Isham G. Harris

Isham G. Harris
Photograph of Harris by Mathew Brady
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
In office
January 10, 1895 – March 3, 1895
Preceded byMatt W. Ransom
Succeeded byWilliam P. Frye
In office
March 22, 1893 – January 7, 1895
Preceded byCharles F. Manderson
Succeeded byMatt W. Ransom
United States Senator
from Tennessee
In office
March 4, 1877 – July 8, 1897
Preceded byHenry Cooper
Succeeded byThomas B. Turley
16th Governor of Tennessee
In office
November 3, 1857 – March 12, 1862[a]
Preceded byAndrew Johnson
Succeeded byAndrew Johnson
as Military Governor
Member of the
U.S. House of Representatives
from Tennessee's 9th district
In office
March 4, 1849 – March 3, 1853
Preceded byLucien B. Chase
Succeeded byEmerson Etheridge
Member of the Tennessee Senate
In office
1847–1849
Personal details
Born(1818-02-10)February 10, 1818
Franklin County, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedJuly 8, 1897(1897-07-08) (aged 79)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Resting placeElmwood Cemetery,
Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
35°07′19.0″N 90°01′38.7″W / 35.121944°N 90.027417°W / 35.121944; -90.027417
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseMartha Mariah Travis
ProfessionMerchant, Attorney
Signature

Isham Green Harris (February 10, 1818 – July 8, 1897) was an American and Confederate politician who served as the 16th 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.[1][2][3]

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.[4]

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.[5]


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  1. ^ Allan Nevins, Grover Cleveland: A Study in Courage (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1934), pp. 194, 256, 543-546, 576.
  2. ^ Philip Hamer, Tennessee: A History, 1673-1932 (New York: American Historical Society, Inc., 1933), pp. 508, 513–514, 527–528, 534, 539–546, 554, 591, 639.
  3. ^ Oliver Perry Temple, Notable Men of Tennessee (New York: The Cosmopolitan Press, 1912), p. 337.
  4. ^ Leonard Schlup, "Isham Green Harris," Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2009. Retrieved: 5 October 2012.
  5. ^ Leonard Schlup, "Isham Green Harris," Historical Dictionary of the Gilded Age (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2003), pp. 216–217.