Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/15

DAVIS. to the Union, and when on the secession of Mississippi in 1861 he left the Senate, it was with real sadness that he set forth his principles in a farewell speeeh to which a crowded audience listened with deep attention.

On February 9. ISOl, Mr. Davis was elected President of the Provisional Government of the Confederacy by the Congress assembled at Jlont- gomery, Ala. He was chosen because his course tlirouijliout had been marked by consistency and moderation in comparison with the other seces- sion leaders. The choice was made without in- triguing, and was eminently popular. The inau- guration took place February 18, 1801. At the expii"ation of the lirst year of the Provisional (Government a new Congress was elected, and on Februaiy 22, 1862, Davis was again inaugurated, entering upon a term which was set for six years by the Constitution. His career as President takes in nearly all of Confederate history, his side of the matter being given ably and fully in his Rise and Fall of the Coufcderale Govern- ment (2 vols., 18S1). The military training which he had had made him desire a close control over his generals, and he seems in consequence to have made not a few mistakes. The unanimity vith which he and General Lee worked would have been impossible had not the latter been so void of selfish ambition. Davis's statesmanship was rather doctrinaire, and when he had actually to assume almost a dict^itorship as the war pro- gressed, he was not found well tilted for the emi- nently executive task of financing and controlling the Confederacy. He strove earnestly to inspirit his people: he set his face against barbarity in the conduct of the war; he tried to alleviate the sufferings of prisoners; and. on the whole, he maintained his dignity and self-respect under ordeals that would have crushed a man less resolute or less sincere.

After the surrender of Lee and of .Johnston, Davis, with a few friends who volunteered as an escort, started for Washington. Ga.. for the purpose of making his way to the trans-ilissis- sippi region. A report that his wife was in dan- ger led him to change his course to join her. and on May 10. 1865. he was captured at Invinville, Ga. The story of his assuming woman's dress as a disguise has been sho^vn to be untrue. He was confined in Fortress Monroe and subjected to the useless degradation of manacles. He earnestly desired a public trial, and feared that he would die before refuting the charge of complicity in the assassination of Lincoln. An indictment was found against him for treason, but he was ad- mitted to bail. Horace Greeley. Gerrit .Smith, and other prominent Xortherners going on his bond, and later the proceedings were quashed. After his release he visited Canada and England, and went into business at Memphis, Tenn. In 1879 he finally retired to Beauvoir. near Bilo.xi in ilississippi, resisting all efforts to induce him to try to reenter politics, and devoting his time to writing and study. He retained the confidence of most of the Southern people, and his conduct during his retirement was dignified and consist- ent. He died of a congestive chill on December C. 1SS9. and was buried with imposing ceremonies at New Orleans. In 189.3 the body was removed to Richmond. A full and valuable biography of Mr. Davis has been written by his second wife, a Miss Howell, whom he married in 184.5 and who survives him. See also a brief autobiographical article published in Bedford's JIagazine for Jan- uary, 1800, and V. P. Trent's fi'outhern State.i- nnii of the Old Reyimc (1897). The earlier biographies by Alfriend and Pollard are respect- ivelj' eulogistic and condemnatory. The fullest and best account of the period during which Davis was most infiuential will be found in Rhodes, History of the United States from the ('oinproniise of ISoO (New York, 1892 et seq. ).

DAVIS, (1828-79). An Ameri- can soldier, born in Indiana. He served as a volunteer in the Mexican War, subsequently be- coming lieutenant in the regular army, and was stationed at Fort Sumter during the bombard- ment of April 1213. 18(11. During the Civil War he served as brigadier-general, and played an important part in the battle of Pea Ridge, the siege of Corinth, the battle of Stone River, and Sherman's Athmta campaign. He was brevetted major-general United States Army in 186.5, and became a colonel in the regular service in the following year. In 1873, after the murder of (jeneral Canby, he suppressed tlie Modoc up- rising in northern California.

DAVIS, or DAVYS, (c. 15.50-1605). An English navigator, born at Sandridge, near Dartmouth. He is principally distinguished for having, between 158.5 and 1.588, undertaken three voyages to the northern seas in search of a northwest passage. In the first of these he dis- covered the strait which bears his name; in the last, he sailed up this strait as far as 72° 12' N. His vo.vages extended along the West Greenland coast as far as what is now Upernavik, and along the coast of the American side of the strait from Cape Dyer to southern Labrador. He afterwards made five voyages to the East In- dies, in the last of which he was killed in a fight with Japanese pirates on the coast of Ma- lacca. He wrote The World's B ydrographical Description (1595) and The Seaman's Seerets (1594), which were republished by the Hakluyt Society in 1880. He is often confounded with •John Davis of Limehouse, another navigator and author.

DAVIS, (1822 — I. An American diplomatist. He was born in Worcester, Mass.. graduated at Hanard in 1840, studied law, and practiced in New York. He was secretary of the United States Legation in London from 1849 to 1852, was the American correspondent of the London Times from 1854 to 1861, and from 1869 to 1871 was Assistant Secretary of State, which position he resigned to act as United States agent at the Geneva Court of Arbitration (see Alabama Claims), after having served as secretary of the commission which concluded the Treaty of Washington. From 1874 to 1877 he was United States Minister to Germany, and from 1878 to 1881 was a judge in the United States Court of Claims at Washington. He became reporter of the United States Supreme Court in 1883. Among his publications, in addition to the reports of Supreme Court decisions, are: The Massachusetts Justice (1847): The Case of the United States Laid Before the Tribunal of Arbitration at Genera (1871); and Treaties of the United States, with Notes (new ed. 1873).

DAVIS, John D. (18.54—). An American Orientalist and biblical scholar. He was born at Pittsburg, Pa., and was edicated at the Col-