Legacy of Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb

T.R.R. Cobb was born on Cherry Hill Plantation in Jefferson County, GA in 1823. His family moved to Athens, where young Cobb attended the University of Georgia, then known as Franklin College. He graduated first in his class in 1841 at the age of 18. He was admitted to the Georgia Bar the following year.

Cobb's passion for improving education led him to help establish the School of Law at the University of Georgia in 1859. In the same year he founded the Lucy Cobb Institute to further the education of young women. The school was named for his daughter who died of scarlet fever at age 13. He also founded the Athens YMCA, which is still a healthy and vibrant organization.

Perhaps Cobb's most notable feat was the compilation the Digest of the laws of Georgia, a masterpiece collection of Georgia statutes and the Georgia Code, recognized then and now as the first "relatively complete statement of the salient principles of common as well as statutory law" in American legal history.

With the election of Lincoln and secession the topic of heated discussions, Cobb became an advocate for separation from the Union. He delivered a now-famous speech to the Georgia Legislature on November 12, 1860 in which he called for secession. Cobb was elected delegate to both the Georgia state convention and to the first Confederate convention.

He was secretary of the committee that drafted the Confederate Constitution, and he is probably the chief writer of that document. He made powerful arguments in favor of a Jeffersonian democracy, in which he believed strongly.

Cobb grew frustrated when his ideas were not implemented immediately and joined the Confederate army. In the army he rose to the rank of Brigadier General and was killed in the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862 at the age of 39.