John W. Davis

John William Davis ( born April 13, 1873 in Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia, † March 24, 1955 in Charleston, South Carolina ) was an American politician, diplomat and lawyer. He became internationally known as a presidential candidate of the Democratic Party in the elections of the year 1924.

His father, the lawyer John James Davis (1835-1916) was, at first deputy in the Chamber of Deputies of Virginia, and later in the House of Representatives from West Virginia and finally the House of Representatives of the United States. John Davis graduated in 1895 his law studies at Washington and Lee University in Lexington successfully and then joined the law firm of his father in Clarksburg one. In 1896 he accepted an appointment as a professor at the Washington and Lee University, gave this position, however, in 1897 in favor of his practical legal practice again. In 1899 he was elected to the House of Representatives from West Virginia, 1911 to 1913 he was a deputy of the State of West Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1913-1918 United States Solicitor General from 1918 to 1921 and U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. After his return from London, he settled in Locust Valley (Long Iceland ) in Nassau County ( New York) down and opened a law office on Wall Street in New York City, where he practiced until shortly before his death.

After Davis had already in 1920 been regarded as one of the dark horses for a nomination, the Democratic Party put him on 9 July 1924 as a compromise candidate for the presidential election; his vice presidential candidate was Charles Bryan, Governor of Nebraska and brother of three unsuccessful presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. The then inwardly strong torn party needed at the Democratic National Convention at Madison Square Garden a record number of 17 meeting days, until with Davis on the 103rd ballot, a top candidate could be determined. Since Davis had denounced the Ku Klux Klan and as Solicitor General had occurred under President Woodrow Wilson for a strengthening of the voting rights of African Americans, it has lost in the South ( where he still partially scarce majorities received ) as well as nationwide at conservative Democrats voices. With 28.8 % of the vote and 136 electoral votes he was defeated, the Republican incumbent Calvin Coolidge (54%, 382 electors ). Many dissatisfied with their party's democratic core voters - from both the conservative and from the left-liberal spectrum - opted for Robert M. La Follette of the Progressive Party, which some classical positions of Democrats, such as greater government control of the economy to had made its own. La Follette received 16.6 % of the vote and 13 electoral college.

As a member of the National Advisory Council of the Crusaders Davis argued for the abolition of alcohol prohibition. In 1921 he was the founding president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and from 1922 to 1939 curator of the Rockefeller Foundation.

John W. Davis is one of the most prominent and successful American lawyers in the first half of the 20th century. In 140 cases he appeared before the Supreme Court of the United States, most recently in 1952. His nephew was the later U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance.

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