WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1851
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most noted in Texas, and continued till the election of Pease to the governor- ship of the State in 1853. When Harris became a member of the Texas bar there were only four judicial districts. He and Pease divided the work of their office for greater efficiency and for their own convenience, Pease remaining permanently at Brazoria, while Harris attended the courts of the six counties composing their district. In this way the firm was able to practice in the most important cases that came before the courts of the district, and they began their practice before the Supreme Court of Texas in 1840, the first year of its organization. In 1839, Harris was elected to represent the County of Brazoria in the first Congress convened at Austin. When he was canvassing for the posi- tion, he advocated the abolition of the Civil, or Mexican law, then in use, which was written in a language unintelligible to the majority of the citi- zens, and contained in books, for the most part, beyond their reach. He urged the adoption of the common law as the law of the land. After his election, in due time, he introduced the bill for the repeal of the Mexican laws, and the adoption of the common law. There was considerable oppo- ation to the bill, chiefly on the grounds that the common law was not suffi- ciently liberal in its provisions regarding the rights of married women; but the bill passed in spite of the opposition. Then, to obviate all grounds of objection, Harris offered an amendment to the bill regulating marital rights. This feature of protection of the property rights of married women was incorporated five years later in the first Constitution of the State, and it was pronounced to be one of the grand legal discoveries of the age. Similar provisions have since been adopted by many of the States of the Union. In 1846, John W. Harris was appointed Attorney General of the new state by J. Pinckney Henderson, the first Governor of the State of Texas. He served so efficiently and conscientiously in this position that Governor Wood, Henderson's successor, reappointed him to the position, and in reply to the urgent application for the office by one of his staunchest supporters, said that the best interests of the State demanded the services of Mr. Harris. In 1852, Mr. Harris married Mrs. Annie P. Dallam, who was the only daughter of S. Rhoads Fisher. Her only child by Mr. Dallam, who was adopted by Mr. Harris, later became the· ,vife of his young law partner, Branch T. Masterson. Educated by men whose sentiments had been moulded by their associa- tion with Thomas Jefferson, John Harris was a staunch Democrat who loved the Union, disapproved of secession, and regarded the Civil War as entirely unnecessary; but he accepted it as better than what he considered a worse alternative. He was, therefore, a strong supporter of the Confederate cause. After the war had passed and the courts were reopened, he resumed his law practice in partnership ,vith Marcus F. Mott, and subsequently with Branch T. Masterson. But his private fortune had grown large, and he confined his personal practice to important cases in the higher courts. He was engaged in many of the most important cases in the 1870's and 1880's. (See James D. Lynch, Benck and Bar of Texas, 373-381, for some analysis of the more important of these cases.) But notwithstanding his constant use of case reference in his practice, John Woods Harris was more a text than a case lawyer, for he relied more on the principles of law than
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