David Davis (1862-1877)
Lived from 1815 to 1886.
Early Years and Legal Career
Davis was born on March 9, 1815 to a wealthy family in Cecil County, Maryland. He attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, graduating in 1832. Following college, Davis studied law at Yale University. After graduating from Yale in 1835, Davis moved to Bloomington, Illinois and began practicing law.
In 1845, Davis served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives and, two years later, as a delegate to the Illinois constitutional convention in McLean County. From 1848 to 1862, he presided over the court of the Illinois Eighth Circuit–the same circuit in which attorney Abraham Lincoln was practicing. Notably, Davis would later serve as Lincoln’s campaign manager during the 1860 presidential election. Following Lincoln’s assassination, Davis was also an administrator of his estate.
Appointment to the Supreme Court
On October 17, 1862, President Lincoln appointed Davis to a seat on the United States Supreme Court. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 8, 1862, and received his commission the same day. Davis was famous for writing one of the most profound decisions in the Court’s history, Ex Parte Milligan. In that case, the court set aside a death sentence imposed during the Civil War by a military commission upon a civilian, Lambdin P. Milligan, who had been found guilty of inciting insurrection. The Court held that since the civil courts were operative, the trial of a civilian by a military tribunal was unconstitutional.
Davis refused several calls to become Chief Justice. A registered independent, Davis was nominated for President by the Labor Reform Convention in February 1872. However, he withdrew from the presidential contest after he failed to receive the Liberal Republican Party nomination, which went to editor Horace Greeley.
Death
Davis died on June 26, 1886 at the age of 71. He is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Bloomington, Illinois.
Notable Decisions
Ex Parte Milligan (1866)
