[1] Failing to graduate due to ill health,[2] he read law with an established firm in 1828.

[1] During the American Civil War, his service terminated on June 26, 1862, due to impeachment, conviction, and removal from office for support of the Confederacy.

[1] On May 19, 1862, the United States House of Representatives voted to impeach Humphreys on the following charges: publicly calling for secession; giving aid to an armed rebellion; conspiring with Jefferson Davis; serving as a Confederate judge; confiscating the property of Military Governor Andrew Johnson and United States Supreme Court Justice John Catron; and imprisoning a Union sympathizer with "intent to injure him.

"[2][4][5] On June 26, 1862, the United States Senate began the trial of the impeachment in his absence and later that day unanimously convicted him of all charges presented, except that of confiscating the property of Andrew Johnson.

[1] Following the end of the American Civil War, Humphreys resumed private practice in Nashville from 1866 to 1882.

Reportedly Morton initiated former Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest into the KKK.