Henry Winter Davis (August 16, 1817December 30, 1865) was a
United States Representative
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
from the
4th and
3rd congressional districts of Maryland, well known as one of the
Radical Republicans
The Radical Republicans (later also known as "Stalwarts") were a faction within the Republican Party, originating from the party's founding in 1854, some 6 years before the Civil War, until the Compromise of 1877, which effectively ended Recons ...
during the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
. He was the driving force behind the abolition of slavery in Maryland in 1864.
Early life and career
Henry Winter Davis was born in
Annapolis, Maryland on August 16, 1817. His father, the Reverend Henry Lyon Davis (1775–1836), was a prominent
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
Episcopal clergyman, and was for some years president of
St John's College at Annapolis.
The son graduated at
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. It was founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
Kenyon has 1,708 undergraduates enrolled. Its 1,000-acre campus is ...
at
Gambier, Ohio in 1837, and from the
law department of the University of Virginia in 1841, and began the practice of law in
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C.
In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...
, but in 1850 removed to
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, where he won a high position at the
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
.
He wrote an elaborate political work entitled ''The War of Ormuzd and Ahriman in the Nineteenth Century'' (1853), in which he described the American Republic and the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
as the ultimate opponents in the struggles of humanity; it also dismissed the Southern contention that slavery was a divine institution.
Career in Congress
![hwdavis](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Hwdavis.jpg)
Early becoming imbued with strong anti-
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
views, though by inheritance he was himself a slaveholder, he began political life as a
Whig. After the Whig Party disintegrated, he became a
Know Nothing, and served as a member of the Know Nothing–influenced American Party in the House of Representatives from 1855 to 1861. In 1856 he told Congress the unamerican Irish Catholic immigrants were to blame for the election of Democrat
James Buchanan, stating:
The recent election has developed in an aggravated form every evil against which the American party protested. Foreign allies have decided the government of the country -- men naturalized in thousands on the eve of the election. Again in the fierce struggle for supremacy, men have forgotten the ban which the Republic puts on the intrusion of religious influence on the political arena. These influences have brought vast multitudes of foreign-born citizens to the polls, ignorant of American interests, without American feelings, influenced by foreign sympathies, to vote on American affairs; and those votes have, in point of fact, accomplished the present result.
In the contest over the speakership at the opening of the
36th United States Congress in 1859 he voted with the
Republicans, incurring a vote of
censure
A censure is an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism. In parliamentary procedure, it is a debatable main motion that could be adopted by a majority vote. Among the forms that it can take are a stern rebuke by a legislature, a spi ...
from the
Maryland Legislature
The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland that convenes within the Maryland State House, State House in Annapolis. It is a bicameral body: the upper house, upper chambe ...
, which called upon him to resign.
In the
1860 presidential election, not yet ready to become a Republican, he declined to be a candidate for the Republican nomination for
Vice President of the United States
The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice ...
, instead supported the
Constitutional Union ticket of
John Bell and
Edward Everett
Edward Everett (April 11, 1794 – January 15, 1865) was an American politician, Unitarian pastor, educator, diplomat, and orator from Massachusetts. Everett, as a Whig, served as U.S. representative, U.S. senator, the 15th governor of Mass ...
. Defeated that year for
reelection to Congress, in the winter of 1860 and 1861―between the
secession
Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...
of some Southern states and the beginning of the Civil War with the assault on
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island protecting Charleston, South Carolina from naval invasion. Its origin dates to the War of 1812 when the British invaded Washington by sea. It was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battle ...
―Davis was involved in compromise measures.
After
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
was elected and the Civil War began, Davis became a Republican. He was re-elected in 1862 to the U.S. House of Representatives and quickly became an aggressive
Radical Republican
The Radical Republicans (later also known as "Stalwarts") were a faction within the Republican Party, originating from the party's founding in 1854, some 6 years before the Civil War, until the Compromise of 1877, which effectively ended Recon ...
, which was viewed as particularly surprising given that Maryland was a
slaveholding border state.
From December 1863 to March 1865 Davis served as chairman of the
Committee on Foreign Affairs. In 1864, unwilling to leave the delicate questions concerning the
French intervention in Mexico entirely in the hands of President Lincoln and
Secretary of State William H. Seward
William Henry Seward (May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872) was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869, and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States Senator. A determined oppon ...
, Davis brought in a report very hostile to France, which was adopted by the House but not by the
Senate.
With other Radical Republicans, Davis was a bitter opponent of Lincoln's plan for the
Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
of the Southern states, which he thought too lenient.
![Title art detail, Oration on the life and character of Henry Winter Davis (IA orationonlifecha00cres) (page 1 crop)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Title_art_detail%2C_Oration_on_the_life_and_character_of_Henry_Winter_Davis_%28IA_orationonlifecha00cres%29_%28page_1_crop%29.jpg)
On February 15, 1864, he reported from committee a bill placing the process of Reconstruction under the control of Congress, and stipulating that the Confederate states, as a condition of being re-admitted to the Union would
disfranchise all important civil and military officers of the Confederacy, abolish slavery, and repudiate all debts incurred by or with the sanction of the Confederate government. In his speech supporting this measure, Davis declared that until Congress should recognize a government established under its auspices, there is no government in the rebel states save the authority of Congress. The bill, the first formal expression by Congress with regard to Reconstruction, did not pass both Houses until the closing hours of the session.
President Lincoln disapproved and on July 8 issued a proclamation defining his position. Soon afterward, on August 5, 1864, Davis joined
Benjamin F. Wade
Benjamin Franklin "Bluff" Wade (October 27, 1800March 2, 1878) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator for Ohio from 1851 to 1869. He is known for his leading role among the Radical Republicans. of Ohio, who had piloted the bill through the Senate, in issuing the so-called
Wade–Davis Manifesto, which violently denounced President Lincoln for encroaching on the domain of Congress and insinuated that the presidential policy would leave slavery unimpaired in the reconstructed states.
In a debate in Congress some months later he declared, "When I came into Congress ten years ago this was a government of law. I have lived to see it a government of personal will." He was one of the radical leaders who preferred
John C. Frémont to Lincoln in the
1864 election, but subsequently withdrew his opposition and supported the President for re-election. Joining the
Unconditional Union Party
The Unconditional Union Party was a loosely organized political entity during the American Civil War and the early days of Reconstruction. First established in 1861 in Missouri, where secession talk was strong, the party fully supported the pre ...
, he early favored the enlistment of African-Americans, and in July 1865 publicly advocated the extension of the suffrage to them. He was not a candidate for re-election to Congress in 1864. On Election Night, 1864, during a discussion, Lincoln said: "It has seemed to me recently that Winter Davis was growing more sensible to his own true interests and has ceased wasting his time by attacking me. I hope for his own good he has. He has been very malicious against me but has only injured himself by it. His conduct has been very strange to me. I came here, his friend, wishing to continue so. I had heard nothing but good of him; he was the cousin of my intimate friend Judge Davis. But he had scarcely been elected when I began to learn of his attacking me on all possible occasions."
[Paul M. Angle (1947), ed., ''The Lincoln Reader'', 1955 reprint, New York: Pocket Books, Ch. 22, "The Second Election", p. 529; John Hay's diary, November 8.]
Davis died in Baltimore on December 30, 1865.
[ His remains were interred in ]Greenmount Cemetery
Green Mount Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Established on March 15, 1838, and dedicated on July 13, 1839, it is noted for the large number of historical figures interred in its grounds as well as man ...
.
Henry W. Davis was a cousin of David Davis, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and later a U.S. Senator from Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
. He was also a first cousin of Brevet Brigadier General Moses B. Walker who served as an associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court.
See also
* Anna Ella Carroll
* James Morrison Harris
James Morrison Harris (November 20, 1817 – July 16, 1898) was a United States House of Representatives, Representative from the United States House of Representatives, Maryland District 3, third district of Maryland.
Born in Baltimore, Mar ...
* Thomas Holliday Hicks
Thomas Holliday Hicks (September 2, 1798February 14, 1865) was a politician in the divided border-state of Maryland during the American Civil War. As governor, opposing the Democrats, his views accurately reflected the conflicting local loyalt ...
* Henry William Hoffman
* Anthony Kennedy
Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1988 until his retirement in 2018. He was nominated to the court in 1987 by Presid ...
* John Pendleton Kennedy
John Pendleton Kennedy (October 25, 1795 – August 18, 1870) was an American novelist, lawyer and Whig politician who served as United States Secretary of the Navy from July 26, 1852, to March 4, 1853, during the administration of President Mi ...
* Cornelius Leary
* Plug Uglies
The Plug Uglies were an American Know Nothing, Nativist criminal street gang, sometimes referred to loosely as a political club, that operated in the west side of Baltimore, Maryland, from 1854 to 1865. The Plug Uglies gang name came from the en ...
* James Barroll Ricaud
* Rip Raps
Rip Raps is a small 15 acre (60,000 m²) artificial island at the mouth of the harbor area known as Hampton Roads in the independent city of Hampton in southeastern Virginia in the United States. Its name is derived from the Rip Rap Shoals in Hampt ...
* Edwin Hanson Webster
Notes
Bibliography
*''The Speeches of Henry Winter Davis'' (New York, 1867), to which is prefixed an oration on his life and character delivered in the House of Representatives by Senator John A. J. Creswell
John Andrew Jackson Creswell (November 18, 1828December 23, 1891) was an American politician and abolitionist from Maryland, who served as United States Representative, United States Senator, and as Postmaster General of the United States appo ...
of Maryland.
*Tracy Matthew Melton, ''Hanging Henry Gambrill: The Violent Career of Baltimore's Plug Uglies, 1854-1860'', Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society (2005). Details political activities in Davis' district during his tenure as an American Party congressman. A great deal of information on Davis is included in the narrative.
Further reading
* Jean H. Baker (1977), ''Ambivalent Americans: The Know-Nothing Party in Maryland'', Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.
* Henig, Gerald S. "Henry Winter Davis and the Speakership Contest of 1859-1860." ''Maryland Historical Magazine'' (1973) 68#1 pp 1–19. online
* Henig, Gerald S. ''Henry Winter Davis: Antebellum and Civil War Congressman from Maryland'' (1973) scholarly biography
References
Retrieved on 2009-5-12
*
External links
Mr. Lincoln's White House: Henry Winter Davis
''The War of Ormuzd and Ahriman in the Nineteenth Century''
(1853)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Henry Winter
1817 births
1865 deaths
Writers from Annapolis, Maryland
Maryland Republicans
Maryland Unionists
Maryland Constitutional Unionists
Members of the United States House of Representatives from Maryland
People of the Reconstruction Era
People of Maryland in the American Civil War
Union (American Civil War) political leaders
Unconditional Union Party members of the United States House of Representatives
Know-Nothing members of the United States House of Representatives from Maryland
Maryland Unconditional Unionists
Kenyon College alumni
University of Virginia School of Law alumni
Burials at Green Mount Cemetery
19th-century American politicians
Radical Republicans