JOSEPH HENRY LUMPKIN: GEORGIA'S FIRST CHIEF JUSTICE

As I read Paul DeForest Hicks' biography of Chief Justice Joseph Henry Lumpkin (University of Georgia Press, 2002), I couldn't help but think about the opening scroll of the movie Gone With the Wind:

"There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South.  Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow.  Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave.  Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind . . ."

The Georgia which Joseph Henry Lumpkin knew seems both familiar and remote.  Familiar in the sense that reference is made to familiar places, and I have practiced law before the institution which Lumpkin headed, the Supreme Court of Georgia.  As a student of history, I am familiar with the historical background to Lumpkin's legal career.  But the world of Lumpkin seems impossibly remote and strange to a twenty first century lawyer.

Chief Justice Joseph Henry Lumpkin (1799-1867)

Lumpkin (1799-1867) was already a prominent Georgia lawyer and politician when he was appointed to serve as one of the first three judges of the new Georgia Supreme Court in 1845.  There was much resistance in Georgia to the creation of an appellate court of any kind, and throughout the early years of the Court's existence it was always under the threat of being abolished by the General Assembly.

The resistance to any type of appellate court came out of Georgia's hostility to the early decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.  From the time of the American Revolution until the creation of the Supreme Court in 1845, Georgia had no appellate court and each Superior Court Judge reigned sovereign within his own circuit.  This, of course, created a mess in which the law was one thing in one Judicial Circuit and different in another according to the whim of each trial judge.

For years, lawyers in Georgia advocated the creation of a Supreme Court to correct legal errors from the local courts.  The hostility to the Federal Supreme Court, however, was such that it took until 1845 for a Supreme Court to finally be created.

Appointment to the new Supreme Court was more of a burden than an honor.  The Court had no permanent home but was required by statute to conduct hearings all over the State.  In the conditions of the mid nineteenth century, with travel by horseback over primitive roads, the Supreme Court judges' most difficult task was the constant travel to ride circuit over a huge state.

Lumpkin, as the oldest and most respected of the three judges, was chosen to serve as Presiding Judge from the creation of the Court.  The position of Chief Justice was not formally created until 1863 during the height of the Civil War.

Lumpkin was a devout Presbyterian.  Lumpkin was a "tea-totaller" and a promoter of the Temperance Movement.  As a young man, Lumpkin had been a liberal on the slavery issue who advocated gradual emancipation and re-colonization of blacks to Africa.  As he became older, Lumpkin hardened his opinions and became a staunch advocate of slavery and secession from the Union.

Lumpkin began his political career as a supporter of the Jacksonian populist Governor George M. Troup.  As a Troup supporter and advocate of States Rights, Lumpkin first came to prominence as a member of the Georgia Legislature and then as a  prominent lawyer.  His older brother, Wilson Lumpkin, served as Governor of Georgia.  Lumpkin and his wife, Callendar Grieves Lumpkin, had thirteen children.

In all, Lumpkin served on the Georgia Supreme Court for twenty two years.  He was the founder of the Law School at the University of Georgia, which was originally known as the Lumpkin Law School.  As a Judge, Lumpkin was progressive on economic and business issues, and conservative on social questions.  Reconciled to defeat, at the end of his life, Lumpkin urged his fellow Georgians to reconcile themselves to the Union as quickly as possible.

Lumpkin's life was one of long and distinguished service to his God, his family, and his native State.