Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/115

Rh made a member of the light-house board, became commander of the Norfolk navy-yard, but later re- sumed his old place of superintendent of the naval observatory. He was a member of numerous scien- tific societies, and in February, 1877, was elected a member of the National academy of sciences. Admiral Davis, during his connection with the coast survey, was led to investigate the laws of tidal action, and published a "Memoir upon the CJeological Action of the Tidal and other Currents of the Ocean," in the " Memoirs of the American Academy " (Boston, 1849), and " The Law of De- posit of the Flood Tide ; its Dynamical Action and Office," being vol. iii. of the " Smithsonian Con- tributions" (Washington, 1852). He contributed various translations and articles on mathematical astronomy and geodesy to periodicals, and was the author of an English translation of Gauss's " Theria Motus Corporum Coelestium " (Boston, 1858). — His son, Charles Henry, naval officer, b. in Cam- bridge, Mass., 28 Aug.^ 1845, was graduated at the U. S. naval academy in 1804, and served in the Med- iterranean squadron till 1867, meanwhile becoming ensign and master in 18G6. From 1867 till 1870 he was on the " Gruerriere " in the South Atlantic squadron, and from 1872 till 1874 on the Pacific. He received his commission as lieutenant in March, 1868, and became a lieutenant-com:nander in De- cember of the same year. From 1875 till 1885 he was engaged principally in astronomical work, at first in the naval observatory in Washington, and then in expeditions for the determination of longi- tude by means of the submarine cables from Europe to the Atlantic islands and the eastern coast of South America during 1877-'9 ; in India, China, and Japan during 1881-'2, and on the west- ern coasts of South and Central America during 1883-4. In 1885 he was made commander and given the training-ship " Saratoga." His investi- gations have been published by the government, and are entitled " Chronometer Rates as affected by Temperature and other Causes " (1877) ; with Lieut.-Com. Fi-aneis M. Green, " Telegraphic Deter- mination of Longitudes, embracing the Meridians of Lisbon, Madeira, Porto Grande, Para, Pernam- buco, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, and Buenos Ayres, with the Latitudes of the Several Stations " (1880) ; " Telegraphic Determination of Longitudes in India, China, and Japan " (1883) ; and with Lieut. John A. Norris, "Telegraphic De- termination of Longitudes, in Mexico and on the West Coasts of Central and South America " (1885).

DAVIS, Daniel, soldier, d. 17 Sept., 1814. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel of New York vol- unteers, 29 June, 1812, and brigadier-general in 1814. He was killed at the head of his brigade in the sortie from Fort Erie.

DAVIS, David, jurist, b. in Cecil county, Md., 9 March, 1815; d. in Bloomington, Ill., 26 June, 1886. He was graduated at Kenyon college, Ohio, in 1832, studied law in Massachusetts, and went through a course at the law-school of New Haven, removed to Illinois in 1835, and was admitted to the bar, after which he settled in Bloomington. He was elected to the state legislature in 1844, was a member of the convention that formed the state constitution in 1847, elected judge of the eighth judicial circuit of the state in 1848, re-elected in 1855, and again in 1861, resigning in October, 1862. He was an intimate friend of Abraham Lincoln, and rode the circuit with him every year. He was a delegate at large to the Chicago convention that nominated Mr. Lincoln for the presidency in 1860, accompanied him on his journey to Washington, and in October, 1862, was appointed a justice of the supreme court of the United States. After President Lincoln's assassination Judge Davis was an administrator of his estate. In 1870 he held, with the minority of the supreme court, that the acts of congress making government notes a legal tender in payment of debts were constitutional. In February, 1872, the National convention of the labor reform party nominated him as its candidate for president, on a platform that declared, among other things, in favor of a national currency &ldquo;based on the faith and resources of the nation,&rdquo; and interchangeable with 3.65-per-cent. bonds of the government, and demanded the establishment of an eight-hour law throughout the country, and the payment of the national debt &ldquo;without mortgaging the property of the people to enrich capitalists.&rdquo; In answer to the letter informing him of the nomination, Judge Davis said: &ldquo;Be pleased to thank the convention for the unexpected honor which they have conferred upon me. The chief magistracy of the republic should neither be sought nor declined by any American citizen.&rdquo; His name was also used before the Liberal Republican convention at Cincinnati the same year, and received 92 votes on the first ballot. After the regular nominations had been made, he determined to retire from the contest, and so announced in a final answer to the labor reformers. He resigned his seat on the supreme bench to take his place in the U. S. senate on 4 March, 1877, having been elected by the votes of independents and democrats to succeed John A. Logan. He was rated in the senate as an independent, but acted more commonly with the democrats. After the death of President Garfield in 1881 Judge Davis was chosen president of the senate. He resigned his seat in 1883, and retired to his home in Bloomington, where he resided quietly till his death. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Williams college, Beloit college, and the Wesleyan university at Bloomington.

DAVIS, Edwin Hamilton, archaeologist, b. in Ross county, Ohio, 22 Jan., 1811; d. in New York city, 15 May, 1888. He was graduated at Cincinnati medical college in 1838. He practised in Chillicothe till 1850, when he was called to the chair of materia medica and therapeutics in the New York medical college. Dr. Davis was one of the conductors of the &ldquo;American Medical Monthly.&rdquo; He gave much attention to the subject of American antiquities, aided Charles Whittlesey in explorations of ancient mounds in 1836, and from 1845 till 1847, assisted by Ephraim G. Squier, he surveyed nearly one hundred groups of aboriginal earth-works, and opened two hundred mounds at his own expense. He gathered the largest collection of mound-relics that has been made in this country, which now forms part of the collection of Blackmore's museum in Salisbury, England. A