David Davis, (born March 9, 1815, Cecil county, Md., U.S.—died June 26, 1886, Bloomington, Ill.), American politician, a close associate of Abraham Lincoln. He was a Supreme Court justice and senator during the antebellum, American Civil War, and postwar eras. After graduating from Kenyon College in 1832, Davis earned a law degree from Yale in 1835. He was admitted to the Illinois bar the same year and in 1836 established a practice in Bloomington. Always politically ambitious, Davis was elected to the Illinois legislature in 1844 on the Whig ticket. He attended the state constitutional convention of 1847 and the …(100 of 308 words)