RARE “Massachusetts Governor\" John Davis Cut Siganture For Sale

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RARE “Massachusetts Governor\" John Davis Cut Siganture:
$49.99

Up for sale "Massachusetts Governor" John Davis Clipped Siganture.

– April 19, 1854) was an American lawyer, businessman and politician from Massachusetts.

He spent 25 years in public service, serving in both houses of the United States Congress and

for three non-consecutive years as Governor of Massachusetts.

Because of his reputation for personal integrity he was known as "Honest

John" Davis. Born in Northborough,

Massachusetts, Davis attended Yale College before studying law in Worcester, Massachusetts,

where he established a successful law practice. He spent 10 years (1824–34) in

the United

States House of Representatives as a National Republican (later Whig), where he supported

protectionist tariff legislation. He won election as Governor of Massachusetts

in a three-way race in 1833 that was decided by the state legislature. After

two terms he was elected to the United States Senate, where he served most of one term,

resigning early in 1841 after he was once again elected governor. His second

term as governor was undistinguished, but he split with fellow Whig Daniel Webster over a variety of issues, and lost the

1843 election to Democrat Marcus Morton. He was reelected to the Senate in 1845, where

he served until 1851. He opposed the Mexican–American War, and

worked to prevent the extension of slavery to the territories, although he did

not take a hard line on the matter, voting for most of the provisions of

the Compromise of 1850. He

retired from public service in 1853, and died the next year. John Davis was

born Deacon Isaac Davis and Anna (Brigham) Davis. He attended local schools and then Leicester Academy before attending Yale College. He graduated in 1812, and then studied Blake, gaining admission to the bar three years later.

He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian

Society in 1821. Davis first practiced law in Spencer, Massachusetts,

but soon returned to Worcester, where he eventually took over Blake's practice.

He was briefly in partnership with Levi Lincoln, Jr. before the latter was appointed to

the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1824. Davis also

entered politics in 1824, winning election to the United States Congress. He

represented Massachusetts from 1825 to 1833 in the House of Congresses.

He supported John Quincy Adams in his

successful offer for the presidency, and favored conservative fiscal

policies. In keeping with the state's (and Worcester's) increasingly industrial

character, he favored protectionist tariff legislation; his speeches in support

of the Tariff of 1828 were

widely reprinted. He opposed the policies of President Andrew Jackson, and was politically aligned with Henry Clay, although he was against Clay's proposed compromise tariff of 1833. In 1833 Davis was

encouraged by National Republican Party leaders

to run for Governor of Massachusetts, against former President John Quincy

Adams, who was running on Morton. His political support came from textile

interests and a faction of the National Republicans (later Whigs) led by Abbott Lawrence, as well as outgoing Governor Levi Lincoln, Jr. In the election Davis gained a plurality of

votes, but not the majority that was then required. As a result, the state

legislature decided the election, choosing Davis when Adams withdrew,

preferring him over Morton. The Whig-controlled legislature did nothing to

reward the Anti-Masons for Adams's move, breaking up any chance that the two

parties would form a working relationship. Davis was reelected in 1834, aided

by a general dislike in Massachusetts for President Jackson's attacks on

the Second Bank of the United

States. During these two terms, Davis made no particular initiatives

of his own, continuing Lincoln's business-friendly fiscal and economic

policies. The state continued to grow economically, expanding its

transportation infrastructure and industry.

Senator Nathaniel Silsbee, whose

term ended in 1835, decided not to run for reelection.[8] Davis was approached by Whig leader Daniel Webster about running for the seat in December

1834, as part of a offer to oppose Adams, who had announced his interest in the

seat. The idea was that Davis, a strong candidate, would be positioned against

Adams (a long-standing rival of Webster who was again running as an Anti-Mason)

in the vote, which would be made by the state legislature, while Edward Everett would have the opportunity to run for

governor when Davis vacated that seat. The state house and senate

deadlocked on the two choices until a speech by Adams in Congress arguing in

favor of Jackson's foreign policies alarmed enough senators to change their

votes in favor of Davis. The deadlock was not resolved until February

1835; Davis, who had been reelected governor, resigned that post to assume the

Senate seat. Everett went on to win the governor's seat in the next election.

(Adams's son Charles Francis believed

that Webster and Everett conspired to achieve this end, but there is no

evidentiary support for the idea.) Webster, in exchange for his advocacy on

behalf of Davis, expected Davis's faction in the Whig Party to support him in a

future offer for the presidency. Davis's term in the Senate was unexceptional,

except for the notably hard line he took on the question of the nation's

northeastern boundary. This dispute with the United

Kingdom concerned the boundary between Maine and

the British (now Canadian) province of New Brunswick, and had only been partially resolved after the

1794 Jay Treaty. In the 1830s both sides pushed development into

the disputed area, leading to petty conflicts (and by 1839 the possibility of

war). Massachusetts, which Maine had been a part of prior to 1820, maintained a

property interest in some of the disputed land; Davis took a hard line on the

matter, insisting that the United States should not surrender any of the

territory it claimed. In 1836 Davis sat on a special committee

formed to consider legislative responses to a flood of allegedly inflammatory

abolitionist materials being sent into southern slave states from northern

anti-slavery organizations. Davis, the only northerner on the committee,

opposed any sort of legislation, and the committee was unable to reach a consensus.

When John C. Calhoun introduced

legislation criminalizing the mailing of such materials, Davis spoke out

against it, pointing out that it would effectively act as an unconstitutional

gag on people seeking to speak out against slavery. The bill was rendered moot

by administrative actions in the United States Post Office.

While serving in the Senate, Davis appeared before the United States Supreme

Court in 1837, representing the defendants in Charles

River Bridge v. Warren Bridge. The plaintiffs were proprietors

of the Charles River Bridge, a

toll bridge constructed between Boston and Charlestown in 1786,

and the defendants were proprietors of a competing bridge to which the state

had issued a charter in 1828. The plaintiffs argued that the defendant's charter

infringed on their charter, in which they claimed the state granted them an

exclusive right to control the crossing. Davis and that the rights granted to the Charles River

proprietors had to be interpreted narrowly, and that the state had not granted

them an exclusive right. The court found for the defendants, with Chief

Justice Roger B. Taney's decision

echoing the defendant's reasoning. The Charles River Bridge charter would

be acquired by the state in 1841, during Davis's next term as governor. During

the early years of his political career Davis was on good terms with Daniel

Webster, who was highly influential in party politics both at the state and

national levels, and to whom he looked up. However, in the late 1830s Davis and

other Massachusetts Whigs (notably Abbott Lawrence) came to believe that

Webster lacked broad-based national support to successfully contend with Henry

Clay and William Henry Harrison after

his weak showing in the 1836 Whig

convention. This introduced a rift between Webster and Davis that

deepened in 1838 when the two split on western land policies. The split between

Davis and Webster became permanent after Webster harshly criticized Lawrence in

an 1842 speech celebrating his successful negotiation of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty with

Great Britain, which resolved (among other matters) the northeast boundary. Not

long after Marcus Morton won the 1839

gubernatorial election, Whig leadership prevailed on Davis to run

again for governor. In the 1840 election Davis rode the coattails victory into office. Harrison's death in April

1841 reenergized the Democrats, who attacked Davis in that year's election.

They charged that protectionist tariffs he supported taxed the poor, and that

his opposition to western land policies was hypocritical because he also

speculated in those lands. Davis won a narrow majority over Morton and was

reelected in 1841. This period in office, like his first term as governor, also

did not contain any new programs or initiatives, but was overshadowed by the

ongoing negotiations between Daniel Webster (now Secretary of the boundary issue. Davis and Webster had

contentious disagreements over the negotiations, although Webster was finally

able to convince Davis to accept the final agreement. The matter deepened the

division between the two men, who stopped speaking to each other. In 1842 risen to sufficient prominence in the state that

neither Morton nor Davis was able to secure a majority. The state senate, which

had a Democratic majority, elected Morton. Davis's showing in the election was

undoubtedly harmed by his ongoing feud with Webster, who refused to campaign on

his behalf.  Davis was

considered as a potential vice presidential nominee in the 1844 Whig Party convention.

He was nominated by the state Whig convention over Webster's opposition, but

Webster worked to ensure he was not chosen at the national convention. Webster

forces successfully got Webster elected to the Senate in early 1845, despite

opposition from the Lawrence-Davis faction. Davis was himself elected to the

Senate again later in 1845 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Isaac C. Bates, and was elected to a full term in 1847. He

opposed the annexation of Texas on the grounds that it would

expand slaveholding territory, but was not willing to split the party over the

issue of slavery. Davis was one of only two senators who voted against

the Mexican–American War. Davis

was opposed to slavery and its extension into the territories, but he voted for

most of the provisions of the Compromise of 1850, including

the bill on Texas borders, shocking some anti-compromise Whigs. He regularly

voted in favor of the Wilmot Proviso, a measure to ban slavery from territories won

in the Mexican war which was frequently attached to legislation in the late

1840s but was never adopted. In one notable debate, Davis used procedural

measures to delay vote on an amendment to remove it from a military appropriations

bill, hoping to force a vote without time to conference on differences between

the House and Senate versions before Congress adjourned. However, due to a

difference in the clocks in the respective chambers, the House adjourned before

he finished speaking, scuttling the bill. Salmon P. Chase wrote of the episode, "Ten political

lives of ten John Davises, spent in the best direction, could not compensate

for this half-hour's mischief", and Polk noted that if the loss of the

bill delayed the end of the Mexican war, Davis would "deserve the

execrations of the country." Scholarship is divided on whether Davis's

claimed strategy would really have worked. Davis's weak stance on slavery began

to cause a decrease in his popularity as abolitionist sentiment in the state

gained ground during the 1840s. He also refused to support Webster in his 1852

presidential offer, campaigning on behalf of Winfield Scott. He declined renomination for election in

1852, and retired from public life. In his later years Davis was associated

with the American Antiquarian

Society, where he served as president for many years. He died in

Worcester on April 19, 1854, and was interred in the Worcester Rural

Cemetery. He was known as "Honest John" Davis, because of

an impeccable reputation for personal integrity.

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