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 The Supreme Court of Tennessee. of Nashville, and took his degree when six teen years of age, graduating with high honors. He read law in the office of Judge William L. Brown, a leading lawyer of Nash ville. After he was licensed to practice, he opened an office in Clarksville. His extra ordinary talents soon attracted attention, and in 1829 he was elected by the Legislature judge of the newly created eleventh circuit.

So brilliant was his career as circuit judge, that on the reorgani zation of the Supreme Court in 1835, he was unanimously elected by the Legislature a judge of that court. Thus at the early age of thirty-five he had attained the highest judicial position in the State. He served one full term of twelve years, and was reelected in 1847. But the relations between Judge Green and him self having become strained, he was in duced to resign in April, 1850, to accept the position of Judge of the Common Law WILLIAM and Chancery Court at Memphis. The work of a nisi prius judge was more suited to his tastes than was that of supreme judge. He was a man of unusually quick apprehension, and it was irksome to him to go over in con sultation the same ground over which his rapidly moving mind had carried him during the argument of a case. It is related of him that often when an important case would be taken up in consultation, he would state his views to his colleagues, and then, walking out, leave the case to the other two judges, who would usually find that the slower pro cesses of analysis and reference to authority

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had brought them to the conclusion an nounced by Judge Turley. Precedents with him had no weight, unless supported by reason. It was not his habit to base his decisions on former cases, but to argue out the proposition from original premises, citing precedents only to illustrate his conclusions. Judge Turley was highly educated, but he acquired a vast store of knowledge after he reached manhood. He delighted in poetry and history. He was thoroughly versed in literature, particularly in English history. He had a very retentive memory, that made his stores of knowledge immediately available. Probably the most elaborate opinion that he delivered was in the case of Green v. Allen, 5 Humphreys, 170, declaring void a charitable bequest to the Tennessee Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The case was submitted to the Court on Saturday, and the opinion was B. REESE. completed on Monday. It was the first case on that subject in the State, and was impor tant in itself. The opinion was a long one, and went minutely into the history of the abuses growing out of the absorption of great wealth by the clergy and the Church, and the various statutes enacted by Parliament, designed to restrict the evil. The review of this legislation and the decisions under it was a masterful one. Judge Turley met a painful accidental death. While walking on the street in Raleigh, he fell and caught on his cane. It broke, and one of the sharp points ran