American statesman and jurist, born in Cecil County, MD, on the 9th of March 1815. He graduated from Kenyon College, Gambier, OH; studied law in Massachusetts and at New Haven, CT, and began practice in Bloomington, IL. He sat in the legislature in 1844, and three times was elected judge of the eighth judicial circuit of the state, but resigned this position in 1862. President Lincoln, whose intimate friend he was, appointed him a justice of the United States supreme court, and he was executor of Lincoln’s estate. In 1872 Judge Davis was nominated for the Presidency by the Labor Reform party. He left the supreme bench in 1877 to take a seat in the United States Senate, having been elected to succeed John A. Logan. After the death of President Garfield he was chosen, October 13, 1881, president of the Senate. He resigned his seat, March 3, 1883. Judge Davis was an Independent, but usually voted in Congress with the Democrats. He died at his home in Bloomington, IL, on the 26th of June 1886.
