John W. Davis | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| 37thUnited States Ambassador to the United Kingdom | |
| In office December 18, 1918 – March 9, 1921 | |
| President | Woodrow Wilson Warren G. Harding |
| Preceded by | Walter Page |
| Succeeded by | George Harvey |
| 15thSolicitor General of the United States | |
| In office August 30, 1913 – November 26, 1918 | |
| President | Woodrow Wilson |
| Preceded by | William Bullitt |
| Succeeded by | Alexander King |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromWest Virginia's1st district | |
| In office March 4, 1911 – August 29, 1913 | |
| Preceded by | William Hubbard |
| Succeeded by | Matthew Neely |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John William Davis (1873-04-13)April 13, 1873 |
| Died | March 24, 1955(1955-03-24) (aged 81) |
| Resting place | Locust Valley Cemetery |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Cyrus Vance (cousin, later adopted son) |
| Education | Washington and Lee University (BA,LLB) |
John William Davis (April 13, 1873 – March 24, 1955) was an American politician, diplomat and lawyer. He served under PresidentWoodrow Wilson as theSolicitor General of the United States and theUnited States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He was theDemocratic nominee for president in1924, losing toRepublican incumbentCalvin Coolidge.
Davis was born and raised inWest Virginia, where his father,John James Davis, had been a delegate to theWheeling Convention and served in theU.S. House of Representatives in the 1870s. Davis joined his father's legal practice and adopted many of his father's political views, including opposition to anti-lynching legislation and support forstates' rights. Davis served in the U.S. House from 1911 to 1913, helping to write theClayton Antitrust Act. He held the position of Solicitor General of the United States from 1913 to 1918, during which time he successfully argued for the unconstitutionality of thegrandfather clause inOklahoma's constitution, which had a discriminatory effect against African-American voters, inGuinn v. United States.
While serving as ambassador to Britain from 1918 to 1921, Davis was adark horse candidate for the 1920 Democratic presidential nomination. After he left office, Davis helped establish theCouncil on Foreign Relations and advocated for the repeal ofProhibition. The1924 Democratic National Convention nominated Davis for president after 103 ballots. He remains the only major party presidential nominee from West Virginia. Running on a ticket withCharles W. Bryan, Davis lost in a landslide to incumbent President Coolidge. Davis did not seek public office again after 1924. He continued as a prominent attorney, associated with several law firms over the years, and represented many of the largest companies in the United States from the 1920s onwards. Davis argued 140 cases before theU.S. Supreme Court.
In addition to his legal work, Davis was also involved in the New York City Bar Association, serving as its president from 1931 to 1933. In 1933, he representedJ. P. Morgan Jr. and his companies during a Senate investigation into private banking and thecauses of the Great Depression. During the last two decades of his career, Davis represented large corporations before the Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality and application of New Deal legislation. He lost many of these cases but scored a major victory inYoungstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952), in which the Supreme Court ruled against PresidentHarry Truman's seizure of the nation's steel plants. Davis unsuccessfully defended the "separate but equal" doctrine inBriggs v. Elliott (1952), one of the companion cases toBrown v. Board of Education (1954), in which the Court ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional.
Davis's paternal family had roots in western Virginia and what became West Virginia. His great-grandfather, Caleb Davis, was a clockmaker in theShenandoah Valley. In 1816, his grandfather, John Davis, moved toClarksburg in what would later becomeWest Virginia. Its population then was 600–700, and he ran a saddle and harness business. His father,John James Davis, attended Lexington Law School, which later became theWashington and Lee University School of Law. By the age of twenty, John J. had established a law practice in Clarksburg. He was a delegate in theVirginia General Assembly, and after the northwestern portion of Virginia broke away from the rest ofVirginia in 1863 and formed West Virginia, he was elected to the new state's House of Delegates and later to theUnited States House of Representatives.[1]
John W. Davis's mother Anna Kennedy (1841–1917) was fromBaltimore, Maryland, daughter of William Wilson Kennedy and his wife Catherine Esdale Martin. Kennedy was a lumber merchant. Catherine was the daughter of Tobias Martin,dairy farmer and amateur poet, and his wife, a member of the Esdale family. The Esdales were members of theReligious Society of Friends, or Quakers, who had settled nearValley Forge,Pennsylvania. Reportedly they helped provide support for theContinental Army underGeorge Washington, which had camped there in the winter of 1777–1778.[2]
Davis's Sunday school teacher recalled that he had "a noble face even when small". His biographer said that "[h]e used better English, kept himself cleaner, and was more dignified than most youngsters. He was also extraordinarily well-mannered."[3]
Davis's education began athome, as his mother taught him to read before he had memorized the alphabet. She had him read poetry and other literature from their home library. After turning ten, Davis was put in a class with older students to prepare him for the state teachers examination. A few years later, he was enrolled in a previously all-female seminary that doubled as a private boarding and day school. He never had grades under 94.[4] Davis enteredWashington and Lee University at the age of sixteen. He graduated in 1892 with a major in Latin. He joined thePhi Kappa Psi fraternity, participated in intramural sports, and attended mixed parties.[5]
Davis would have started law school directly after graduation, but he lacked funds. Instead, he became a teacher for Major Edward H. McDonald ofCharles Town, West Virginia. Davis taught McDonald's nine children and his six nieces and nephews. His student Julia, nineteen at the time, later became Davis's wife. Davis fulfilled a nine-month contract with McDonald. He returned to Clarksburg and apprenticed at his father's law practice. For fourteen months he copied documents by hand, read cases, and did much of what other aspiring lawyers did at the time to "read the law".[6]
Davis graduated with a law degree fromWashington and Lee University School of Law in 1895 and was elected Law Class Orator.[7] His speech gave a glimpse of his advocacy skills:
[The] lawyer has been always the sentinel of the watchtower of liberty. In all times and all countries has he stood forth in defense of his nation, her laws and liberties, not, it may be, under a shower of leaden death, but often with the frown of a revengeful and angry tyrant bent upon him.Fellow classmates of 1895, shall we ... prove unworthy?[3]
After graduation, Davis obtained the three signatures required to receive his law license (one from a local judge, and two from local attorneys, who attested to his proficiency in the law and upstanding moral character) and joined his father in practice in Clarksburg. They called their partnership Davis and Davis, Attorneys at Law. Davis lost his first three cases before his fortunes began to turn.
Before Davis had completed his first year of private practice, he was recruited to Washington & Lee Law School as an assistant professor, starting in the fall of 1896. At the time, the law school had a faculty of two, and Davis became the third. At the end of the year, Davis was asked to return but demurred. He decided that he needed the "rough & tumble" of private practice.[8]
On June 20, 1899, he married Julia T. McDonald, who died on August 17, 1900. They had one daughter together, Julia McDonald Davis. She later married Charles P. Healy, and then William M. Adams. The widower Davis married again, on January 2, 1912, to Ellen G. Bassel. She died in 1943.
Davis was the cousin and adoptive father ofCyrus Vance, who later served asSecretary of State underJimmy Carter. Vance, born in Clarksburg in 1917, lost his father in 1922 and was sent by his widowed mother to study in Switzerland. The much older and by then quite prominent Davis, referred to as an "uncle" within the family, mentored young Vance and adopted him.[9]
Davis's daughter Julia was one of the first two female journalists hired by theAssociated Press in 1926. (The other was probablyMarguerite Young.[10][11]) Julia married first Charles P. Healy and later William McMillan Adams, president of Sprague International, the export subsidiary ofSprague Electric. He was the son of Arthur Henry Adams, president of theUnited States Rubber Company. Both father and son were aboard the luxury linerRMS Lusitania when it was sunk by a German submarine in 1915. Arthur Adams died; his son survived.
Julia and William divorced, and both remarried. She divorced again, and later they remarried in their old age. Adams had two sons by his second wife, John Perry and Arthur Henry Adams II. Julia died in 1993 with no natural children but claimed six "by theft and circumstance."[citation needed]
Davis's father had been a delegate to theWheeling Convention, which had created the state of West Virginia, but he had also opposed theabolitionists andRadical Republicans, and opposed ratification of theFifteenth Amendment. Davis acquired much of his father'ssouthern Democratic politics, opposingwomen's suffrage, Federalchild-labor laws and anti-lynching legislation, andHarry S. Truman's civil rights program. He defended states' rights to establish thepoll tax by questioning whether uneducated non-taxpayers should be allowed to vote. Davis was as much opposed tocentralism in politics as he was to the concentration of capital by large corporations, supporting a number of earlyprogressive laws regulatinginterstate commerce and limiting the power of corporations. Consequently, he felt distinctly out of place in theRepublican Party, which supported free association and free markets, and maintained his father's staunch allegiance to theDemocratic Party, even as he later represented the interests of business opposed to theNew Deal. Davis ranked as one of the lastJeffersonians, as he supported states' rights and opposed a strong executive (he would be the lead attorney against Truman's nationalization of the steel industry).
In 1898, Davis was elected to theWest Virginia House of Delegates, ending a 20-year Republican hold on the seat. Even though Davis had argued in behalf of some railroad companies during his legal career, he was elected by denouncing them, as his opponent had made enemies by supporting railroad interests. He was touted for speaker, but ended up becoming the Democratic floor leader. He became well known in the legislature, as few, if any, in the body could match his legal abilities.
After his one term in the legislature, Davis became the Harrison County party chairman for 12 years. He was also a delegate to the1904 Democratic National Convention and voted for the more conservative candidate,Alton B. Parker. The populism ofWilliam Jennings Bryan never appealed to him, and he was pleased to see the Democrats moving in Parker's direction.[12]
He represented West Virginia in theU.S. House of Representatives from 1911 to 1913, where he was one of the authors of theClayton Antitrust Act. Davis also served as one of theimpeachment managers in the successfulimpeachment trial of JudgeRobert W. Archbald. He served asU.S. Solicitor General from 1913 to 1918. As Solicitor General, he successfully argued inGuinn v. United States for the unconstitutionality of thegrandfather clause in Oklahoma's constitution. It exempted residents descended from a voter registered in 1866 (i.e. whites) from aliteracy test that effectively disenfranchised blacks. Davis's personal posture differed from his position as an advocate. Throughout his career, he could separate his personal views and professional advocacy.
Davis served as President Wilson's ambassador to Great Britain from 1918 to 1921. He reflected deep Southern support forWilsonianism, based on a reborn Southern patriotism, a distrust of the Republican Party, and a resurgence of Anglophilism. Davis proselytized in London for theLeague of Nations based on his paternalistic belief that peace depended primarily on Anglo-American friendship and leadership. He was disappointed by Wilson's mismanagement of the treaty ratification and by Republican isolationism and distrust of the League.[13] In his diaries Davis kept records of various developments in British politics at that time, such as social reform proposals and enactments such as unemployment insurance, profit-sharing,[14] a minimum wage law, and an eight-hour law. Davis's diary also noted how prime ministerDavid Lloyd George stated “that not only was his programme liberal but so liberal that his programme shocked an American Democrat.”[15]
Davis was elected a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1924.[16]
Davis was adark horse candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in both 1920 and 1924. His friend and partnerFrank Polk managed his campaign at the1924 Democratic National Convention. He won the nomination in 1924 as a compromise candidate on the 103rd ballot, after intense infighting between supporters of candidates formerSecretary of TreasuryWilliam Gibbs McAdoo andNew York GovernorAl Smith, Davis was selected to appease both sides. AlthoughTennessee'sAndrew Johnson served as president afterLincoln was assassinated, Davis's nomination made him the first presidential candidate from a formerslave state since the Civil War, and as of 2024 he remains the only ever nominee from West Virginia.[17] Davis's denunciation of theKu Klux Klan and prior defense of black voting rights as Solicitor General cost him votes among conservative Southern Democrats, while gaining on Cox's vote in usual Democratic strongholds like New York City. Davis's staid personality ill-suited him for the demands of campaigning in an age of machine politics, as shown byClaude G. Bowers' description of a meeting arranged for Davis with a delegation of Irish Catholics from New York:
Davis went down the line shaking hands cordially but with the dignity with which he would have passed down the line at a diplomatic reception. It was a fine cordiality, but not the kind these men understood. He should have punched them playfully in the chest or slapped them vigorously on the shoulder. Then he turned and looked at the visitors, apparently a little shy and uncertain what was expected of him.
Finally the vice-chairman spoke. "These men are here to help elect you," he said, almost accusingly.
Davis smiled and said, "Strength to their arms. We want every man in the boat and every man with an oar."
There was another embarrassing pause, and the vice-chairman surprised me with an impatient outburst. "Tell them you are an organization man!" he roared.
Davis admitted he was an organization man, looking a bit annoyed by the way he was being put through his paces, and then turned quickly to Mike Hennessy of the Boston Globe and engaged him in conversation. Clearly Davis did not qualify as a backslapping,baby-kissing politician.[18]
He lost in a landslide toCalvin Coolidge, who did not leave the White House to campaign. Davis's 28.8 percent remains the smallest percentage of the popular vote ever won by a Democratic presidential nominee. Nonetheless, he won every state of the formerConfederacy, plusOklahoma.
Davis was a member of the National Advisory Council of the Crusaders, an influential organization that promoted therepeal of Prohibition. He was the founding president of theCouncil on Foreign Relations, formed in 1921, chairman of theCarnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a trustee of theRockefeller Foundation from 1922 to 1939. Davis also served as a delegate from New York to the1928 and1932Democratic National Conventions.
In the1932 presidential election Davis campaigned in behalf ofFranklin D. Roosevelt, but never developed a close relationship with him. After Roosevelt took office, Davis quickly turned against theNew Deal and joined withAl Smith and other anti-New Deal Democrats in forming theAmerican Liberty League. He supported the Republican presidential candidate in the 1936, 1940, and 1944 elections.[19]
Davis was implicated by retired Marine Corps Major GeneralSmedley Butler in theBusiness Plot, an alleged political conspiracy in 1933 to overthrow Roosevelt, in testimony before the McCormack-Dickstein Committee, whose deliberations began on November 20, 1934, and culminated in the Committee's report to the U.S. House of Representatives on February 15, 1935. Davis was not called to testify because "The committee will not take cognizance of names brought into the testimony which constitute mere hearsay."
In 1949 Davis, as a member of the board of theCarnegie Endowment for International Peace, testified as a character witness forAlger Hiss (Carnegie's president) during his trials (part of the Hiss-Chambers Case): "In the twilight of his career, following the end of World War II, Davis publicly supported Alger Hiss andJ. Robert Oppenheimer during the hysteria of the McCarthy hearings" (more accurately, the "McCarthy Era" as the Hiss Case (1948–1950) preceded McCarthyism in the 1950s).[20][21][22]
Davis was one of the most prominent and successful lawyers of the first half of the 20th century, arguing 140 cases before theU.S. Supreme Court.[23] His firm, variously titled Stetson Jennings Russell & Davis, then Davis Polk Wardwell Gardiner & Reed, then Davis Polk Wardwell Sunderland & Kiendl (nowDavis Polk & Wardwell), represented many of the largest companies in the United States in the 1920s and following decades. From 1931 to 1933, Davis also served as president of theNew York City Bar Association.
In 1933, Davis served as legal counsel for the financierJ.P. Morgan, Jr. and his companies during theSenate investigation into private banking and the causes of the recentGreat Depression.[24][25][26]
The last twenty years of Davis's practice included representing large corporations before the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality and application of New Deal legislation. Davis lost many of these battles.
Of the 140 cases Davis argued before the Supreme Court,[23] 73 were as Solicitor General, and 67 as a private lawyer.Lawrence Wallace, who retired from the Office of the Solicitor General in 2003, argued 157 cases during his career but many believe that few attorneys have argued more cases than Davis.[27]Daniel Webster andWalter Jones are believed to have argued more cases than Davis, but they were lawyers of a much earlier era.[23]
One of Davis's most influential arguments before the Supreme Court was inYoungstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer in May 1952, when the Court ruled on President Truman's seizure of the nation's steel plants.
While Davis wasn't brought into the case until March 1952, he was already familiar with the concept of a presidential seizure of a steel mill. In 1949, the Republic Steel Company, fearful of advice given to Truman by Attorney GeneralTom C. Clark, asked Davis for an opinion letter on whether the President could seize private industry in a "National Emergency." Davis wrote that the President could not do so, unless such power already was vested in the President by law. He further went on to opine on the Selective Service Act of 1948's intent, and that seizures were only authorized if a company did not sufficiently prioritize government production in a time of crisis.
Arguing for the steel industry, Davis spoke for 87 minutes before the Court. He described Truman's acts as a"'usurpation' of power, that were 'without parallel in American history.'"[28] The justices allowed him to proceed uninterrupted, with only one question from JusticeFelix Frankfurter,[citation needed] who may have had a personal feeling against Davis relating to his 1924 presidential campaign.[29] It had been predicted that the President's actions would be upheld, and the injunction would be lifted, but the Court decided 6–3 to uphold the injunction stopping the seizure of the steel mills.
Washington Post writer Chalmers Roberts subsequently wrote that rarely "has a courtroom sat in such silent admiration for a lawyer at the bar" in reference to Davis's oral argument. Unfortunately, Davis did not allow the oral argument to be printed because the stenographic transcript was so garbled he feared it would not be close to what was said at the Court.[30]
Of particular note in this case is that one of the justices in the majority was Tom Clark, who as attorney general in 1949 had advised Truman to proceed with the seizure of Republic Steel. Yet, in 1952, Justice Clark voted with the majority without joining JusticeHugo Black's opinion, in direct opposition to his previous advice.[31]
Davis's legal career is most remembered for his final appearance before the Supreme Court, in which he unsuccessfully defended the "separate but equal" doctrine inBriggs v. Elliott, a companion case toBrown v. Board of Education. Davis, as a defender of racial segregation and state control of education, uncharacteristically displayed his emotions in arguing thatSouth Carolina had shown good faith in attempting to eliminate any inequality between black and white schools and should be allowed to continue to do so without judicial intervention. He expected himself to win "five to four, or maybe six to three", even after the matter was re-argued after the death ofChief JusticeFred M. Vinson.[32] After his death, Davis himself was briefly considered byPresidentDwight D. Eisenhower as thenomination to replace the Chief Justice, though the position ultimately went toCaliforniaGovernorEarl Warren due to Davis's age.[33] After the arguments, President Eisenhower invited Davis to aWhite House dinner with Chief Justice Warren as a way to signal his support of Davis's side of the case. After the Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Chief Justice Warren, unanimously ruled against his client's position, Davis returned the $25,000 (equivalent to $300,000 in 2024),[34] that he had received from South Carolina, although he was not required to do so, but kept a silver tea service that had been presented to him.[35] It has also been reported that he never charged South Carolina in the first place.[36] He declined to participate further in the case, as he did not wish to be involved in the drafting of decrees to implement the Court's decision.[35]
Davis was a member of theAmerican Bar Association, theCouncil on Foreign Relations, theFreemasons,Phi Beta Kappa, andPhi Kappa Psi. He was a resident ofNassau County, New York, and practiced law in New York City until his death inCharleston, South Carolina, at the age of 81. He is interred atLocust Valley Cemetery inLocust Valley, New York.
Upon his death,Supreme Court JusticeStanley F. Reed, who was the last holdout in the unanimous Brown decision, said of Davis "his appearances in this Court were in the best tradition of the American Bar".[37] The John W. Davis Federal Building on West Pike Street inClarksburg, West Virginia, is named for him. The building housing the Student Health Center at Washington and Lee University is named for him, as is the Law School's appellate advocacy program, and an award for the graduating student with the highest grade point average.[38][39]
In the 1991 television filmSeparate But Equal, a dramatization of theBrown case, Davis was portrayed by the famed actorBurt Lancaster in his final film role.
West Virginia's 1st congressional district, 1910:[40]
West Virginia's 1st congressional district, 1912:[41]
1924 Democratic presidential primaries
1924 United States presidential election
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromWest Virginia's 1st congressional district 1911–1913 | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | United States Solicitor General 1913–1918 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom 1918–1921 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democraticnominee forPresident of the United States 1924 | Succeeded by |
|  | |
Acting officeholders shown initalics | ||
