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Senate Years of Service: 1877-1883 Party: Independent
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DAVIS, David, (cousin of Henry Winter Davis),
a Senator from Illinois; born near Cecilton, Cecil County, Md., March 9, 1815;
attended the public schools of Maryland; graduated from Kenyon College, Ohio, in 1832; studied
law in Lenox, Mass., and at the law school in New Haven; admitted to the bar in 1835 and
commenced practice in Pekin, Tazewell County, Ill.; moved to Bloomington, Ill., in 1836, and
continued the practice of law; member, State house of representatives 1844; delegate to the State
constitutional convention in 1847; judge of the eighth judicial circuit of Illinois 1848-1862; appointed
by President Abraham Lincoln as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
1862-1877, when he resigned to become a Senator; candidate for nomination for president on the
Liberal-Republican ticket in 1872; elected as an Independent to the United States Senate, and served
from March 4, 1877, until March 3, 1883; was not a candidate for renomination in 1882; served as
President pro tempore of the Senate during the Forty-seventh Congress; retired from public life; died
in Bloomington, McLean County, Ill., June 26, 1886; interment in Evergreen Cemetery.
BibliographyDictionary of American Biography;
King, Willard. Lincolns Manager: David Davis. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1960; Pratt, Harry. David Davis, 1815-1886. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, 1930.
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