Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 July 1886 — BIOGRAPHICAL. [ARTICLE]

BIOGRAPHICAL.

A Short Sketch of Judge Davis' Busy Life* Judge David Davis was born in Cecil County, Maryland, March 9, 1815. He received a careful education in tbe best American schools of the I early part of the century. He studied law with 1 Judge Bishop in Lennox. Mass., and afterward in the law school at New Haven, Conn., graduating as the first of his class. Judgo Davis removed to Bloomington, 111., in 1836, being thou 21 years of | age. His home was in that city from that date ! until his death. He soon gained prominence as ! a lawyer and local politician. In 1815 he .was chosen a member of the lower house of the Illinois Legislature. He was a member of no party, i and he soon attracted attention by his conscientious work andjhis freedom of action On all questions. Ho was chosen to th 1 Constitutional Convention of 1847, and the next year elected Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit of Illinois. He was re-elected to this office in 165">, and again ; in, 1861. Hiß capacity for work and liis clearcut decisions soon became proverbial all : over the State and beyond its borI ders. He and Abraham Lincoln became warm friends long before the latter Vose to mere than : local prominence. He became one of Lincoln’s most ardent supporters .for the Presidency and I took an important place in national affairs as j adviser of Lincoln after Lincoln’s election to i that high office. President Lincoln appointed Judge Davis Associate Justice of the Supreme ; Court of the United States Dec. 8, 1862. After Lincoln’s death Judge Davis became odminis- [ trator of his estate. At the National Conven- : tion of the labor reform party held in Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 21, 1872. Judge Davis was nominated for President of the United States, the candidate for Vice President on the same ticket being Joel Parker, of New Jersey. When the Liberal Republicans nominated Horace Greeley for President at the Cincinnati Convention of the same year, Judge Davis, who had been a candidate before the same conveni tion, receiving 924 Votes on the first ballot,withdrew from the field. Judge Davis remained on i the Supreme Court bench until 1877,when he re- ; signed to take his seat in the United States Senj ate, he having been elected to that body by the Independents and Democrats of the Thirtieth , General Assembly of Illinois. After the death I of President Garfield Judge Davis waß chosen j President of the Senate, in which position be j was virtually Vice President of the United States. Soon after retiring from the Senate in 1883, he was married to a niece of Judge Green, member of Congress from North Carolina. From that time to his demise he resided quietly at his homfi in Bloomington.