George Davis, Confederate Attorney General, Born 1 March, 1820

George Davis:

Christian, Senator, Attorney General

March 1st, 1820-February 23rd, 1896

George Davis ended his last oration with this:

"My public life was long since over; my ambition went down with the banner of the South, and, like it, never rose again. I have had abundant time in all these quiet years, and it has been my favorite occupation to review the occurrences of that time, and recall over the history of that tremendous struggle; to remember with love and admiration the great men who bore their parts in its events.

I have often thought what was it that the Southern people had to be most proud of in all the proud things of their record?

Not the achievement of our arms! No man is more proud of them than I, no man rejoices more in Manassas, Chancellorsville and in Richmond; but all the nations have had their victories. There is something, I think, better than that, and it was this, that through all the bitterness of that time, and throughout all the heat of that fierce contest, Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee never spoke a word, never wrote a line that the whole neutral world did not accept as the very indisputable truth.

Aye, truth was the guiding star of both of them, and that is the grand thing to remember; upon that my memory rests more proudly than upon anything else. It is a monument better than marble, more durable than brass.

Teach it to your children, that they may be proud to remember Jefferson Davis."

Judge H.G. Conner, at Wilmington Statue Unveiling Ceremony, 20 April 1911:

“You shall bring your sons to this spot, tell them the story of his life, of his patriotism of his loyalty to high thinking and noble living, of his moderation in speech, his patience under defeat, of his devotion to your City and State as a perpetual illustration and an enduring example of the dignity, the worth of a high-souled, pure-hearted Christian gentleman. As you shall look on this statue, it shall be both a memorial and a lesson of the value of a citizenship which will preserve all that is good in the past, and inspire to patriotism and service in the future.”

For more on George Davis’ life, see this link.