Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 19.pdf/672

 The Vol. XIX.

No. n

Green

Bag

BOSTON

November, 1907

JOSEPH HENRY LUMPKIN First Chief Justice of Georgia By The Late Chief Justice Logan E. Bleckley JUDGE LUMPKIN was a native of Ogle thorpe County, and was born Decem ber 23, 1799. His collegiate education begun at the University of Georgia, was concluded at Princeton, N. J., where he gradu ated with honor in 181 9. He studied law under the tuition of Judge Thomas W. Cobb, at Lexington, Ga., and was admitted to practice in 1820. For two years (1824, 1825) he represented his native county in the Legislature. He was one of the three com missioners who framed the Penal Code of 1833. His career at the bar was successful from the beginning, and was continued with wide and brilliant reputation up to 1844, when failing health induced a voyage to Europe and a sojourn there for one year. He has been heard to say that what he most enjoyed while abroad was a visit to the tomb of Virgil. His own classic taste and culture had filled him with affectionate reverence for the illustrious Roman bard. With re stored health he returned home, but he never resumed practice, for in December, 1845, the legislature enacted a law to organ ize the Supreme Court, and elected him to a place on the bench, and with him Warner and Nisbet. His first judicial service was at Cassville in March, 1846, and his last at Milledgeville in December, 1866. He de livered the first opinion in the first volume, and the last in the thirty-fifth volume of the Georgia Reports. He was long a trustee of the University of Georgia, and in 1846 was elected to the chair of rhetoric and oratory in that institution, but declined it. Afterwards, the university having opened a law department under the

name of the Lumpkin Law School, he lec tured and taught as law professor until the war came and the students exchanged books for guns. In 1865 the President of the United States tendered him a seat on the Federal bench as one of the judges of the Court of Claims. He declined this offer because he preferred to remain in the judicial service of Georgia. For the same reason he declined an election as Chancellor of the University in 1860. The acceptance of that onerous and responsible position would have necessitated his retire ment from the Supreme Bench. While still in office as Chief Justice, he died at his home in Athens, in the 4th day of June, 1867. He obtained judicial station without seeking it, and retained it continuously for over twentyone years without competition. It would be difficult to imagine a finer specimen of physical, intellectual and moral manhood than was Joseph Henry Lumpkin. To form and finish him, there was a rare and happy concurrence of nature, education and divine grace. He had a musical individual ity, a melody of character. His voice blend ing strength with sweetness, symbolized the man. His expressive face was a poem in vigorous and harmonious prose. It sug gested truth and beauty consecrated to goodness. Of these traits which broaden and elevate humanity, not one was wanting. His religion was Calvinistic, but softened by a spirit of universal benevolence. Could he have controlled election by his human sym pathy, every soul would have been a candi date for immortal bliss, and every candidate would have been elected. Of all the forces