[2] In December 1836, at the age of 33, Harris was appointed by Governor Newton Cannon to a seat on the Tennessee Ninth Circuit court vacated by the resignation of Judge John W. Cook.
[2] Following the death of Judge William B. Turley, he was appointed to that seat on the Common Law and Chancery Court, and was afterward elected to that office.serving from 1851 to 1855.
[2] In August 1855, Governor Andrew Johnson appointed Harris to a seat on the state supreme court vacated by the resignation of Archibald W. O. Totten.
Harris was elected to the seat on December 1, 1855, for the full constitutional term, but his service was cut short by his death.
[2] Harris was killed by the explosion of the boilers of the Mississippi River steamboat Pennsylvania, bound from New Orleans to Memphis.