I

John Wesley Akin.

NTO the unrest and hardships of the period immediately

preceding the Civil War and consequent upon it, a number

of men were born destined, as if by Divine appointment, to compose the civil, industrial and political difficulties which resulted. Among these men none rose to higher distinction than John Wesley Akin, who was born in Cassville, Ga., June 10, 1859. He was the child of Col. Warren Akin who married Mary de Verdery, of Augusta, Ga. His father was one of the most distinguished and successful lawyers the State ever produced, and his mother a woman of unusual gifts and culture.

The primary education of Judge Akin was received at his mother's hands and in the common and high schools of the day. At fifteen years of age he went to Emory College where he was graduated in 1877 with distinction, being the Boynton medalist of his class. He was admitted to the bar in his nineteenth year, rapidly winning, and holding to the last, a commanding position and remunerative practice. But he was more than a successful advocate, for he developed unusual ability as a writer upon the fundamental questions and principles of the law and of politics.

He was one of the editors of the Van Epps-Akin "Digest of Georgia Reports," and his "Aggressions of Federal Courts" had a wide circulation in the law journals of the United States and Canada. The Legislature of Wyoming published five thousand copies of this essay for circulation in the State, and one hundred thousand were distributed in Kansas alone. "The Fourth Form of Government" delivered before the literary societies of Emory College at Oxford, Ga., in 1897 was prophetic

of impending centraiizing manifestations of capital, and xa it he advised safeguards and reforms afterwards adopted is political platforms- A* secretary, and, thereafter, president of the Georgia Bar Association, his influence as a jurist became Stat*-wide. He was Judge of the City Court of Cartersrille by tbe unsolicited appointment of Governor Atkinson, and was suoeessrvely a member of the House of Representatives and a Senator of his native State. Here his gifts and force of character were so pronounced that he was elected President of the Senate, a* well >o iho ground of his knowledge of parliamentary law as upon his incorTuptibility and impartiality; and the eyes of the State were fixed upon him as a man worthy and sure of the highest political preferment.

Notwithstanding this busy and successful professional life, ho found :ime to indulge a taste for general literature and ar• rived at i oVscve of vulture which marked few men of his genera. tion. Among bi< strongest orations and papers of a general character may be mentioned "The Shackling of Jefferson Davis," "The Real John Marshall." "Masonry and Immortality" and "Sidney Lanier."

This outline of labors shows how great a force he was, but the results of his conspicuous service to his State are the more creditable to him in the light of the frailty of his body, and actual illness the Iast three or Jour vears of his life. Never strong, he yet. by a rnirv"'"-* -• \^eaee and fortitude brought his generation under obligations which. it is very agreeable to record, were, in this case, at least, gratefully acknowledged. The various position* of trust in w*ieb he was placed by the people in life, and the deep and wuSespread sorrow reflected at his funeral and in the press at his death, evidence the great respect felt for him and are a solace to bis family and friends now that his earthly career is closed.