affairs. He authored only forty-six opinions, many of which were in patent disputes or other insignificant cases. He left Washington hoping that a better climate would aid his health but returned to the capital after the remaining eight justices split 4–4 in Pollock. Yet Jackson ended up dissenting in the landmark income tax case, likely because of a change in another justice's vote. While Jackson's opinion in Pollock kept him from total obscurity in the annals of history, the journey to Washington also worsened his health considerably: he died on August 8, 1895, only eleven weeks after the ruling was handed down. Early life and career Jackson was born in Paris, Tennessee, on April 8, 1832. His parents, natives of Virginia, moved to Tennessee in 1827. Jackson's father, Alexander, was a university-trained physician in a time when professional medical training was rare. A Whig, Alexander later served in the Tennessee legislature and as mayor of Jackson, Tennessee. The Jackson family moved to Madison County, Tennessee, in 1840. Howell Jackson enrolled at Western Tennessee College, where he studied Greek and Latin. After graduating in 1850, he pursued post-graduate studies at the University of Virginia for two years. Jackson then read law with A. W. O. Totten, a justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court, and with attorney and former U.S. Congressman Milton Brown. He next entered Cumberland Law School, graduating in 1856 after one year's study. Jackson was admitted to the bar that same year and began practicing law in the town of Jackson. His work there appears to have been largely unsuccessful, and he moved to the larger city of Memphis, Tennessee, in 1857. There he established a joint legal practice with David M. Currin, who later served as a Confederate congressman. The firm was successful, and it provided Jackson with experience in corporate litigation. Tennessee seceded from the Union in 1861. Although Jackson had opposed secession, he supported the Southern side in the war that followed. Judge West H. Humphreys appointed Jackson to enforce Confederate sequestration law in western Tennessee, placing him in charge of confiscating and selling the property of Union loyalists. Extant newspaper accounts show Jackson auctioned off a wide variety of property, including almonds, pickles, chairs, alcohol, tobacco and dried peaches. Just before the Union recaptured Memphis in 1862, Jackson fled with his family to LaGrange, Georgia. He attempted unsuccessfully to secure a position in the Confederate