THE SUPREME COURT OF TENNESSEE.
IV.
UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1870.
By Albert D. Marks.
Thomas J. Freeman was born July 19, 1827, in Gibson County, Tenn. He was of English descent. He was not a college-bred man, but he received a good academic education. He took up the study of law at Trenton, the county-seat of his native county, and was licensed to practise shortly after he became of age. He remained at Trenton until the breaking out of the war, when he enlisted in the Twenty-second Tennessee Regiment. He was elected its colonel. He was severely wounded at the battle of Shiloh. After recovering from his wound, he was attached to the command of General For rest, and served under him for the remainder of the war. After the surrender he removed to Brownsville, where the Supreme Court then sat for the western division of the State. He took high rank as a lawyer, and appeared as counsel in many cases of importance in that tribunal. When he offered as a candidate for Supreme Judge in 1870, he was readily elected. He was re-elected in 1878, after a close contest. He was defeated for re-election in 1886. He shortly afterward became Dean of the Law Department of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. His health failing, he sought much-needed rest at the home of his son in Dallas, Texas. He died there Sept. 16, 1891.
Judge Freeman had given especial attention to the subject of pleadings, both at law and in equity; and no judge ever sat on the bench in Tennessee who was more thoroughly versed in the difficult art of accurate pleading. He was a diligent student of constitutions. He took a leading part in the decision of the questions growing out of the new sections of the Constitution of 1870. He was for a strict construction of its provisions, and exercised great influence in carrying the court with him to a considerable extent. His extreme ideas, though, were not fully adopted; but he never failed to dissent when a position was taken not in accord with his views. This unbending quality caused him to frequently dissent. His dissenting opinions were among the best he delivered. He never appeared to such advantage as when attacking what he thought an error of his associates. In order to keep the error from becoming too firmly fixed, he seemed to deem it his duty to oppose it with all the force of his ability. It appeared to him that a fallacy of a judge should be more thoroughly refuted than that of a lawyer, and so he put a great deal of care and labor on the preparation of his dissents; and it must be said that he frequently made the right seem to be with him instead of with the majority.
In addition to his arduous labors as judge, Judge Freeman did a marvellous amount of general reading. He had early conceived a passion for books; and reading remained his pastime, and as he sometimes said, "his dissipation."
William Frierson Cooper was born in Franklin,. Tenn., March 11, 1820. His ancestors on both sides were Scotch-Irish, being of a colony that emigrated in the early part of the century from South Carolina, and settled in Maury and Williamson Counties. His father was a man of wealth. The son entered Yale College, graduating in the class of 1838, when but little past the age of eighteen. Among his many distinguished classmates was Gen. Francis P. Blair. After his graduation he determined on the
