Jeff Davis (born Jefferson Davis; May 6, 1862 – January 3, 1913) was an American Democratic politician who served as the 20th governor of Arkansas from 1901 to 1907 and in the U.S. Senate from 1907 to 1913. He took office as one of Arkansas's first New South governors and proved to be one of the state's most polarizing figures. Davis used his silver tongue and aptitude for demagoguery to exploit existing feelings of agrarian frustration among poor white farmers and thus built a large populist appeal. However, since Davis often blamed city-dwellers, blacks, and Yankees for problems on the farm, the state was quickly and ardently split into "pro-Davis" or "anti-Davis" factions.
Davis began his political career as Arkansas Attorney General, where he immediately began making political waves. His office challenged the legality of the Kimball State House Act and made an extremely-controversial extraterritorial interpretation of the Rector Antitrust Act. His fight to prevent trusts from doing business in Arkansas and the extreme lengths that he went to enforce his opinion would be a common theme throughout his political career. He gained credibility among the poor white farmers, who would become his base.
Davis's three two-year terms as governor "produced more politics than government," but he gained construction of a new state house and reformed the penal system. An almost-constant series of scandals and outrageous behavior characterized his time in office, which followed him when he won election to the Senate in 1906. Davis is often classified with such populist politicians as Benjamin Tillman, Robert Love Taylor, Thomas E. Watson, James K. Vardaman, Coleman Livingston Blease, and then Huey Long, controversial figures who were Southern demagogues, populists, and political bosses.
Early life
Davis was born near Rocky Comfort in Little River County in southwestern Arkansas. His parents were Lewis W. Davis, a Baptist preacher originally from Kentucky, and his wife Elizabeth Phillips, originally from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Lewis Davis did not join the Confederate army until drafted in 1864. He named his only son after Jefferson Davis, then-President of the Confederate States of America. His military service was largely performed as a chaplain's commission, but he quit the ministry following the war and became a lawyer.
American Civil War and Reconstruction
No Civil War battles were fought within Sevier County's bounds, but there were many opportunities for the war to make an impression on the young Jeff Davis. After the Union captured Little Rock in 1863, the state capitol was moved to Washington. Union General Nathaniel Banks later led the Red River Campaign through the county, an unsuccessful attempt to capture Shreveport, Louisiana via southwest Arkansas. Beginning in 1865, Laynesport, not far from the Davis property, was fortified as a Confederate garrison. Perhaps equally indelible was the romanticism of "The Lost Cause" myth in the years following the war; as a majority of southwestern Arkansas residents remained staunch Confederate supporters.
Following the war, Lewis Davis was elected to serve as county and probate judge of Sevier County, and later Little River County following its creation by the state legislature in 1867. The following year, Congressional or Radical Reconstruction swept Davis and most other Democrats from office by temporarily banning former Confederates from office and passing amendments to enfranchise freedmen. Confederate supporters did not accept this political overhaul, turning to vigilante groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and Knights of the White Camelia to intimidate blacks and Republicans. The rough and tumble nature of Little River County was especially conductive for gangs, outlaws and violence.
Eventually the situation devolved to such lawlessness that governor Powell Clayton declared martial law in Little River and nine other counties to restore order. Desperado Cullen Baker initially assembled a posse to oppose Clayton's militia, but after several skirmishes, the militia gained control of the county. Local history tells of rape, torture, murder and pillaging of blacks and white Republican sympathizers by the militia in the ensuing months. The martial law months were later described by Jeff Davis as the "most bitter episode of his youth". In 1869 the Davis family moved to Dover, Arkansas in the Arkansas River Valley.