John W. Davis

This article is about presidential candidate John W. Davis. On the governor of Rhode Island, see John W. Davis (Politician, 1826) ; on the Georgia representative, see John William Davis (Politician) .

John W. Davis

John William Davis (born April 13, 1873 in Clarksburg , West Virginia , † March 24, 1955 in Charleston , South Carolina ) was an American politician , diplomat and lawyer. He gained international fame as a presidential candidate for the Democratic Party in the 1924 elections .

His father, attorney John James Davis (1835-1916), was first a member of the Virginia House of Representatives , later in the West Virginia House of Representatives and finally in the House of Representatives of the United States . John Davis graduated from Washington and Lee University in Lexington with a law degree in 1895 and then joined his father's law firm in Clarksburg. In 1896 he accepted a position as professor at Washington and Lee University, but gave up this position in 1897 in favor of his practical legal work. In 1899 he was elected to the West Virginia House of Representatives, from 1911 to 1913 he was a member of the State of West Virginia in the US House of Representatives, from 1913 to 1918 Solicitor General of the United States and from 1918 to 1921 as successor to Walter Hines Page US Ambassador to the United Kingdom . After returning from London , he settled in Locust Valley ( Long Island ) in Nassau County and opened a law firm on Wall Street , New York City , where he practiced until shortly before his death.

After Davis had already been considered one of the secret favorites for a nomination in 1920, the Democratic Party put him on July 9, 1924 as a compromise candidate for the presidential election; his running for president was Charles W. Bryan , governor of Nebraska and younger brother of three times unsuccessful presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan . The then internally strongly torn party needed a record 17 meeting days at the Democratic National Convention in Madison Square Garden until a candidate could be determined with Davis in the 103rd ballot. Al Smith , who was still leading after the 100th ballot , withdrew his application. Since Davis had denounced the Ku Klux Klan and, as Solicitor General under President Woodrow Wilson, had advocated strengthening the electoral rights of African Americans , he lost votes in the southern states (where he nevertheless received narrow majorities) and nationwide with conservative Democrats. With 28.8% of the vote and 136 electors, he was clearly defeated by the Republican incumbent Calvin Coolidge (54%, 382 electors). Many regular democratic voters who were dissatisfied with their party - both from the conservative and the left-wing liberal spectrum - opted for Robert M. La Follette from the Progressive Party , who accepted some of the classic positions of the Democrats, such as greater state control of the economy had made my own. La Follette received 16.6% of the vote and 13 electors.

As a member of the National Advisory Council of the Crusaders , Davis advocated the abolition of alcohol prohibition . In 1921 he was founding president of the Council on Foreign Relations and from 1922 to 1939 curator of the Rockefeller Foundation . Since 1924 he was a member of the American Philosophical Society .

John W. Davis is considered one of the most prominent and successful US lawyers of the first half of the 20th century. He appeared before the United States Supreme Court in 140 cases , most recently in 1952.

Davis married Julia Terrell McDonald from Kentucky on June 20, 1899 in Charlestown, West Virginia , who died on August 17, 1900 at the age of 26. They had a daughter, Julia McDonald Davis (1900-1993), who was one of the Associated Press's first female journalists in 1926 and later a successful author of 21 novels and four plays. Julia married William McMillan Adams (1895–1986), the son of Arthur H. Adams, president of the United States Rubber Company and survivor of the RMS Lusitania . In his second marriage, John Davis was married to Ellen Graham Bassel (1880-1943) since January 2, 1912. Her sister Caroline was the wife of Dr. Waldo Percy Goff, a son of Nathan Goff .

His nephew was the future US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance .

literature

• William H. Harbaugh: Lawyer's Lawyer. The Life of John W. Davis. Oxford University Press, New York 1973, ISBN 0-19-501699-8

Web links

Commons : John W. Davis  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• John W. Davis in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• John W. Davis in nndb (English)
• Newspaper article about John W. Davis in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Member History: John W. Davis. American Philosophical Society, accessed July 7, 2018 (incorrect year of birth).