Isham G. Harris of Tennessee

Isham Green Harris (1818-1897) was recognized by his contemporaries as a man of remarkable intellect, energy and unsurpassed political acumen, he was, with exception of his bitter personal and political enemy, Andrew Johnson, the predominant member of Tennessee's predominant political party in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. ¶ Best known as Tennessee's Confederate "War Governor," he rose to prominence in the 1850's as the leader of the southern rights wing of the Democratic Party. During the secession crisis of 1861, he used his political influence and constitutional power as governor to trample on the Tennessee constitution in order to align Tennessee with the Confederacy; he tirelessly supported the Confederate war effort. When the war ended, his Unionist enemies placed a price on his head, and he went into voluntary exile in Mexico. ¶ Returning home in late 1867, Harris eventually became the best known of the state's Bourbon Democrats. He was elected United States Senator in 1877, and remained in that office until his death in 1897.