John W. Davis, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

John W. Davis

American politician

Date of Birth: 13-Apr-1873

Place of Birth: Clarksburg, West Virginia, United States

Date of Death: 24-Mar-1955

Profession: lawyer, politician, diplomat

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Aries


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About John W. Davis

  • John William Davis (April 13, 1873 – March 24, 1955) was an American politician, diplomat and lawyer.
  • He served under President Woodrow Wilson as the Solicitor General of the United States and the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
  • He was the Democratic nominee for president in 1924 and lost to Republican incumbent Calvin Coolidge. Born and raised in West Virginia, Davis briefly worked as a teacher before beginning his long legal career.
  • Davis's father, John J.
  • Davis, had been a delegate to the Wheeling Convention and served in the United States 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 for states' rights.
  • Davis served in the United States House of Representatives from 1911 to 1913, helping to write the Clayton Antitrust Act.
  • He held the position of solicitor general from 1913 to 1918, during which time he successfully argued for the illegality of Oklahoma's "grandfather law" in Guinn v.
  • United States. While serving as the ambassador to Britain from 1918 to 1921, Davis was a dark horse candidate for the 1920 Democratic presidential nomination.
  • After he left office, Davis helped establish the Council on Foreign Relations and advocated for the repeal of Prohibition.
  • The 1924 Democratic National Convention nominated Davis for president after 103 ballots.
  • His nomination made him the second nominee (With Wilson having been nominated in 1912) from a former slave state, Virginia since the Civil War, and Davis remains the only major party presidential candidate from West Virginia.
  • Running on a ticket with Charles W.
  • Bryan, Davis lost in a landslide to Coolidge. Davis did not seek public office again after 1924 but remained a prominent attorney, representing many of the country's largest businesses.
  • Over a 60-year legal career, he argued 140 cases before the United States Supreme Court.
  • He famously argued the winning side in Youngstown Steel, in which the Supreme Court ruled against President Harry Truman's seizure of the nation's steel plants.
  • Davis also unsuccessfully defended the "separate but equal" doctrine in Briggs v.
  • Elliott, one of the companion cases to Brown v.
  • Board of Education.

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