Isham G . Harris Isham Green Harris ( February 10 , 1818July 8 , 1897 ) was an American politician who served as Governor of Tennessee from 1857 to 1862 , and as a U . S . Senator from 1877 until his death . He was the state ' s first governor from West Tennessee . A pivotal figure in the state ' s history , Harris was considered by his contemporaries the person most responsible for leading Tennessee out of the Union and aligning it with the Confederacy during the Civil War . Harris rose to prominence in state politics in the late 1840s when he campaigned against the anti - slavery initiatives of northern Whigs . He was elected governor amidst rising sectional strife in the late 1850s , and following the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 , persistently sought to sever the state ' s ties with the Union . His war - time efforts eventually raised over 100 , 000 soldiers for the Confederate cause . After the Union Army gained control of Middle and West Tennessee in 1862 , Harris spent the remainder of the war on the staffs of various Confederate generals . Following the war , he spent several years in exile in Mexico and England . After returning to Tennessee , Harris became a leader of the state ' s Bourbon Democrats . During his tenure in the U . S . Senate , he championed states ' rights and currency expansion . As the Senate ' s president pro tempore in the 1890s , Harris led the charge against President Grover Cleveland ' s attempts to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act . Early life and career . Harris was born in Franklin County , Tennessee near Tullahoma . He was the ninth child of Isham Green Harris , a farmer and Methodist minister , and his wife Lucy Davidson Harris . His parents had moved from North Carolina to Middle Tennessee in 1806 . He was educated at Carrick Academy in Winchester , Tennessee , until he was fourteen . He moved to Paris , Tennessee , where he joined up with his brother William , an attorney , and became a store clerk . In 1838 , with funds provided by his brother , Harris established his own business in Ripley , Mississippi , an area that had only been recently opened to settlers after a treaty with the Chickasaw Indians . While in Ripley , Harris studied law . He sold his successful business three years later for $ 7 , 000 and returned to Paris where he continued studying law under Judge Andrew McCampbell . On May 3 , 1841 , he was admitted to the bar in Henry County and began a lucrative practice in Paris . He was considered one of the leading criminal attorneys in the state . On July 6 , 1843 , Harris married Martha Mariah Travis ( nicknamed " Crockett " ) , the daughter of Major Edward Travis , a War of 1812 veteran . The couple had seven sons . By 1850 the family had a farm and a home in Paris . By 1860 their total property was worth $ 45 , 000 and included twenty slaves and a plantation in Shelby County . In 1847 , Henry County Democrats convinced Harris to run for the district ' s Tennessee Senate seat in hopes of countering a strong campaign by local Whig politician William Hubbard . Anti - war comments made in August by the district ' s Whig congressional candidate , William T . Haskell , damaged Hubbard ' s campaign , and he quit the race . Harris easily defeated the last minute Whig replacement , Joseph Roerlhoe . Shortly after taking his seat , he sponsored a resolution condemning the Wilmot Proviso , which would have banned slavery in territories acquired during the Mexican - American War . In 1848 , Harris was an elector for unsuccessful presidential candidate Lewis Cass . In May of that year , he engaged in a six - hour debate in Clarksville with Aaron Goodrich , elector for Zachary Taylor . Harris was nominated as the Democratic candidate for the state ' s 9th District seat in the U . S . House of Representatives in 1849 . After successfully tying his opponent to unpopular positions of the national Whig Party , Harris won the election easily . He spent much of his term attacking the Compromise of 1850 , though he also chaired the House Committee on Invalid Pensions . Harris was reelected to a second term , but after Whigs gained control of the state legislature in 1851 , his district was gerrymandered , and he did not seek a third term . Governor of Tennessee . In 1856 , Harris was chosen as the presidential elector for the state ' s at - large district , a position that required him to canvass the state on behalf of Democratic candidate James Buchanan . He largely outshone the district ' s Whig elector , ex - Governor Neill S . Brown . This campaign elevated Harris to statewide prominence . In 1857 , Tennessee ' s Democratic governor , Andrew Johnson , was seriously injured in a train accident , and was unable to run for reelection . Harris was nominated as his replacement , and embarked on a campaign that included a series of debates with his opponent , Robert H . Hatton . With sectional strife in Congress fueling both campaigns , these debates were often heated , and fights frequently broke out among spectators ( and in one instance , between Harris and Hatton ) . Hatton was unable to distance himself from northern abolitionists , and Harris won the election by a vote of 71 , 178 to 59 , 807 . Harris ' s victory was not only the death knell for the state ' s Know Nothing s , who had briefly risen to prominence following the collapse of the national Whig Party , but also represented a shift in Tennessee politics toward the Democratic Party . During the previous two decades , Whigs and Democrats had been evenly matched statewide , with Whigs controlling East Tennessee , Democrats controlling Middle Tennessee , and the two parties evenly split in West Tennessee . The nationwide debate over the Kansas - Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott case pushed the issue of slavery to the forefront in the mid - 1850s , and the balance in West Tennessee was tipped in favor of the Democrats . Harris ' s 11 , 000 vote victory was relatively large , considering his predecessor , Johnson , had won by just over 2 , 000 votes in both 1853 and 1855 . In 1859 , Harris ran for reelection against John Netherland , who had been nominated by a hodge - podge group of ex - Whigs , ex - Know Nothings , and disgruntled Democrats , known as the Opposition Party . Harris again campaigned on fears of northern domination , while Netherland argued that the U . S . Constitution provided the best protection for Southern rights , and thus it was in the state ' s interest to remain in the Union . On election day , Harris prevailed by over 8 , 000 votes . The Opposition Party , however , showed its strength by capturing 7 of the state ' s 10 congressional seats . Secession and the Civil War . Harris endorsed John C . Breckinridge for president in 1860 , and warned that the state must consider secession if the " wreckless fanatics of the north " should gain control of the federal government . Following Lincoln ' s election in November , Harris convened a special session of the legislature on January 7 , 1861 , which ordered a statewide referendum on whether or not Tennessee should consider secession . Pro - Union newspapers assailed Harris ' s actions as treasonous . The Huntingdon " Carroll Patriot " wrote that Harris was more deserving of the gallows than Benedict Arnold . William " Parson " Brownlow , editor of the " Knoxville Whig " , particularly despised Harris , calling him " Eye Sham " and " King Harris , " and slammed his actions as autocratic . When the referendum was held in February , Tennesseans rejected secession by a vote of 68 , 000 to 59 , 000 . Following the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861 , President Lincoln ordered Harris to furnish 50 , 000 soldiers for the suppression of the rebellion . Reading his response to Lincoln before a raucous crowd in Nashville on April 17 , Harris said , " Not a single man will be furnished from Tennessee , " and stated he would rather cut off his right arm than sign the order . On April 25 , Harris addressed a special session of the state legislature , stating that the Union had been destroyed by the " bloody and tyrannical policies of the Presidential usurper , " and called for an end to the state ' s ties to the United States . Shortly afterward , the legislature authorized Harris to enter into a compact with the new Confederate States of America . In May 1861 , Harris began organizing and raising soldiers for what would become the Army of Tennessee . That same month , a steamboat , the " Hillman " , which was carrying a shipment of lead to Nashville from St . Louis , was seized by the Governor of Illinois . In response , Harris seized $ 75 , 000 from the customs office in Nashville . On June 8 , 1861 , Tennesseans voted in favor of the Ordinance of Secession , 104 , 913 to 47 , 238 . A group of pro - Union leaders in East Tennessee , which had rejected the Ordinance , petitioned Harris to allow the region to break away from the state and remain with the Union . Harris rejected this , and sent troops under Felix K . Zollicoffer into East Tennessee . In the gubernatorial election later that year , William H . Polk , brother of former President James K . Polk , ran against Harris on a pro - Union ticket , but was defeated 75 , 300 to 43 , 495 . The Union Army invaded Tennessee in November 1861 , and had gained control of Nashville by February of the following year . Harris and the state legislature moved to Memphis , but after that city fell , Harris joined the staff of General Albert Sidney Johnston . At the Battle of Shiloh on April 6 , Harris found Johnston slumping in his saddle and asked if he was wounded , to which Johnston replied " Yes , I fear gravely so . " Harris and other staff officers moved the general to a small ravine and attempted to render aid , but Johnston died within a few minutes . Harris and the others secretly moved his body to Shiloh Church so as not to damage the morale of Confederate troops . Harris spent the remainder of the war as an aide - de - camp on the staffs of various Confederate generals , among them Joseph E . Johnston , Braxton Bragg , John B . Hood , and P . G . T . Beauregard . Andrew Johnson was appointed military governor by President Lincoln in March 1862 , though Harris was still recognized as governor by the Confederacy . In 1863 , Tennessee ' s Confederates elected Robert L . Caruthers as a successor to Harris , but Caruthers never took office . Harris was still issuing edicts as governor as late as November 1864 . After the war , the United States Congress passed a joint resolution allowing the governor of Tennessee to offer a reward for the apprehension of Harris because he was “ guilty of treason , perjury and theft ” . Brownlow , who had become governor , issued a warrant for the arrest of Harris and placed a $ 5 , 000 bounty on him . Brownlow taunted Harris in the warrant , stating , " His eyes are deep and penetrating — a perfect index to a heart of a traitor — with the scowl and frown of a demon resting upon his brow . His study of mischief and the practice of crime have brought upon him premature baldness and a gray beard . " He further noted that Harris " chews tobacco rapidly and is inordinately fond of liquors . " Harris fled to Mexico , where he and several other ex - Confederates attempted to rally with Emperor Maximilian . After Maximilian ' s fall in 1867 , however , Harris was again forced to flee , this time to England . Later that year , after learning Brownlow would rescind the warrant , Harris returned to Tennessee . Passing through Nashville , he called on Brownlow , who is said to have greeted him with the statement , " While the lamp holds out to burn , the vilest sinner may return . " Afterward , he returned to Memphis to practice law . United States Senate . By 1877 , the Tennessee state legislature , which was once again controlled by Democrats , elected Harris to one of the state ' s U . S . Senate seats . One of his earliest assignments , in the 46th Congress ( 1879 – 1881 ) , was the District of Columbia Committee . Subsequent assignments included the Committee on Epidemic Diseases in the 49th Congress through the 52nd Congress ( 1885 – 1893 ) and the Committee on Private Land Claims in the 54th and 55th Congresses ( 1895 – 1897 ) . During his first term in the Senate , Harris became the leader of Tennessee ' s Bourbon Democrats , a wing of the Democratic Party that generally supported laissez - faire capitalism and the gold standard . As such , Harris spent his early Senate career advocating strict constructionism and limited government , states ' rights , and low tariffs . In 1884 , he was interviewed by President - elect Grover Cleveland for a cabinet position . In 1887 , he gave an impassioned speech in favor of the repeal of the Tenure of Office Act . In 1890 , Harris denounced the Lodge Act , which would have protected voting rights for African - Americans in the South , arguing that it violated states ' rights . Though a Bourbon Democrat , Harris , representing an agrarian state , was also a " Silver Democrat , " believing pro - silver policies protected farmers . He supported the Bland - Allison Act of 1878 , which authorized the federal government to purchase silver to prevent deflation in crop prices . He also supported the act ' s replacement , the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 . In 1893 , President Cleveland , concerned that the Sherman Act was depleting the U . S . gold supply , sought its repeal . When the vote came up in the Senate in October , Harris , as president pro tempore , launched a filibuster in hopes of preventing the act ' s repeal , but was unsuccessful . Disgruntled over the repeal of the Sherman Act , Harris campaigned for unsuccessful presidential candidate and gold standard opponent William Jennings Bryan in 1896 . Death and legacy . Harris died in office on July 8 , 1897 . His funeral was held in the Senate chamber of the United States Capitol and he is interred at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis , where many prominent West Tennessee political figures are buried .