commanding presence at once brought him great popular support, and he was readily elected as the colleague of Judge Freeman for the Western Division. He failed of re-election in 1878, but he was shortly afterward appointed by Governor Marks as a judge of the Court of Arbitration, a tribunal established to relieve the Supreme Court of its accumulated cases, to which appealed cases might be submitted by consent, its decree to be made the decree of the Supreme Court. In 1883, on the creation of the Commission of Referees, which succeeded the Court of Arbitration as a means of relief of the Supreme Court, he was made a member of the commission for East Tennessee. Judge Sneed was an unsuccessful candidate for United States Senator in 1887. He now lives in quiet retirement in his home near Memphis.
Judge Sneed is essentially a lover of the aesthetic. Added to this is the quality of great dash and bravery; and the two combined give to him and his character a dramatic appearance. In whatever he writes or says, he appears well. His judicial opinions are more than bare statements of legal propositions. He delights in classical and poetical illustrations, and rhetorical figures abound in his opinions, illuminating the position he has taken.
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THOMAS A. R. NELSON
Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson was born in Roane County, Tenn., March 19, 1812. His father afterward removed to Knoxville; and here the son entered East Tennessee College, graduating when sixteen years old. He studied law under Chancellor Thos. L. Williams, and, being admitted to practice, opened an office at Elizabethton, practising over the First Circuit, which lay in upper East Tennessee. In 1833 Governor Carroll appointed him Attorney-General for that circuit, and the Legislature twice elected him to the same office. In 1844 he was a district elector for Henry Clay, and in 1848 for Zachary Taylor. In 1851 President Fillmore tendered him the position of Commissioner of the United States to China, to succeed Hon. Caleb Gushing; but he declined it. In 1858 he was elected to Congress, defeating Landen С. Haynes, one of East Tennessee's most brilliant orators. Upon entering Congress, the fact that he was serving his first term was not suffered to obscure his talents; but he took an active part in the contest over the organization that ended in the election of Wm. Pennington as Speaker. He made great reputation as a powerful debater. The London "Times" published in full his speech on the organization of the house, pronouncing it "the finest forensic effort of American law-givers." He was an adherent of the Union. The vote that carried secession in the State came from Middle and West Tennessee. East Tennessee had opposed it by a large majority. And after it was apparent the State would secede, a Union convention met at Knoxville on May 30, 1861, of which Mr. Nelson was president, and which declared its fealty to the United States, and passed a
