568 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

CHARLOTTE, N. C., April 26, 1865.
Hon. Geo. Davis, C. 8S. Attorney General.

My DrAR Sir:—Your letter dated yesterday, tendering your resigna-
tion, has been received. While I regret the causes which compel you
to this course, I am well assured that your conduct now, as heretofore,
is governed by the highest and most honorable motives. In accepting
your resignation, as I feel constrained to do, allow me to thank you for
the important assistance you have rendered in the administration of
the government, and for the patriotic zeal and acknowledged ability
with which you have discharged your trust.

Accept my thanks, also, for your expressions of personal regard and
esteem, and the assurance that those feelings are warmly reciprocated
by me.

With the hope that the blessings of heaven may attend you and yours,

I am most cordially your friend,
JEFFERSON DAVIS.

This affectionate regard for the beloved leader of the Cape
Fear was the subject of repeated conversations in late years
between the writer of the Chronicles and the distinguished lady
who bore the honored name of Jefferson Davis, and who was
ever faithful and true to him and to the people whom he
loved.

Upon the receipt of the sad intelligence of his death, she
wrote to me from a sick bed the following tender and sympa-
thetic lines:

“T am able to sit up a little, and regret that | am not strong

enough to say as much about dear Mr. George Davis as my
heart dictates.

“He was one of the most exquisitely proportioned of men.
His mind dominated his body, but his heart drew him near to
all that was honorable and tender, as well as patriotic and
faithful in mankind. He was never dismayed by defeat, and
never dejected. When the enemy was at the gates of Richmond
he was fully sensible of our peril, but calm in the hope of re-
pelling them, and if this failed, certain of his power and will
to endure whatever ills had been reserved for him.

“His literary tastes were diverse and catholic, and his anx-
ious mind found relaxation in studying the literary confidences
of others in a greater degree than I have ever known in any
other public man except Mr. Benjamin. Upon being asked one
day how he was, he answered: ‘I am very much comforted and
rested by Professor Holcomb’s Lnterature in Letters, one of
the few new books which came out during the Confederacy.

Peace Restored 569

One of the few hard things I ever heard him Say was when
Some one asked him if he had read Swinburne’s Laus Veneris,
and added, ‘You know it is printed on wrapping paper and
bound in wall paper.’ He replied: ‘I have never thought wall
paper wholesome, and am sorry to know there is enough wrap-
ping paper on which to print it.’

“He was fond of tracing the construction of languages, and
the variants from one root were a favorite subject of conversa-
tion with him.

“When he fell in love and married a charming woman, the
whole of Richmond rejoiced with him, and expressed no doubts
of the happiness of either. Mr. Davis’ public life was as irre-
proachable as his private course. Once when my husband came
home wearied with the divergence of opinions in his Cabinet,
he said: ‘Davis does not always agree with me, but I generally
find he was right at last.’

“I can not, of course, tell you about his political opinions,
except that he was one of the strictest construers of the Con-
Stitution, and firmly believed in its final triumph over all
obstacles to freedom.

“My husband felt for him the most sincere friendship, as
well as confidence and esteem, and I think there was never the
slightest shadow intervened between them.”

GEORGE DAVIS—AN APPRECIATION.

Very early in life it became known that Mr. George Davis
excelled in literary attainments and in oratory. On the death
of Henry Clay, he made an address that brought him an en-
viable reputation; at the commencement of the State Univer-
Sity in 1855, he delivered an oration—“Olden Times on the
Cape Fear”—that was pronounced extraordinary; and the next
year his address before the Greensboro Female College was a
most remarkable effort. After the war, he delivered in Wil-
muington a masterful oration on the political issues of that day.
A similar address, delivered in Wilmington in 1876, is thus
described by Dr. Kingsbury in the MV orning Star:

The speech to which we listened is a very memorable one.

rs will long abide with us as one of those felicitous, rounded,
nished efforts of a highly endowed and noble intellect that
are a memory and a joy forever. As a composition, the effort