[2] Connor was nominated by President William Howard Taft on May 10, 1909, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina vacated by Judge Thomas Richard Purnell.

Among his works were biographies of John Archibald Campbell,[3] James Iredell,[citation needed] and William Gaston.

[citation needed] In April 1911, Judge Connor delivered the dedication speech for a Confederate monument to politician George Davis in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Connor's dedicatory remarks contained hallmarks that many historians have ascribed to examples of revisionist Lost Cause mythology.

[4] Connor falsely described Davis's making war against the United States as "patriotism" and Davis's call for secession from the Union as "moderation in speech": 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.