A study in colonial history: a lecture delivered before the Historical Society, of Wilmington, the 26th day of November, A.D. 1879
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
George Davis, an American lawyer and attorney-general of the Confederacy, whom Jefferson Davis found congenial and valuable, not always agreeing with the president but generally “right at last. ”
Background
George Davis was born on March 1, 1820 at Porter’s Neck, New Hanover (now Pender) County, North Carolina, United States. He was the son of Thomas Frederick and Sarah Isabella (Eagles) Davis. Among his ancestors were Sir John Yeamans and General James Moore of South Carolina and the Lillington and Swann families of the Albemarle Sound region. For nearly a century the Davis family had been living in the Cape Fear district.
Education
Graduating from the state university in 1838 at the head of his class, he was admitted to the Wilmington bar and soon gained a flattering reputation as a lawyer and an orator.
Career
A sincere and active Whig, Davis was very nearly named for governor in 1848, though he never sought office and never carried his home county for his party. A strong Union man in 1860, he was sent to the Peace Conference of February 1861; but in a “masterly” address in Wilmington, March 2, he repudiated as dishonorable the recommendations of that body.
He served in the Confederate Senate from 1862 until he became attorney-general, January 4, 1864.
On the collapse of the Confederacy, April 26, 1865, having correctly ended his work as attorney-general, he fled the country, desperate but cool, only to meet imprisonment at Fort Hamilton for several months.
Back at the law in Wilmington, he met marked success, notably as leading counsel of the Atlantic Coast Line system during its formative period. To the public, however, he was known mainly through the occasional addresses in which for forty years he voiced the opinions of cultured and propertied Wilmingtonians. His “Early Men and Times of the Lower Cape Fear” which is no longer accepted as final, had “brought the most romantic section of North Carolina permanently into history”. Fittingly, his last public address was in eulogy of Jefferson Davis (1889).
The next year Gov. Jarvis, wishing through the sale of the Western North Carolina Railroad to reverse the state’s historic policy as to railroads, sought his legal skill and political influence; these he gave, in company with Thomas Ruffin, refusing compensation.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
Personality
In the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy he was the lawyer and the literary man, careful of the interests of property and critical of verbosity, as well as the conscientious representative, presenting many petitions.
Short, heavy-set, dark, without striking advantage of voice, he was an effective speaker because of his careful preparation, interpretative imagination, and a style “clear, strong, flexible. ”
Judges listened to him because he was careful, honest, and learned.
Connections
Davis was twice married: on November 17, 1842 Mary A. Polk, who died in 1863; and on May 9, 1866 Monitnia Fairfax of Richmond.