John Woods Harris

Background

John Harris was born in 1810 in Nelson County, Virginia, United States.

Education

John's early education, which was obtained at the rural school near his home, was very meager, but as he approached manhood he became fired with an ambition to secure an education and become a lawyer. Accordingly he spent a year in Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, and five more at the University of Virginia, where he graduated in 1837, having "attained distinguished proficiency” in the law.

Career

In 1837, soon after leaving the university, John Harris emigrated to the newly established republic of Texas and began the practice of law in Brazoria County. A little later he became affiliated with John A. Wharton and Elisha Marshall Pease, the former an outstanding man of the Texas Revolution, and the latter destined to serve the state as governor at two separate periods of its history.

In 1839 Harris was elected a member of the Congress of the Republic. In this capacity he had a profound influence on the laws of the new state. The common law as to criminal matters had been established by the constitution of the republic adopted in 1836. The act adopting the law also established, or kept in force, the "community property” system substantially as it existed in Spanish law. This was an innovation in Anglo-Saxon countries which was later adopted in several states of the Union. At the same session of Congress he secured the enactment of a number of other important laws, based largely on the statutes of Virginia.

When Texas became a state of the Union in 1846, Harris was appointed its first attorney general and was reappointed by the next governor. In this capacity he rendered signal serpee in defending the new constitution and statutes against hostile attacks in the courts.

In 1854 Governor Pease named him as one of the commissioners, along with James Willie and O. C. Hartley, to revise the laws of the state. The Penal code and code of criminal procedure drafted mainly by Willie and based on the codes drafted by Edward Livingston for the state of Louisiana were adopted by the legislature, but the code of civil procedure drafted by Hartley and the revised statutes prepared by Harris were not adopted.

Harris’ last public service was as a member of the Fourteenth Legislature, which met in 1874-1875 and passed the bill calling for the constitutional convention of 1875. He died in Galveston, where he had settled after the war.

Achievements

• John Harris was famous as an able lawyer. As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Congress he was instrumental in the early formation of the rules of law in the State of Texas. Harris introduced the bill, and secured its enactment into law, by which the existing Mexican laws were repealed and the common law of England was adopted in all civil matters.

Politics

In politics Harris was an ardent Democrat, and though he had opposed secession, he supported the Confederacy.

Connections

In 1852 Harris married Annie Pleasants (Fisher) Dalam, the daughter of S. Rhodes Fisher.

Spouse:

Annie Pleasants (Fisher) Dalam

Daughter:

Rebecca P. Harris

Daughter:

Elizabeth Byrd (Harris) Fisher

Son:

John Woods Harris