suicide, murder, and will lose us every friend at the North.
You will wantonly strike a hornet's nest which extends from mountain to ocean, and legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death.
It is unnecessary; it puts us in the wrong; it is fatal."[19]"

So Toombs became a Confederate general, at Antietam leading the defense of "Burnside's Bridge".
Eventually his criticisms of Davis for conscription and revoking habeas corpus lead Confederate newspapers to warn that Toombs verged on treason.

After Appomattox Toombs escaped to Cuba, along with PTG Beauregard, returning in 1870.
But he never asked for a pardon and could never officially vote or hold office.
Nevertheless, behind the scenes he was a recognized populist leader, closely allied to former Confederate VP, now Georgia Governor Alexander Stephens, until Toombs' drinking & depression killed him, in 1885, aged 75.