Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-04-24
For the Journal.
Hon. George Davis.

1heSSTS. hUttOTS: am one or those who
have taken no active part in the present
political campaign-one who heretofore, as
now, satisfied that my principles are made
up of the best of intentions and of pure
love for my good old State, have never
entered the arena where so many ADLER
ones than I have welded the pen in be-
half of the noble principles of our party.
Nor do do so now for the purpose of adj
vancing my political opinions, but merely
to defend the name of one of the purest Of
men and noblest of North Carolinians from
the malignant aspersions of the anonymous
writer of the article which appeared i'll
Sundays Post.
l have, on moro than one occasion, heard
the name of George Davis mentioned by
men of Northern birth, now residents of
Wilmington, and leaders here of the Re
publican party, but never yet have heard
from them one WORD against either the fair
fame or the fair name of that gentleman.
The article referred to could scarcely, there
fore, have emanated from one of them.
Some recreant son of the SOIL who has sold
himself to the devil, heart, body and soul,
for the hope of an office, that his meagre
abilities could never have obtained for him
in the ranks of the Conservative party,
must, therefore be the author of that infa-
nous libel. There is but one such person
in this neighborhood who has the ability,
| as we'll as the inclination, to pen such an
! article
| In the first place, this anonymous writer
| intimates that Mr.. Davis was seduced from
his duty by the Establishments of power
and the promised smiles of the secession
oligarchs." These are big words to be used
| by man who is not yet Judge. He
knew them false when he penned them
| He knew that George Davis, rs a member
of the Peace Conference which met in
| Washington City in 1861, was for the pre-
servatiOn of the Union, and that he was
for peace as long as there remained the
shadow of hope that peace could be had,
and that he was disposed to brave all
even, if need be, the anger and contempt
of his friends-to preserve that peace to
his country. But when all chance of an hon
| orable settlement failed, then, and not till
then did George Davis, on his return home,
rise before his people in the City Hall, and
declare himself for a separation not with
" SAoohCoo ~ hOtIl, Will IuO llIO u
the approaching contest already flashing
! from his eye, but with q sad and subdued
mien, as though his eagle eye had already
pierced the future, and beheld the sadness
| and desOlation that war would bring to his
country. The writer further says :
"There was no measure of the Infamous admin
istration of that infamous government, to which
| Attorney General George Davis did not give his
assent ant. whenever ordered he manufactured
legal " opinion to sustain the usurpatons and
outrages of his master"
| This is all simply willful and malicious
falsehood, as the would be Ju dye we'll knew
when he penned the article, and until he
can produce proof of one such instance as
he mentions above, he stands before the
world a confessed LIAR The position
which Mr.. Davis held as Attorney General
of the Confederate States, was unsought by
him, and never before, within or without
the Confederate States have we heard either
his motives Or his actions impugned.
1t has been reserved for base man and
a recreant Southerner to cast the first stone
at one whom his politi cal opponents con-
fess to be man of spotless and unim-
peachable character, both in public and in
| private life.
AS for the eighteen thousand prisoners
| whom this ex-Confederate alleges to have
| been murdered at Andersonville and Sails
Jury, VIC preSuue W NC DG-
| yond the ken of one who commanded a
company of Confederate Artillery, and was
| member of North Carolina Confederate
Legislature.
From the judgment of this Judge, who
is not a Judge land thanks to the white
men of North Carolina. never will be-, we
appeal to the record of the past and to the
action of the present. We appeal to every
man in the city of Wilmington, both white
and colored, to say if, during the war and
prior to the war, the name of George Davis
was not held in veneration in every hoveI
as we'll as in every parlor in North Carolina.
To say If he was not, and is not now, Ill
the truest sense of the wcrd, one of natures
noblemen, sans peu' et sans repr0che.
The attempt of the would-be Judge, eX-
rebel Representative, ex-rebel Captain and
ex-merciless slave-master to blacken the
name of George Davis, does not fall to tho
ground, but recoils on the maligner him
self, and with the scars which still mark
the backs of his former slaves, will yet
some day, cry aloud to Heaven against
him.
Radical Feeling at Washington.