Cullom was appointed the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives in the Thirty-fourth Congress, and he served from February 4, 1856, to December 6, 1857. During the debate on secession, Cullom stumped Tennessee in favor of remaining in the Union but when Tennessee finally seceded, he grudgingly supported the decision but retired to his home at Carthage and did not take a prominent role supporting either side. Both sides viewed his actions with much distrust thinking he was supporting the other.[citation needed] After the war, he was divorced from his first wife, Virginia Ingram Cullom, and remarried to Mary Griffin.
Appointed Attorney General for the 16th Judicial Circuit in 1873, Cullom also served as a judge in Clinton for several years He resumed the practice of law and was the attorney general for the sixteenth district from 1873 to 1878.[3]
Death
Cullom died in Clinton, Tennessee on December 6, 1896 (age 86 years, 185 days). He was interred at McAdoo Cemetery in Clinton, Tennessee, and later reinterred at Mount Olivet Cemetery at Chattanooga, Tennessee.[4]
