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1. J. P. Young, Standard History of Memphis, Tennessee (Knoxville: H. W. Crew, 1912), 80–81, 92, 94; Gerald M. Capers Jr., The Biography of a River Town, Memphis: Its Heroic Age (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1939), 107–8, 111, 132. 2. Memphis Daily Appeal, July 6, July 26, September 26, December 17, 1854. 2 “MY BUSINESS WILL BE TO ADVOCATE THE PRINCIPLES AND PLATFORM OF DEMOCRACY” 1854–1860 When Green Harris took up his law practice in Memphis in 1854, the city had grown substantially from the small, rough river town of just a few years before. The census of 1840 showed a total free population of 1,799, with 221 slaves. By 1850, the population had grown to 8,841, and by 1854, thanks in part to expansion of the corporate boundaries, to 12,687. It teemed with commerce and the business class that went with it and a number of Irish immigrants in the 1850s soon provided a white underclass more numerous than the African American slaves. Further , as it always had, the river brought native whites who frequented a number of lower-class establishments where law and order was at best tenuous. Yet, muddy roads were planked, schools opened, and, a marvel for the time and place, fivestory commercial buildings were erected.1 All of the business activity and growing population made Memphis a fertile area for a number of business and professional endeavors. The front page of the Memphis Appeal in mid-1854 published the names of cotton factors and commission merchants, doctors, confectionaries, hotels, steamboats, and, of course, lawyers . Among those of the bar publishing their cards was the firm of “W. R. & I. G. Harris,” noting that their office was that previously occupied by another person and “nearly opposite [the] Odd Fellow’s Hall.”2 The Harris law practice prospered, and Green continued to build his reputation as a lawyer. In August 1855, the sheriff of Shelby County sought an opinion from prominent members of the bar construing the provisions of a statute relating 0 32 / isham g. harris of tennessee 3. “Grim Death Claims a Great Statesman”; letter from Farrington et al., Memphis Daily Appeal, August 1, 1855; “Tribute of Respect to the Memory of the Hon. William R. Harris, Late One of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Tennessee,” 37 Tenn. (5 Sneed) 731, 734; Caldwell, Sketches of the Bench and Bar of Tennessee, 159–60; “Hon. W. R. Harris—Supreme Judge,” Memphis Daily Appeal, September 26, 1855; “The Election Today,” Memphis Daily Appeal, December 1, 1855; “The Vote for the Judge of the Supreme Court,” Memphis Daily Appeal, December 19, 1854; W. R. and I. G. Harris advertisement , Memphis Daily Appeal, December 1, 1855. 4. “Memphis,” Memphis Daily Appeal, February 22, 1855; Harris letter, Memphis Daily Appeal, March 1, 1855; “The Democratic Meeting at Collierville,” Memphis Daily Appeal, October 26, 1855. to voter eligibility. Harris, a member of the local bar for less than two years, joined seven other attorneys in rendering advice. William appears to have split his time between the practice and a local judicial position he first occupied in 1851. A vacancy occurred on the Tennessee Supreme Court, and perhaps in recognition of William’s legal ability, or perhaps as an olive branch to warm what were probably cool relations with Green, Governor Andrew Johnson appointed William to the post on August 22, 1855. Considered by his fellow lawyers as “able, astute and discriminating ,” William was elected to a full eight-year term that December. Even after his brother went on the bench, Green continued, at least for a period, to advertise the firm with William’s name joined with his.3 Although Green Harris moved to Memphis in part to escape politics, he continued to keep a high political profile. An overzealous fellow Democrat wrote the Appeal in February 1855 touting Harris’s qualifications for an open state Senate seat. Having resumed his practice, and having recently been a possible candidate for governor, it was not likely a former congressman would accept a state Senate seat. Harris wrote the paper a few days later expressing his appreciation: “I cannot, under any circumstances, consent to become a candidate for the Senate .” Harris kept his name at the forefront of the party, however, as he spoke on at least one occasion at a Democratic meeting.4 Harris’s desire to grow his law practice inevitably came into conflict with his party loyalty. In...

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