Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/548

 Supreme Court of Mississippi. doctrine of State rights. He was a fluent speaker and a polished writer. Me died at Canton in 1883. William L. Harris was born in Elbert county, Georgia, July 6, 1807. He grad uated from the University of Georgia at the age of fifteen, began the study of law and was admitted to the bar by legislative enactment before he attained his majority. In 1837 ne settled in Columbus, Mississippi,

and there acquired a large practice. In 1853 he was elected circuit judge. In 1856 he served as one of the three commissioners who compiled the code of 1857. In 185o President Buchanan tendered him the appointment to a seat on the supreme bench of the United States but he de clined " because of the impending se cession." He was elected to the bench of the high court of errors and ap peals of his State in 1858 and again in 1865; he re THOMAS signed in 1867 be cause of the subor dination of the court to military authority. He was learned in the law and possessed of great oratorical powers. He removed to Memphis and resumed the practice of his profession. He died in 1868. David W. Hurst of Amite county was in October, 1863, elected to fill the unexpired term of Justice Smith, but the courts were then closed and his occupancy of the bench was merely nominal. Henry T. Kllett was a successful lawyer in

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Claiborne county. He was a democrat in politics. He was accomplished, learned and popular. He was in November, 1846, elected to succeed Col. Jefferson Davis in the Congress of the United States, and served until March, 1847, when he declined reelection and resumed the practice of law. He was one of the three commissioners who framed the code of 1857. In 1866 he was elected to the bench of the high court. With his associates, Justices Harris and Handy, he resigned in 1867, and re moved to Memphis where he resumed the practice of law and continued till his death which oc curred in 1887. Thomas G. Shackleford graduated from the school of law in the Transyl vania University and settled in Mis sissippi. He was appointed to the bench in 1868 by General Ames, the military command ant, and performed most of the labor during his term. 11. WOODS. He was circuit judge for several years after his retirement from the supreme bench. E. Jeffords, of Issaquena county, also sat by appointment under military rule in 1868. The opinions of this tribunal are found in the forty-second volume of the Missis sippi reports. In criticising a case cited in that volume, as authority in the cause of Lusby v. Railroad Co., 73 Miss., 360, Justice Woods, speaking for the present court, says: "The case has no binding authority upon us, nor does the doctrine