Judge David Davis (1815-1886)

             David Davis was born on March 9, 1815 at Mercer Plantation, Maryland to David and Ann Mercer Davis. His father died several months before he was born, and when he was five years old, his mother remarried Franklin Betts. Davis spent the majority of his childhood living in Annapolis with his uncle, the Reverend Henry Davis.

Davis began his educational career by attending New Ark Academy in Delaware in 1826. After two years there, he began attending Kenyon University in Gambier, OH, which he graduated from in 1832. After graduation, Davis entered the law office of Henry Bishop in Lenox, Massachusetts, as a law student. He then attended New Haven Law School in 1834 for less than a year before opening a law office in Pekin, Illinois in the fall of 1835. Davis received his license to practice law in Illinois in 1836, and then he moved to Bloomington that year and bought Jesse Fell’s law practice. He then formed a formal partnership with Wells Coulton in 1838.  Following this, Davis received his license to practice law before the Illinois district of the United States Circuit Court in December 1839. Later, he formed a partnership with another local lawyer, James Miller and their office was located on the corner of Main and Front streets, today known as the Miller-Davis Building.  Davis would continue to work in this office until 1848. 

On October 30, 1838, David Davis married Sarah Walker of Lenox, Massachusetts, the daughter of William Perrin Walker, a probate judge in Lenox. Sarah was a strong woman who would become a source of quiet strength for Davis throughout the political trials that he faced. They had two children, George and Sally, as well as three or four others who died in infancy. In 1844, Davis bought Jesse Fell’s farm located on the eastern part of town. This land would later become the site of their elegant Victorian mansion, which they called “Clover Lawn” and is today known merely as “the David Davis Mansion” to the historians and tourists who regularly visit it. It was completed in 1872 and filled with modern technological conveniences of the era, including indoor plumbing, hot and cold running water, a central furnace, and up-to-date for gas lighting. “Clover Lawn” was designed by well-known architect Alfred Piquenard.

            But for David Davis, the law practice turned out to be merely a stepping stone along the path to greater things—namely, politics. In 1840, the young lawyer was nominated as the Whig candidate for the Illinois State Senate. However, in August of that year, he was defeated. But four years later, in 1844, Davis was elected to the Illinois General Assembly. As a member of the assembly, he formed a partnership with Clifton Moore of Clinton, Illinois to invest in land in DeWitt County and elsewhere in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri. His experience working with the Assembly earned him the opportunity to serve as a delegate to the Illinois Constitutional Convention in Springfield, when the state decided to rewrite its Constitution in 1847.

            Although he was successful in the legislature, his real talent and prestige came from his many years working with the judicial branch of government. Starting at the state level, he was elected judge of the 8^th Judicial Circuit in Illinois in 1848. While he served as judge on the 8^th Circuit, his decisions were seldom appealed and even more seldom reversed.

It was through this position that he met Abraham Lincoln, who would become one of Davis’ closest friends and political allies. Lincoln was also involved with the 8^th Judicial Circuit as a lawyer, and the two men would often travel together throughout the 14 counties that made up the circuit. They would make the trip every spring and fall and ride from county to county in horse drawn buggies, spending the nights in local taverns and serving in court during the day. They also made regular trips to Springfield, which usually took them two days to make the sixty-mile trip. In good weather, it was a pleasant ride during their travels, but often, the unpaved roads were muddy and there was no protection against the cold and rain. Despite how rigorous and miserable his travels on the circuit were, he thoroughly enjoyed them.

When the court arrived in town, the Grand Jury would first determine whether or not there was enough evidence to hold a trial. Then, the Judge would try the smaller cases, which usually involved mostly misdemeanors such as gambling or selling alcohol. He also tried larger cases which dealt with land title cases, slander and libel suits, divorces, appeals from justices of the peace, livestock ownership, and even a few murder trials. Judge Davis would continue to serve on the 8^th Circuit until 1862.

            While on the circuit, Judge Davis wrote letters to his wife Sarah. It was obvious that he missed her greatly, because they wrote back and forth at least once or twice a week. In comparison, Judge Davis mentioned to Sarah in one letter that Lincoln heard from Mary Todd only once every few months. Occasionally, Sarah even rode out to Pekin or Decatur to visit her husband, though local gossip claimed that it was indecent for a woman to ride such long distances alone.

On May 9, 1860, Judge Davis was elected as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago at the State Republican Convention in Decatur. Through Judge Davis’ networking and tireless promotion of Lincoln, Lincoln was eventually nominated as the Republican candidate at the Republican National Convention in Chicago a few months later. After Lincoln was inaugurated on February 12, 1861, Lincoln began to seriously consider Judge Davis to fill the post of Commissary General. However, Judge Davis was never appointed to this post, nor did he find out about Lincoln’s thoughts on the matter until 1872.

There were also three vacancies on the Supreme Court bench, and it was hinted that Judge Davis would be selected to fill one of them. Judge Davis himself did not openly hope for a Supreme Court position, though he said that “I would like a judicial position in preference to anything else and would like something higher than I now hold.” But the Civil War was rumbling in the distance, and Lincoln feared that appointing another Northerner to the Supreme Court would offend the South and possibly incite the war, especially since two out of the three vacancies were left by Southerners. Although Judge Davis was then appointed as a member of the Board of Visitors to West Point, he viewed this as an empty position and sadly returned from Lincoln’s inauguration with his confidence in Lincoln’s friendship severely shaken. His frequent correspondence with Lincoln almost stopped for a time because he was so hurt by Lincoln’s decision.

            In 1862, however, Lincoln began to reconsider the decision to appoint Southerners to the Supreme Court. He realized that, despite the South being in rebellion, the North has a larger population and territory and therefore, deserved more representation. Even then, however, he appointed Noah H. Swayne instead of Judge Davis. Swayne later became a close friend of David Davis, and his son Henry eventually married Judge Davis’ daughter Sallie. On the same day as Swayne’s election, 30 members of the Illinois Constitutional Convention requested that Lincoln also appoint Judge Davis to fill the one remaining vacancy. Lincoln would finally appoint Judge Davis to the last seat on the United States Supreme Court as an Associate Justice. Judge Davis’ appointment became official on December 10, 1862.

            While serving as a Supreme Court justice, Judge Davis’ most well-known decision came out of the 1866 Ex Parte Milligan case. In September 1862, Lincoln issued a proclamation suspending habeas corpus, which guaranteed the right to a fair trial, for civilian prisoners held in the North by military authorities. This proclamation was one of several policies that Lincoln and Judge Davis disagreed on. On October 4, 1864, a civilian residing in Indiana, Lambdin Milligan, was arrested on charges of conspiracy against the Union and was confined to a military prison in Indiana. He was later found guilty by a military tribunal of conspiring to seize U.S. arsenals, release rebel prisoners, and march with them until he could join the rebel forces in the Confederacy and he was then sentenced to be hanged. Although Lincoln had no intention of carrying out this sentence, after his assassination, President Andrew Johnson signed the death warrant. Judge Davis, who was a lifelong opponent of the death penalty, protested against this decision and stated that he wanted “no more blood spilt in this county.” Judge Davis then decided that Milligan had not been given a fair trial during the war due to the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and sided with the majority of justices to overturn the case. The Supreme Court “held that a military court had no jurisdiction to try Milligan, a civilian residing outside a war zone,” where the civilian courts were still functioning. Thus, he was still entitled to all of the rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.

            It may be important to note that this was not the only time that Judge Davis disagreed with Lincoln. In fact, at the time the war broke out, the Judge and his wife opposed it. On April 12, 1861, the day Fort Sumter was attacked, Sarah Davis wrote a letter to her sister claiming that “I do not believe the Union can be kept together. The fact is our people of the South and North do not love each other and I believe in a peaceful separation. Bloodshed is not at all to my taste and we shall not love each other better after stirring up the worst feelings of our nature.” The Judge, though he agreed with his wife at first, later realized that the War was necessary and devoted his efforts to ending it as soon as possible. He wrote to his son George that “a united North may strike terror to the southern people and end the war sooner.”

Judge Davis’ political career continued to grow after his time as a Supreme Court justice. On February 22, 1872, the Labor Reform party nominated Judge Davis as their presidential candidate, although he was unsuccessful at the Liberal Republican convention. He was then elected to the United States Senate by the Illinois General Assembly in early 1877. On March 4, 1877, Davis formally resigned his seat as a Supreme Court Justice to take a seat in the Senate.

            Shortly before his acceptance of his seat on the U.S. Senate, he found himself embroiled in yet another national controversy, this time regarding the presidential election of 1876 between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden. Tilden, a Democrat, initially appeared to have won the popular vote by 51%, yet Hayes, a Republican, was sworn into office. Due to widespread low literacy rates in the United States at the time, the Democratic ballot featured a picture of their mascot, a rooster, while the Republicans showed a picture of Abraham Lincoln. In 1876, however, the Democrats printed a picture of Abraham Lincoln with Tilden’s name next to it. This caused great voter confusion and led the states of Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon to send in two electoral vote counts; one for the Democrats and one for the Republicans. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans wanted the other side to choose (since the Republicans controlled the Senate and the Democrats controlled the House), so in order to resolve this, Congress then created an electoral commission featuring five Senators, five Representatives, and five Supreme Court justices to decide whom to award the 20 disputed electoral votes to. Judge Davis narrowly avoided the opportunity to be on the Electoral Commission. Both parties agreed that Judge Davis would be the best choice to make up the last member of the commission (seven Republicans, seven Democrats, and Judge Davis), for he was more of an independent than a Republican. However, as the bill to create the Electoral Commission was passed by Congress, Davis was elected to the U.S. Senate. Judge Davis resigned his position on the U.S. Supreme Court to take his seat in the Senate, and was therefore unable to take his spot on the Electoral Commission. In the end, there were eight Republicans and seven Democrats on the commission. The delegates all voted along party lines, and Hayes won the election on the eve of inauguration.

             Judge Davis continued to serve in the Senate until March 3, 1883. He was also made President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate on October 13, 1881. As president pro tempore, Judge Davis was responsible for presiding over meetings of the Senate, as well as being third in line for the office of the presidency.

            When his Senate term expired, Judge Davis retired to Bloomington. His wife Sarah had died on November 9, 1879, and ever since her death, countless women tried to win over his heart. He finally fell in love with Addie Burr, who had been Sarah’s nurse, and began a long-distance relationship with her, writing Addie long romantic notes from his desk at the Senate and sending them to where she lived in Fayetteville, North Carolina. After keeping their engagement secret for a year, they were married in a quiet ceremony on March 14, 1883.

            Throughout his retirement, Judge Davis kept busy by reading, farming, spending time with family and friends, and serving as President of the Illinois Bar Association. His retirement was disturbed briefly when he was forced to resolve a quarrel between Robert Lincoln and Ward Hill Lamon, after Lamon wrote what Robert called “a scurrilous biography” of his father, Abraham Lincoln. Lamon told Davis he regretted writing the biography of Abraham Lincoln because he had received nothing but abuse about it. Lamon then stated he had been writing a biography of Robert Lincoln as well, to settle the score. However, Judge Davis pleaded with Lamon to never publish this biography, and if Lamon ever did actually write it, it was never published.

Davis was also a generous man throughout his life. He donated 40 acres of his own land to Illinois State Normal University in 1857 and then donated another 60 acres to the Illinois Soldiers and Sailor’s Children’s School at a later unknown date. He also helped the City of Bloomington maintain the machine shops of the Chicago and Alton Railroad. Judge Davis was holding court in Chicago when he received word that the shops had burned down on November 1, 1867. He was then informed that the shops were to be relocated. He proceeded to inform the residents of Bloomington about how the shops were to be relocated, and the citizens took action and donated the funds to save them.

            Judge David Davis died on June 26, 1886, after being sick since the previous November with a tumor on his shoulder. He had previously been diagnosed with diabetes and confined to his home. On June 20, 1886, Judge Davis went into a coma, and the doctors gave him less than 48 hours to live. However, he managed to live for another six days after that.

            On the day of his death, all the church bells in Bloomington rang and flags were lowered to half mast throughout town. Judge Davis’ funeral attracted 20,000 people from all over the country, which to this day constitutes the largest crowd ever assembled at a funeral in Central Illinois. Robert Lincoln and Adlai Stevenson I were among the pallbearers at his funeral. Judge David Davis was buried next to his wife Sarah in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery.