Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/329

LEFT DAVIS 277 DAVIS pro tern, in 1881, and retired in 1883. He died in Bloomington, 111., June 26, 1886. DAVIS, JAMES J., an American public official, born in Pittsburgh, in 1876. He attended public school, but when still a youth, went to Elwood, Ind., where he worked in a tin-plate mill. Two years later he was elected city clerk of Elwood, and later became county recorder. After some time spent in gold mining in the West, he undertook to reorganization of the Loyal Order of Moose. He was so successful in this endeavor that he was elected supreme dictator and reorganizer. Through his efforts about 1,500,000 men were brought into the organization. He engaged also in the manufacture of jew- elry and other lines of business, and was actively identified with union labor. He founded the Orphan's Home of Moose at Mooseheart, HI. He engaged in the banking business in Pittsburgh. Mr. Davis was appointed Secretary of Labor by President Harding and assumed office on March 4, 1921. DAVIS, JEFFERSON, an American statesman- born in Abbeville, Christian CO., Ky., June 3, 1808. When he was three years old, his father removed with his family to Wilkinson co., Miss. He received an academical education and entered Transylvania University, Lex- ington, Ky., in 1822, which he left in 1824 to enter the United States Military Academy from which he was graduated in 1828. He was appointed a second lieutenant of infantry, and served on the Northwestern frontier during the Black Hawk War of 1831-1832. In 1831 he was promoted to first lieutenant of dra- goons for gallantry in action, and was employed in operations against the Paw- nees, Comanches, and other Indian tribes. In June, 1835, he resigned his commission, and retired to a cotton plantation in Mississippi. In 1843 he began to take an interest in politics upon the Democratic side; and in 1844 was chosen a presidential elector. In 1845 he was elected a Representative to Con- gress; but resigned in 1846, having been elected colonel of the First Mississippi Volunteer Regiment of rifles, and served in the Mexican War, greatly distinguish- ing himself at Monterey and Buena Vista, and being severely wounded in the latter battle. He was appointed a Brigadier-General of volunteers by President Polk in 1847, but declined the commission on the grounds that, by the Constitution, the militia appointments were reserved to the States, and that such appointments by the President were in violation of State rights. The same year he was chosen to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate, and was re-elected by acclamation in 1850 for a full term. In 1853 he was appointed Secretary of War by President Pierce, and in 1857 was again elected to the United States Senate, when he took a prominent place among the Southern leaders, and was among the most deter- mined of them all in his assertions of the rights of the States under the Constitu- JEFFERSON DAVIS tion, and also of the right of secession. On Jan. 21, 1861, he took his leave of the Senate in a speech in which he gave his opinion that, by the secession of his State, his connection with that body was terminated, and reaffirmed the doctrine of the right of secession. The Confeder- ate Congress, at Montgomery, Ala., chose him President, under the Provisional Constitution, on Feb. 9, 1861, and he ac- cepted the office on the 16th. On April 17, two days after the first proclamation of President Lincoln, he responded by a proclamation authorizing privateering; and on Aug. 14 issued a second one, warning all persons of 14 years and upward, owirig allegiance to the United States, to leave the Con- federacy within 40 days, or be treated as alien enemies. On Nov. 6 he was chosen permanent President, and was in-