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for these newly-created offices. One of the judges was elected for the term of six years, another for the term of four years, and another for the term of two years. The one elected for the term of six years was to be considered as chief justice of the Supreme Court of the state. Joseph Henry Lumpkin was elected for that term, and is at this time doing much by his judicial attainments to give to the decisions of that court an honorable distinction, as well in Georgia as in other states of the Union.

The five other sons of John Lumpkin, Senior, namely, William, John, George, Henry Hopson, and Samuel, were all plain, substantial farmers, or planters, remarkable for their energy of character and sound practical sense. John, the third son, was highly esteemed among the Baptist denomination as a faithful and successful minister of the Gospel. Few men possessed more undivided influence over their congregations, and he was beloved by all who knew him.

George, the father of John H. Lumpkin, was the fourth son, and enjoyed but few early advantages of education. He was employed on his father's farm until he arrived at manhood, where he learned to labor, and acquired habits of industry that have never deserted him. Soon after his maturity he married Sarah Pope, the daughter of Henry Pope, who was a respecta ble planter, and resided in the county of Oglethorpe, not far from his father's residence. By this marriage he had issue two sons and three daughters.

John H. Lumpkin was the oldest son, and, when not more than five years of age, was sent to a neighboring school, and continued there, with occasional interruptions, until, in his tenth year, he was left without a mother. After her decease, his father married a second and a third time. His second wife, Frances Callaway, lived only six weeks after marriage. His third and present wife was Lucy Davis, by whom he had issue a son and daughter. The son, George, is now in the public service in the Post-office Department at Washington.

While his father was a widower, John H. Lumpkin was placed from home in the family of his uncle, Samuel Lumpkin, a farmer, from whom and his wife he received attention and kindness which made an ineffaccable impression on his memory. He speaks of them now in terms of the most grateful re

membrance. During his sojourn under their roof, he had no opportunity of going to school; but, upon his father's third marriage, the children having been taken home, he was again placed at school, and commenced learning Greek and Latin. He continued to prosecute these studies, with others, preparatory to admission into college, under the tuition of Messrs. Sherwood, Rhea, Alden, and Hopping, at the Hermon Academy, erected by his father and several other neighbors, for the purpose of educating their own children, without incurring the hazard and expense of sending them from home. But, for some reason or other, these pursuits became extremely irksome, and he asked his father's permission to leave school, that he might go into the field and perform daily labor with the slaves. His father assented to the proposition, but not without regret at the apparent disappointment of the hopes he had cherished for his son. He gave him the full benefit, however, of the most severe and constant labor. He was employed in the same duties, for the same number of hours, with other laborers of his own age and strength. No favors were shown to the son at the expense of the servant, but, whether in toil or repose, the same share was meted out to both. Before the close of the year, his father made an arrangement with John Landrum, a worthy gentleman, at that time clerk of the Supreme Court of Oglethorpe county, to employ his son in the office as assistant clerk. The terms of the engagement were, that his father was to board and clothe him, and that he was to have the benefit of Mr. Landrum's instruction in return for any assistance he could render in the office. He remained here one year, and acquired much valuable information. The associations to which this office introduced him, gave him, for the first time, a thirst for knowledge, and a desire for a regular education. His energies and ambition were awakened under the conviction that education and knowledge alone could give him position and elevation in life. His new-born views were readily sanctioned by his father, and he was sent immediately to Franklin College, Athens, Georgia, having been first admonished that to give him an education and a profession would be all that justice to the other members of the family would allow to be done for him, and that, beyond those benefits, he must look to his own exertions for advancement in life.

About this time his father became pious, attached himself to the Baptist denomination of Christians, and devoted himself to the study of the Scriptures. He was naturally a man of strong mind and vigorous intellect, remarkable for his energy and decision of character; and when these elements of mind and character were concentrated upon any given subject, action was inevitable. His improvement after his conversion was rapid, and he was in a very short time ordained as a Baptist minister. He has continued in that vocation for nearly twenty years. He holds a prominent place in the estimation of the denomination to which he belongs. He is beloved by all his congregations, and has frequently been elected moderator of the association to which he is attached. He still continues to plant cotton, and divides his time between his farm and three or four churches in the county, at each of which he has been called to preach as often as one Saturday and Sunday in each month. He now resides in the same county where he was born and reared, and where he raised his family.

After remaining at Franklin College about twelve months, John H. was sent, in 1830, to Yale College, Connecticut. While pursuing his studies there, he acted a conspicuous part in defending his native state against charges against her, growing out of the contest between the constituted authorities of Georgia (of which state his uncle, Wilson Lumpkin, was then governor) and the Cherokee Indians, in regard to her right to extend her laws and jurisdiction over the country then occupied by the Indians west of the Chattahoochee River. In the summer of 1832, upon the approach of the Asiatic cholera, the fac ulty at Yale College determined to suspend for a time all duties and instruction, and the students returned to their resi dences. Not long after his arrival at home, after an absence of upward of two years, his uncle, the governor, invited him to Milledgeville, offering him the appointment of secretary under him in the executive department, which he accepted. He remained in that office until July, 1833, when the state of his health required him to resign it. Having recovered, he enter ed the office of his uncle, Joseph Henry Lumpkin, and read law with him until March, 1834, when he was admitted to the bar as a counselor and attorney at law.

The laws of Georgia were then extended over the Cherokee

country west of the Chattahoochee River. The land had been surveyed and disposed of by lottery to the citizens of the state; the country had been divided into thirteen counties, and all the civil and military officers had been elected and commissioned for the purposes of justice and order. The Indians, however, were still residing in the territory, at their homes, and were protected by the laws of Georgia in the possession and enjoyment of their improvements. In the fall of 1835, the head men and chiefs of the Cherokee nation entered into a treaty with the United States, ceding their country to the general government for the use of Georgia, but providing that they should hold possession of their actual improvements for two years. At the expiration of the time designated by the treaty, the tribe were all removed together to their new homes in the West; but Mr. Lumpkin, immediately after his admission to the bar, removed to the county of Floyd, one of the new counties formed out of the country acquired from the Cherokees, and established himself in his profession. After a short residence there, and being then only twenty-three years of age, he was chosen by the people to represent them in the State Legislature. During its session, a charter was granted to the Central Rail-road Company, authorizing them to construct a road from Savannah to the city of Macon, in support of which project he is represented to have made a very successful effort. It was his first. Ever since then he has been the warm advocate of internal improvements by means of private capital, controlled by proper limitations. A year or two later, he was an active member of the Internal Improvement Convention held in the city of Macon, which projected the great Western and Atlantic Railroad from the Atlantic to the Tennessee River. During his term of service in the State Legislature he was the active friend of the most extended and useful system of common schools for the purposes of education; and, for the benefit of that portion of Georgia recently organized into counties out of the territory acquired from the Cherokee Indians, he introduced a bill making an appropriation of ten thousand dollars for the erection of academies. He succeeded in carrying this bill through; and, at an early day, a newly-erected and neatly-painted building might be seen at the court-house town in each county, a monument of the enlightened munificence of the Legislature in the

cause of education. He also urged upon that body an appropriation of ten thousand dollars for the improvement of the Coosa River, at the head of which is situated the town of Rome, then and now the place of his residence. The proposition was ridiculed. It was opposed, in debate, upon the ground that the removal of obstructions would prevent citizens, resident in the vicinity of the stream, from crossing over on foot-logs. And thus it failed. Yet now, a fine large steamboat, carrying hundreds of bales of cotton, is running constantly on that river; and it is said that the time is not far distant when North Alabama will annually send by its waters to the Georgia railroads at least twenty thousand bales of cotton for the markets of Charleston and Savannah.

In the month of February, 1836, Mr. Lumpkin married, at Milledgeville, Martha Antoinette, eldest daughter of Robert M'Combs, of that place. He continued the practice of his profession at Rome, Floyd county. By his marriage he had one son, but his wife died of consumption in September, 1838. In November of that year he was chosen by the Legislature, against many opponents, Solicitor General of the Cherokee Circuit of Georgia for the term of three years. It is conceded that he made a good prosecuting officer, and brought himself into much repute with the people of his district. At the session of the Legislature in 1839, in a convention of the Democratic party, he was for the first time, being then only twenty-eight years of age, nominated as a candidate for Congress. He ran before the whole people of Georgia (the election being by general ticket), and, although defeated, was among the highest on his own ticket. In May, 1840, he married his second wife, Mary Jane, daughter of Thomas Crutchfield, who resides at Athens, in the State of Tennessee. By this marriage he has three children living. In the spring of 1842, he was again nominated by the Democratic party as one of its candidates, to be run, by general-ticket election, for the twen ty-eighth Congress. He was elected, and took his seat.

In another place [see title, HowELL COBB], we have entered into some details respecting the conflict of State and Federal authority arising under the second section of the Apportionment Law. Mr. Lumpkin was one of the representatives from the State of Georgia who were elected to the twenty-eighth

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