The 1879 Confederate States presidential election was the fourth and final such election in CSA history, with it occurring on November 5-7, 1873, making it the only election in the CSA's history to occur on more than one day, highlighting the disconnect and chaos that was beginning to grip both the states and the nation as a whole. In the election, Nathan B. Forrest, General-in-Chief of the Confederate States Army and a veteran of both the American Civil War and the Four Horsemen Rebellion, who was supported by Toombs' supporters, as well as those whose wanted a return to peace in the CSA as he promised, defeated Clement C. Clay, a former Alabama senator, whose base many formed around those who opposed Toombs' handling of national affairs, as well as his exile of political opponents.
As the 1879 election approached, Toombs tried to convince Congress to add an amendment to the CSA Constitution allowing him to serve another term in office. When these efforts failed, he threw his support behind Forrest, who had served him loyally and efficiently during the Four Horsemen Rebellion. Forrest's promise to restore law and order to the Confederacy appealed to many, as well as his proclamation that if he was president, he would bend the knee to no nation, and demand the United States return all fugitive slaves, even those that had already crossed the agreed upon borderline of the "Border States". All of this appealed to many supporters of Toombs, ensuring that Forrest had their support. Running with him would be President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Alabama Senator John T. Morgan, one of Toombs' most loyal allies.
Many people had been dissatisfied with the Toombs' presidency, whether is was from his bungling of foreign affairs, to his handling of the Four Horsemen Rebellion and resulting death or exile of many of the CSA's war heroes, or his trials and exiles afterwards, his presidency was not universally approved of. Unfortunately for such people, Toombs had sent opposition leaders into exile or had them arrested, making finding someone to run against Toombs' favored candidate a more difficult challenge than it may seem. Eventually, former Alabama senator Clement C. Clay would accept their support and agree to run, with former Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin agreeing to run for the vice-presidency.
In the campaign, Forrest would furiously attack his opponents, both on campaign issues and as people, particularly Benjamin, who he referred to as an "upstart Jew" and "a secret abolitionist working with the North to weaken slavery in the South.", the first referring to his ethnicity and the second his role in leading the peace delegation in the 1863 Louisville Peace Conference, which ended the American Civil War and placed a limit on how far north Confederate slave-catchers could go in their pursuit of escaped slaves. Despite the harsh criticisms, Clay would make some inroads with poorer Southerners, asking them how a Toombs presidency had benefited them, and explaining how his administration would work to their advantage. Former president Jefferson Davis would endorse the Clay/Benjamin ticket, claiming it was by far the superior ticket. This would lead to Forrest referring to Davis as a "crazed old capon, unfit for the presidency of the Confederacy during the Civil War, and certainly not fit to be giving advice now." Although many now agree that Forrest's attacks on the former president worked to the latter's derision.
Come election day, Forrest would decisively defeat Clay, winning all but Virginia's and North Carolina's electoral vote. Voter fraud and accusations of it were rife in this election, but Toombs ensured that no action was taken to investigate it, even when groups would come forward and report seeing Forrest's men burning Clay votes or throwing them into rivers, or simple not counting them at all. Despite this and threats of returned rebellion, Toombs and his administration would preserve, and come inauguration day, Forrest was sworn in as the Confederacy's fourth president, and ultimately their final.