David Davis

 

Role in the Republican National Convention of 1860

 

David Davis was instrumental in securing Abraham Lincoln’s nomination; he has been labeled the “engineer” and “manager” (among other titles) of the campaign team in Chicago during the convention and during the general election.

 

Quotes and Excerpts from Primary/Secondary Sources:

 

- To lead the “floor fight” in Chicago, Lincoln chose David Davis, a trusted friend and colleague, and Norman B. Judd (who is most responsible for getting the convention to be held in Lincoln's home state of Illinois).

 

- According to Davis’s biographer, Willard L. King, "David Davis's chief contribution to American history was the part he played in the nomination of Abraham Lincoln, the central figure in that history."[i]

 

- Thomas J. Pickett wrote: "David Davis performed the work of a score of ordinary men. At the Tremont, Sherman and other hotels, he outtalked the friends of William H. Seward, and convinced many that the convention would act wisely in choosing Lincoln for their standard bearers. While he was doing yeoman's services for his friend, others who claimed to be leaders were damning Mr. Lincoln with faint praise."[ii]

 

- Historian and author David Donald: “From his rooms at the Tremont Hotel, David Davis took charge of the operation. His primary objective was to secure at least one hundred votes for Lincoln on the first ballot - more than any other candidate except Seward - with other votes in reserve so that Lincoln would appear to gain strength on a second ballot. For this purpose he sent out members of his team to talk with delegations where they might have influence…”[iii]

- Iowa Republican leader to Lincoln: “I will say that in my honest opinion that for the extraordinary effort of Judge Davis, you would not have received the nomination at the Chicago convention."[iv]

 

 - Leonard Swett to President Lincoln: "If Judge Davis, with his tact and force, had not lived, and all other things had been as they were, I believe you would not now be sitting where you are." Swett recalled that Lincoln replied: “Yes, that is so."[v]

 

- Henry C. Whitney: [Edward L.] Baker “related that when he read the [Endorsement] note to the delegates and workers gathered at the Lincoln headquarters he was greeted with a burst of laughter.” Davis, who guffawed louder than anyone else, said: “Lincoln ain’t here, and don’t know what we have to meet, so we will go ahead, as if we hadn’t heard from him, and he must ratify it.”[vi]

 

- "Davis and Swett negotiated with the leading [Simon] Cameron operatives, John P. Sanderson and Joseph Casey, 'in the wee small hours of Friday morning.'"[vii]

 

- Simon Cameron: “Lincoln told me that he was more indebted to Judd than any other one man for his nomination, but I told him I thought Davis and Swett did more for him. They bought all my men – Casey and Sanderson and the rest of them. I was for Seward[.] I knew I couldn’t be nominated but I wanted a complimentary vote from my own State. But Davis and the rest of them stole all my men. Seward accused me of having cheated him.”[viii]

 

- Alexander K. McClure of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Republican State Committee: “Two positions in the Cabinet, one for Pennsylvania and one for Indiana, were positively promised by David Davis at an early period of the contest.”[ix]

 

Relationship to Lincoln

 

David Davis was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln.

 

Quotes and Excerpts from Primary/Secondary Sources:

 

- Lincoln: “Judge Davis is my friend. I have known him for many years and think I know his views…”[x]

 

- Davis consoled and encouraged Lincoln after his loss for the Illinois Senate seat (to Stephen Douglas) in 1858: “The result in Illinois, has both astonished and mortified me beyond measure There is one thing certain and that is that you have nothing to blame yourself for-- You have made a noble canvass -- (which, if unavailing in this state) has earned you a National reputation, & made you friends every where-- I doubt whether among your friends in Illinois any one feels your defeat more deeply than I do.”[xi]

 

- Trevor Hill: “…Lincoln was the prime favorite of the privileged clique which made the judge's room its headquarters."[xii]

 

- In his letters to Lincoln, Davis would often end his correspondence with “your friend”[xiii] or “truly your friend.”[xiv]

 

- In Michael Burlingame’s Abraham Lincoln: A Life, he labels Davis as a “close friend of Lincoln, and the executor of his estate…”

 

Davis and Lincoln also worked together for many years. Davis, a judge, and Lincoln, a lawyer, worked side by side in Illinois as well as during the Lincoln Administration (Lincoln appointed Davis as a Supreme Court Justice in 1862). Though good friends, they did not always agree with one another, but that did not seem to affect their personal relationship.

 

Quotes and Excerpts from Primary/Secondary Sources:

 

- Davis seemed to be impartial in his rulings in Lincoln cases: "Out of eighty-seven cases tried by Lincoln before the court without a jury, Davis decided forty-seven against him and only forty in his favor."[xv]

 

- Lincoln sometimes replaced Judge Davis on the bench when illness or personal business kept him away.

 

- Davis did not always support Lincoln on vital issues during the Civil War. For example, the decision in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Ex Parte Milligan. In Milligan, Davis and the court ruled that Lincoln’s suspension of Habeus Corpus to be unconstitutional.

 

- Davis quote shortly after Lincoln’s murder: “Mr. Lincoln was loved by his brethren of the bar, and no body of men will grieve more at his death, or pay more sincere tribute to his memory. His presence on the circuit was watched for with interest, and never failed to produce joy and hilarity. When casually absent the spirts of both bar and people were depressed. He was not fond of controversy, and would compromise a law suit whenever practicable."[xvi]

 

Lincoln-Related Primary Sources

- David Davis to Abraham Lincoln, November 7, 1858

- David Davis to Abraham Lincoln, September 25, 1858

- John P. Sanderson to David Davis, November 12, 1860

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                       "Truly Your Friend, David Davis"

 

 

Related Links

- The Supreme Court Historical Society

- Mr. Lincoln & Friends

- Mr. Lincoln’s White House

- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

- Lincoln’s Manager: David Davis (Book Review – Link to Buy)

- Davis, David (House Divided)

- "I'll keep them in prison awhile ...": Abraham Lincoln and David Davis on Civil Liberties in Wartime

 

Citations

[i] King, Willard L., Lincoln's Manager: David Davis, 1960. http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=40&subjectID=3

 

[ii] Wilson, Rufus Rockwell, editor, Intimate Memories of Lincoln, p. 192-193 (Thomas J. Pickett, Lincoln Nebraska Daily State Journal, April 12, 1881).

http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=40&subjectID=3

 

[iii] Donald, David Herbert, Lincoln, p. 248.

http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=40&subjectID=3

 

[iv] Sandburg, Carl, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Volume II, p. 65 (Letter of Hawkins Taylor to Mr. Lincoln).

http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=40&subjectID=3

 

[v] Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, editor, Herndon’s Informants, p. 710 (Letter of Leonard Swett to William H. Herndon, August 29, 1887).

http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=40&subjectID=3

 

[vi] Burlingame, Michael. “Make No Contracts,” Journal Divided (September 2010),

http://housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/journal/2010/09/27/no-contracts/.

 

[vii] Burlingame.

 

[viii] Ibid.

 

[ix] Ibid.

 

[x] Basler, Roy P., editor, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, First Supplement, p. 32 (Letter to Chicago Tribune, June 8, 1858).

http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=40&subjectID=3

 

[xi] David Davis to Abraham Lincoln, November 7, 1858, Danville, IL, Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html.

 

[xii] Hill, Trevor, Lincoln the Lawyer, p. 183.

http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=40&subjectID=3

 

[xiii] David Davis to Abraham Lincoln, September 25, 1858, Lincoln, IL, Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html.

 

[xiv] David Davis to Abraham Lincoln, November 7, 1858, Danville, IL, Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html.

 

[xv] King, Willard L., Lincoln's Manager: David Davis, p. 91.

http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=40&subjectID=3

 

[xvi] Wilson, Rufus Rockwell, editor, Intimate Memories of Lincoln, p. 70 (David Davis).

http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=40&subjectID=3