Lumpkin served a few sessions in the Legislature, and retired from public life to devote his entire attention to his profession.  He had married, almost as soon as he was admitted to the Bar, one to whom he had been attached from boyhood, and the cares of a family were increasing and demanding his attention and efforts.  No man ever more faithfully discharged these duties.

The judiciary of Georgia had consisted of two courts only—­the superior, and inferior or county court—­from the organization of the State.  The country had long felt the want of a supreme court, for the correction of errors, and to render uniform the decisions upon the law throughout the State, which, under the prevailing system, had become very diverse, and which was becoming grievously oppressive.  Finally it was determined by the Legislature to establish a supreme court.  After the passage of the law, however, its organization was incomplete for the want of judges.  Party was distracting the councils of the State, and was carried into everything, and each party desired a controlling influence in this court, and their united co-operation in selecting judges could only be effected by the dominant party consenting to Joseph H. Lumpkin’s accepting the chief-justiceship.  He consented to do so, and the organization of the court was completed.  This position, under repeated elections, he continued to hold until the day of his death, which occurred in the spring of 1867.

No man, perhaps, ever had the confidence of a people in the discharge of a high judicial duty more than had Joseph H. Lumpkin.  His public duties were discharged with the most scrupulous conscientiousness, as were all of those pertaining to his private life and relations.  He died in the neighborhood of his birth, and where he had continued to live through his whole life, passing through time with the companions of his childhood, and preserving their confidence and affection to the last.  His death was sudden, and deeply mourned throughout the State, which had delighted so long to honor him.  His name is identified with her history, as one of her brightest and best men.

The talents of Judge Lumpkin were of a high order, and though he distinguished himself as a jurist, they were certainly more fitted for the forum than the bench.  Those who knew him best, and who were best fitted to judge, unite in the opinion that his eminence in political life would have been greater than that which distinguished him as a judge.  He was a natural orator, and his oratory was of the highest order.  His ideas flowed too fast for the pen, and he thought more vividly when on his feet, and in the midst of a multitude, than when in the privacy of his chamber.  His language was naturally ornate and eloquent, and the stream of thought which flowed on in declamation, brightened and grew, in its progress, to a mighty volume.  This, with the fervor of intense feeling which distinguished his efforts, made