Background
Jeff Davis was born on May 6, 1862 in Little River County, Arkansas. He was the son of Lewis W. and Elizabeth (Phillips) Davis.
Jeff Davis was born on May 6, 1862 in Little River County, Arkansas. He was the son of Lewis W. and Elizabeth (Phillips) Davis.
Davis attended the common schools, the preparatory department of the University of Arkansas, and the law school of Vanderbilt University, and received a degree in law from Cumberland University.
Admitted to the bar at nineteen, Davis began practising with his father at Russellville, Ark. Entering public life in 1890, he remained in it most of the time until his death. Prosecuting attorney of the fifth judicial district for four years (1890 - 94), he became attorney-general of Arkansas in 1899. Shortly after assuming the latter office, he attracted considerable attention by his interpretation of the state antitrust law, which provided that no corporation belonging to an association for the fixing of prices should be allowed to do business in Arkansas.
Davis, holding this to mean any association outside as well as inside the state, secured indictments against numerous corporations, but was overruled by the supreme court. This decision and the building of a new state capitol became the issues on which he was elected governor for three terms (1901 - 07), breaking all records in the state. His first and second legislatures refused to amend the law, but the third (1905) changed it to meet his wishes. The result was that the insurance companies quit the state. The law soon became a dead letter and part of it was repealed in 1907.
He supported the bill to repeal the fellow-servants rule, which it took several years of agitation to enact; and he favored the abolition of the suicide clause in life-insurance policies, more liberal Confederate pensions, and larger appropriations for state charitable institutions. At the close of his last term he juggled the financial statement so as to make it appear that the state was out of debt and had a surplus, and induced the legislature to reduce the taxes, --a policy which caused a deficit and a later bond issue.
Following his governorship, he served a term in the United States Senate (1907 - 13). Two days after being sworn in he introduced a bill to apply his antitrust law to the nation, and kept it on the calendar for five years. He denounced "gambling in agricultural products" and introduced a bill prohibiting dealing in futures. Another bill proposed to prohibit the sale or gift of intoxicating liquors in prohibition territory. Although he supported the repeal of the fellow servants rule in Arkansas, he opposed, in Congress, the employers' liability and workmen's compensation bill in 1912. He made little effort to push his own bills, but "occupied himself with looking after the wants of his constituents, answering their letters, sent out all the seeds allotted to him and all he could borrow and kept himself in politicalcondition for the next campaign. "
Davis revolutionized Arkansas politics. Most of those who opposed him he treated as personal as well as political enemies, but he became completely reconciled when they returned to his camp. His unalterable purpose was self-advancement and every one who stood in the way had to pay the penalty. Most of the newspapers opposed him, but Davis capitalized this, telling his "hill-billies" and "red necks" that the newspapers said no one would vote for him "except the fellow who wears patched breeches and one gallus and lives up the forks of the creek, and don't pay anything except his poll tax. " He set the country against the town. He never scrupled to repeat stories proved to be false. No one in his day in Arkansas excelled him in ability to appeal to the passions and prejudices of the people.
Davis was a member of the Baptist church, but was turned out for drinking. Thereafter he referred to those who turned him out as "quart" Baptists, himself as a "pint" Baptist.
He rarely wore black, his favorite suit being a Prince Albert of Confederate gray.
Davis's first wife, Ina McKenzie, whom he married in 1882, bore him twelve children. Of her Senator J. P. Clarke said that she was the only person who could influence Davis against his own convictions. In October 1911 he married Leila Carter.