to the payment of debts which he might have escaped with the sanction of the law was a common one in the troublous times of which we write, and in that symbol lies the chiefest glory of the civilization of the period which produced such men. There never was a time in the history of the world when so nearly a whole people regulated their daily conduct by what is best defined as "honor," as in the South during the epoch preceding and following the civil war.
Except his term as judge, Judge Wright held no office save that in 1847 he represented Giles County in the House of Representatives of the General Assembly, and at the end of the war he. with Judge McKinney and Francis B. Fogg, Esq., constituted a commission for enforcing the State's lien on the railways under the internal improvement acts.
His opinions as a judge were utterly without ostentation. He indulged in no elaborate discussion to display his learning or his reasoning power. He stated the controlling principle clearly and concisely, amplifying it only enough to show that in it was to be found the essence of justice. No man was more thoroughly familiar with the cases than he. He could almost recite the Tennessee Reports; but he disdained to make use of citations to authorities to any great extent. He sought for reasons, not precedents. His opinions had the unusual quality of ordinarily convincing the losing lawyer of his error. He had another quality in keeping with his nature. The opening sentence generally announced the decision of the case. He never indulged in the artifices used by judges to keep a lawyer in suspense as to the disposition of the case until he reaches the concluding sentence of the opinion.
As Judge Greer said to him, he used a rifle as a judge, but the shot-gun was his weapon as an advocate. In a very important case which had been on trial for several weeks before an able Federal judge, he filed brief after brief on the questions arising in the progress of the cause, until the number reached nine. One morning the judge, seeing a new brief prepared for filing, asked Judge Wright how it was that a judge whose opinions were models of terseness, should as a practitioner use such voluminous and numerous briefs. "Sir," he replied, "when I was a judge I had the power to say what the law was, and I said it as succinctly as possible; but in the trial of my causes I find it essential to be prepared on all points, be cause I don't know what a fool judge may decide."
He continued in full practice at the extreme age of seventy-four down until a few weeks before his death, his last years being as full of activity as his younger. As was said of him, "he loosened the hold on life, as a giant oak in green old age rushes to its fall."
When the business of the court was suspended because of the flagrant hostilities of the Civil War, it was composed of Judges Robert J. McKinney, Archibald Wright, and William F. Cooper, who had just been appointed in the stead of Judge Caruthers. Judge Cooper was sworn in, but never served as judge.
Nashville, the capital of the State, and which happened to be the place where the Supreme Court was last in session, was occupied by the forces of the Union on Feb. 25, 1862. A provisional military govern ment was set up under the authority of the United States, but there was no attempt to restore the civil State courts. The State was from that time forward disputed territory, and scarcely a week passed that there was not a battle within the borders. Aside from this fact, practically the whole State was under arms; from its white population of 825,000, it furnished 100,000 soldiers to the Confederate army and 30,000 to the Federal army.
The disastrous defeats of General Hood at the battles of Franklin and Nashville in the latter part of 1864, made the Federal occupation of Tennessee secure. Andrew Johnson had been acting as military governor of the
