sentences:  After graduation, he entered private practice in Bedford and adjacent counties.In December 1876, he was elected to the Supreme Court of Appeals and remained there for six years until 1882 when the Readjuster Party came into power.In 1884, after returning to private practice, he was chosen by the Legislature as one of the revisors of the Code of Virginia of 1887, which he completed with Waller Redd Staples and John W. Riely, both of whom also served as Justices on the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.