of the leading criminal attorneys in the state. On July 6, 1843, Harris married Martha Mariah Travis (nicknamed "Crockett"), the daughter of Major Edward Travis, a War of 1812 veteran. The couple had seven sons. By 1850 the family had a farm and a home in Paris. By 1860 their total property was worth $45,000 and included twenty slaves and a plantation in Shelby County. In 1847, Henry County Democrats convinced Harris to run for the district's Tennessee Senate seat in hopes of countering a strong campaign by local Whig politician William Hubbard. Anti-war comments made in August by the district's Whig congressional candidate, William T. Haskell, damaged Hubbard's campaign, and he quit the race. Harris easily defeated the last minute Whig replacement, Joseph Roerlhoe. Shortly after taking his seat, he sponsored a resolution condemning the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery in territories acquired during the Mexican–American War. In 1848, Harris was an elector for unsuccessful presidential candidate Lewis Cass. In May of that year, he engaged in a six-hour debate in Clarksville with Aaron Goodrich, elector for Zachary Taylor. Harris was nominated as the Democratic candidate for the state's 9th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1849. After successfully tying his opponent to unpopular positions of the national Whig Party, Harris won the election easily. He spent much of his term attacking the Compromise of 1850, though he also chaired the House Committee on Invalid Pensions. Harris was re-elected to a second term, but after Whigs gained control of the state legislature in 1851, his district was gerrymandered, and he did not seek a third term. Governor of Tennessee In 1856, Harris was chosen as the presidential elector for the state's at-large district, a position that required him to canvass the state on behalf of Democratic candidate James Buchanan. He largely outshone the district's Whig elector, ex-Governor Neill S. Brown. This campaign elevated Harris to statewide prominence. In 1857, Tennessee's Democratic governor, Andrew Johnson, was seriously injured in a train accident and was unable to run for reelection. Harris was nominated as his replacement and embarked on a campaign that included a series of debates with his opponent, Robert H. Hatton. With sectional strife in Congress fueling both campaigns, these debates were often heated, and fights frequently broke out among spectators (and in one instance, between Harris and Hatton). Hatton was unable to distance