Wiley Pope Harris was an American lawyer, judge and politician. He was Circuit judge of the second district in Mississippi from 1844 to 1850.
Background
Wiley Pope Harris was born on November 9, 1818, in Pike County, Mississippi, the United States. He was the son of Robert Early and Mary Vivian Harrison Harris. His mother was the daughter of James Harrison of South Carolina, whose wife, Elizabeth, was the sister of the first General Wade Hampton. His father, a lineal descendant of Lawrence, grandfather of George Washington, was a man of wealth in Georgia but lost his property after moving to Mississippi Territory and died in 1821. Wiley Pope was adopted by his uncle, General Wiley Pope Harris, for whom he was named. General Harris moved from Pike to Copiah County and took up land in the forest at Georgetown on Pearl River.
Education
Wiley attended school at Columbus and Brandon. His uncle, Judge Buckner Harris, sent him to the University of Virginia where he began the study of law. He then studied law at Transylvania University in Kentucky in 1840, under Chief Justice George Robinson, Justice Marshall, and Judge A. K. Woollery.
Wiley Harris began to practice law in Gallatin, Tennessee, in 1840. From 1844 to 1850, he was a circuit court judge for the Second District and was considered the best judge in Tennessee. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1851.
He was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in 1853 and again in 1855. Harris moved to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1857 and was a secessionist delegate to the state convention in 1861. He attended the Montgomery convention in the same year, where he served in the provisional Confederate Congress.
A member of the Judiciary and Public Lands Committees, Wiley helped to draft the Confederate Constitution.
Harris declined further service in the Congress. In 1863, he served as the Conscription Bureau's representative in Mississippi, after which he retired to private life. When the war ended he revived his law practice.
In 1875, he supported cooperation with the Liberal Republicans in hopes of overthrowing the Adelbert Ames administration in Mississippi. Harris was a delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention in 1890.
Achievements
During his career, Wiley Harris gained the reputation of the ablest circuit judge in Mississippi state. He was a delegate from Lawrence County in the constitutional conventions of 1850, 1861, and 1890, known as the Union Conventions, and a member of the committee of thirteen which reported resolutions.
Politics
Harris was a member of the Democratic Party. He offered the amendment which made the Confederate government responsible for state debts, and he opposed submitting the Constitution for popular ratification. An early administration supporter, he subsequently blamed Davis for the army's failure to mount an offensive after the victory at First Manassas.
Personality
In addition to his profound legal learning, Harris had a sparkling and pungent wit which became proverbial throughout the state.
Connections
In 1851 Harris was married to Frances, daughter of Judge Daniel Mayes, a distinguished member of the Jackson bar.
