David Davis (1815-1886)

David Davis was born on March 9, 1815, in Maryland. He was educated at Kenyon College as 13-year old, and then moved to Massachusetts to read law. He then entered New Haven Law School for a short time, and moved to Pekin, Illinois (in central Illinois across the Illinois River from Peoria) in 1835. The next year, Davis moved about 40 miles east to Bloomington, Illinois.

As a young lawyer, Davis became acquainted with Abraham Lincoln. They became more closely acquainted after Davis was elected judge of the Eighth Judicial District in 1848, and Davis and Lincoln traveled the judicial circuit together for the next 11 years. They were not intimates, however, but professional companions. In 1860, Davis managed Lincoln's campaign for President, and two years later, Lincoln appointed Davis to the Supreme Court. Davis was not learned man, and his tenure on the Court was largely unimpressive.

Davis was also a peripheral figure in the presidential election dispute of 1876. After the 1876 presidential election, Democratic nominee had a majority of the popular vote, but was one vote shy of a majority of electoral vote. Three states (Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana) each sent in two sets of electoral votes. Democrats refused to acquiesce to the counting of electoral ballots in Congress, and instead forced the creation of a commission to determine which ballots were the rightful ballots. The electoral commission consisted of 5 congressional Democrats and 5 congressional Republicans, and 4 Supreme Court justices, two of whom were Democrats and two of whom were Republicans. Those justices were to pick a fifth Justice to complete the commission's membership. It was widely believed that Davis, although a Republican, was favored by Democrats. Apparently in order to curry favor with him, Democratic operatives convinced the Democratic legislature in Illinois to appoint Davis Senator from Illinois. They did so, and upon appointment, Davis refused to serve on the electoral commission because he was now a Senator. Instead, Justice Joseph Bradley was appointed, and in 8-7 votes, the commission held that the Republican electoral ballots were the official ballots of the three Reconstruction states, and thus Hayes won the presidency by one electoral vote. In return for Democratic support of the commission's decision, federal troops were removed from southern states shortly after Hayes' inauguration, and Reconstruction was at an end.

Davis was a Senator for one term. He died on June 26, 1886. He was married in 1838 to Sarah Walker, who died in 1879.