Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1974 Henry Winter Davis: Border State Radical. (Volumes I and II). Milton Lyman Henry Jr Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Henry, Milton Lyman Jr, "Henry Winter Davis: Border State Radical. (Volumes I and II)." (1974). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2668. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2668 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. 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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 75-1929 HENRY-, Milton Lyman, Jr., 1945- HENRY WINTER DAVIS: BORDER STATE RADICAL. (VOLUMES I AND II) 1 The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1974 History, modern f. i Xerox University Microfilms,Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. HENRY WINTER DAVIS: BORDER STATE RADICAL VOLUME I A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of History by Milton Lyman Henry, Jr. B.A., Wake Forest College, 1967 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1969 August, 1974 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study has a long history, having begun almost ten years ago as an undergraduate honors paper at Wake Forest College. Professor David L. Smiley, a stimulating lecturer and demanding critic, suggested that I explain how a Radical Republican like Winter Davis emerged from the Southern city of Baltimore. Along the way I have had guidance and encouragement from Professors Percival Perry and Richard Zuber at Wake Forest, Charles B. Dew, Jo Ann Carrigan, Burl Noggle, and Darwin Shrell at Louisiana State University, and Edwin L. Dunbaugh at Hofstra Univer­ sity. To all of these men and women I am deeply indebted. I wish to thank Professor John L. Loos of Louisiana State Univer­ sity for procuring me a NDEA Fellowship, travel grants, a Clyde Warwick Fellowship, and a Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship. A number of people have given me invaluable assistance in the preparation of this biography. I want to thank Jean H. H. Baker of Johns Hopkins University and Goucher College, Admiral John D. Hayes, Glen M. Linden of Southern Methodist University, Willard L. King of Chicago, Charles L. Wagandt of Baltimore, Harold Winsten of the Univer­ sity of Chicago, and Thomas Schoonover of the University of South­ western Louisiana for sharing the results of their researches with me. For aid in understanding Davis' psychological and physical problems I am indebted to Dr. Charles Baker of Maryland and Dr. Gerald Weiner of Johns Hopkins University and Tulane University. ii I wish to acknowledge the friendly and courteous assistance of the librarians and archivists at the Library of Congress, the Maryland Historical Society— particularly Nancy Boles, the Maryland Hall of Records— particularly Phebe R. Jacobsen, the Chicago Historical Society— particularly Edith Simms, and Mr. Ernest A. Howard of the Historical Society of Cecil County. I want to express a special thanks to the entire staff of the Eleutherian Mills Historical Library in Greenville, Delaware— particularly to Mrs. Betty-Bright Lowe, Dr. John Beverly Riggs, Dr. Richmond Williams, and Dr. David Gilchrist— who provided me with a comfortable office, allowed me to ransack the collection, listened with patience to my questions, and made many important suggestions. Most of all I am grateful to Professor T. Harry Williams, my teacher, adviser, friend, and bailbondsman. His criticisms of my work have been hard, but his stimulation and support have been inestimable. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT vi PROLOGUE 1 CHAPTER 1 PARSON DAVIS' SON 5 2 THE LABOR OF LAW 21 3 A NEW THEATER 43 4 EUROPE GAVE ME NEW VIEWS 68 5 AIKEN PAINS 93 6 HOLD THE TONGUE ON THE NEGRO QUESTION 117 7 THE PREVENTION OF EVIL 134 8 NO DEMOCRAT SHALL BE SPEAKER 158 9 LINCOLN BEFORE ANY DEMOCRAT 178 VOLUME II 10 THIS THANKLESS SERVICE 203 11 THE VILE SCRAMBLE 220 12 ARRESTING THE REVOLUTION 241 13 TWO YEARS OF DISAPPOINTMENT 263 14 PAYING DEBTS LONG DUE 295 15 NO CONFIDENCE IN LINCOLN 317 iv CHAPTER 16 BEFORE I GO 345 17 THE FOLLY OF MAKING PLANS 369 A NOTE ON THE SOURCES 396 BIBLIOGRAPHY 399 VITA 417 v ABSTRACT Henry Winter Davis (1817-1865), brilliant and fiery Baltimore Congressman of the Civil War era, was b o m in Annapolis, Maryland. Educated at Kenyon College in Ohio and the University of Virginia, Davis began his law career in Alexandria, District of Columbia, in 1840. In 1847, as a reward for his support of the Whig party, he was appointed state's attorney for Alexandria. After his wife's death he moved to Baltimore. When the Whig party dissolved in Maryland after the 1852 presidential election and was replaced by nativistic and temperance organizations, Davis shrank from political involvement. But after a "grand tour" of Europe in 1855, he returned to America to oppose the influence of the Catholic Church in politics. His pamphlets denouncing the interference of religious organizations in politics established him as a spokesman for the American or Know Nothing party. In 1855 he was elected to Congress from the Fourth Congressional District of Maryland. Winter Davis quickly established himself in Congress as an independent by refusing to ally with his fellow Southerners in the speakership contest, thereby allowing Nathaniel Banks, an American- Republican, to be elected. In 1856 Davis backed the American party candidate for President, Millard Fillmore, helping him to win his only state, Maryland. Davis opposed the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution, and when Congress rejected it, Davis began to plan for a union of Republicans, Americans, and Anti-Lecompton Democrats in 1860. As the first step in uniting all those opposed to the Democracy, he supported a Republican for Speaker in 1860, but the southern "oppositionists" failed to follow Davis1 move. Although he supported the Constitutional Union party in Maryland, Davis campaigned for Lincoln in the North. Davis soon broke with Lincoln after he was passed over for a Cabinet appointment and the Maryland Union party was slighted in patronage. Davis was a conspicuous member of the House Committee of Thirty- Three and presented resolutions which would have remedied all but the most extreme demands of the South. He worked hard to rally Union sentiment in Maryland to oppose secession and after the war commenced stood practically alone in his "unconditional" support of the Union. Defeated for re-election, Davis led the call for a constitutional convention in Maryland, the first step toward statewide emancipation. Re-elected to Congress in 1863, Davis became one of the most vitriolic critics of the Lincoln administration. Angered by the dismissal of his friend, Admiral Du Font, Davis denounced Secretary Welles and exposed inefficiency in the Navy Department. Distressed by the State Department's silence over the French invasion of Mexico, he offered a resolution condemning the French. Davis challenged Lincoln's plan of reconstruction offering instead the Wade-Davis Bill. When Lincoln pocket vetoed the bill, Davis issued the Wade-Davis Manifesto, the first move in a conspiracy to force Lincoln off the Union party ticket. The Radicals' plan collapsed when the Democrats nominated McClellan, but Davis continued in his opposition to the President until Lincoln dismissed Davis' arch-opponent, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair. Davis' strident opposition to Lincoln cost him his party's nomination in 1854. But even as a "lame duck" Congressman in 1865, he forcefully opposed the Lincoln administration.