nd the reunion of sundered ties be eternal.

Lumpkin served a few sessions in the Legislature, and retired from
public life to devote his entire attention to his profession. He had
married, almost as soon as he was admitted to the Bar, one to whom he
had been attached from boyhood, and the cares of a family were
increasing and demanding his attention and efforts. No man ever more
faithfully discharged these duties.

The judiciary of Georgia had consisted of two courts only--the
superior, and inferior or county court--from the organization of the
State. The country had long felt the want of a supreme court, for the
correction of errors, and to render uniform the decisions upon the law
throughout the State, which, under the prevailing system, had become
very diverse, and which was becoming grievously oppressive. Finally it
was determined by the Legislature to establish a supreme court. After
the passage of the law, however, its organization was incomplete for
the want of judges. Party was distracting the councils of the State,
and was carried into everything, and each party desired a controlling
influence in this court, and their united co-operation in selecting
judges could only be effected by the dominant party consenting to
Joseph H. Lumpkin's accepting the chief-justiceship. He consented to do
so, and the organization of the court was completed. This position,
under repeated elections, he continued to hold until the day of his
death, which occurred in the spring of 1867.

No man, perhaps, ever had the confidence of a people in the discharge
of a high judicial duty more than had Joseph H. Lumpkin. His public
duties were discharged with the most scrupulous conscientiousness, as
were all of those pertaining to his private life and relations. He died
in the neighborhood of his birth, and where he had continued to live
through his whole life, passing through time with the companions of his
childhood, and preserving their confidence and affection to the last.
His death was sudden, and deeply mourned throughout the State, which
had delighted so long to honor him. His name is identified with her
history, as one of her brightest and best men.

The talents of Judge Lumpkin were of a high order, and though he
distinguished himself as a jurist, they were certainly more fitted for
the forum than the bench. Those who knew him best, and who were best
fitted to judge, unite in the opinion that his eminence in political
life would