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DAVIS DAVIS
was born in Cecil County, Maryland, on March 9, 1815.
After graduation from Kenyon College in 1832, he moved
to Massachusetts where he read law with a local judge.
He then enrolled in Yale Law School and was graduated
in 1835. Davis moved to Pekin, Illinois, to establish
a practice, and one year later moved to Bloomington. He
was elected to the State Legislature in 1845 and to the
Illinois Constitutional Convention in 1847. In the Convention,
Davis championed a popularly elected state judiciary to
replace the existing system of election by the legislature.
His views prevailed, and in 1848 he was elected a Circuit
Court Judge. Re-elected twice, he served until 1862. Abraham
Lincoln and Stephen Douglas were among the lawyers who
tried cases in his court. On December 1, 1862, President
Lincoln nominated Davis to the Supreme Court of the United
States. The Senate confirmed the appointment one week
later. Davis had served fourteen years on the Court when
he was elected to the United States Senate by the Illinois
State Legislature. He resigned from the Supreme Court
and served one term in the Senate, retiring in 1883. Davis
died three years later, on June 26, 1886, at the age of
seventy-one. |
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