HENRY WINTER DAVIS.

THIS distinguished lawyer and statesman, one of the most brilliant lawyers and orators of his time, was born in Annapolis, Maryland, on the 16th of August, 1817. His father, the Reverend Henry Lyon Davis,presided over Saint John's Episcopal College, in Annapolis, at the time of his son's birth.

Young Henry's early education was received under his father's tutelage. He commenced his college course at Saint John's, but finished at Kenyon, where he was graduated in 1837. The year before his graduation, his father died, leaving some property in the shape of slaves, but he was so thoroughly imbued with the idea that slavery was wrong, that he refused to profit by any of the proceeds which they might bring by sale, and freed them as rapidly as the law of his State would permit.

For two years after graduation, he was employed as a tutor. In 1839, his aunt sent him to the University of Virginia, where he took a special higher course, and attended the law school of that celebrated institution. His father had been before his death deposed from Saint John's College on account of political differences, and this good aunt had taken full charge of her nephew.

In 1841, he was admitted to the Bar, and commenced the practice in Alexandria, Virginia. He very soon took a high rank as a lawyer, and his rise to distinction in his profession was rapid. The first case which brought him into notice as a great lawyer, was his defense of the Reverend H. V. D. Johns, on a charge made against him by

Bishop Whittingham, of Maryland, for a violation of the canons of the church. Mr. Davis remained in Alexandria for nine years, at the end of which time he removed to Baltimore, and immediately became known as a great lawyer. It was there that he appeared in the suit above referred to, and which placed him foremost at the Bar of that City. He was one of the most brilliant of orators, and this gift brought him into prominence in the political campaign of 1852, when General Winfield Scott was the Whig candidate for President of the United States. His eloquence was of such a nature that he was characterized as the "brilliant orator and controversialist of the Scott canvass."

Two years later, in 1854, his own remarkable and brilliant political career began. He was elected to Congress on the Whig ticket that fall, but almost immediately upon the organization of the American party, he affiliated himself with it. Its leaders were composed of Whigs in the South, who could not join their forces with the Democrats. Mr. Blaine, in his "Twenty Years of Congress," disposes of this party very summarily in the following language: "In the South, those Whigs who, though still unwilling to profess an anti-slavery creed, would not unite with the Democrats, were reorganized under the name of the American party, with Humphrey Marshall, Henry Winter Davis, Horace Maynard, and men of that class, for leaders. The party was founded on proscription of foreigners, and with special hostility to the Catholic Church. It had a fitful and feverish success, and in 1854-5, under the name of KnowNothings, enrolled tens of thousands in secret lodges. But its creed was narrow; its principles were illiberal, and its methods of procedure boyish and undignified."

Mr. Davis voted for the Republican candidate for Speaker upon the organization of the House, in 1859, and thus, by his action, ended the dead-lock over the

contest. For this act, he brought down upon his head the indignation of many of his constituents, and also received the censure of the Legislature of the State of Maryland. He termed this censure a "decoration" in a speech on the floor of the House, in referring to the action of the Legislature. In this speech, which was delivered in committee of the whole, almost immediately after receiving the message of censure, he told its bearers to take back to their masters, what they had brought; for only to their masters, the people, would he reply. To his constituents, later he told that if he could not be allowed to use his own judgment in matters pertaining to what he considered for the best interest of the State, that they might send a slave to Congress, but they could not send him.

In the exciting Presidential campaign of 1860, Mr. Davis supported the Bell and Everett ticket, although he had been offered a position on the Lincoln ticket as VicePresident. When the Massachusetts troops were fired upon by the mob in Baltimore, Mr. Davis immediately published a card announcing himself as an "Uncondi tional Union" candidate for Congress. He was virtually alone in the brilliant canvass he made in his district, which included a portion of the city of Baltimore, and the eloquence of his speeches in that memorable campaign, are ringing yet in the ears of those who heard his uncompromising appeals of devotion to the Union. Abuse and vilification followed his canvass wherever he appeared, from those who were opposed to the Union, but notwithstanding all that he had to contend with in his brave fight, he received over 6,000 votes, yet lacked a majority.

A man with such legal and statesmanship qualities, could not, however, be kept down. In 1863, he was again sent back to Congress to represent the very constituency that had repudiated him two years before, but died before

his term expired, at the early age of forty-eight years. Mr. Blaine has formed a correct estimate of this great man's abilities. Of him, in his "Twenty Years of Congress," he says: "He had not co-operated with the Republican party before the war, and had supported Mr. Bell for the Presidency in 1860. He had always been opposed to the Democratic party, and was, under all circumstances, a devoted friend to the Union, an arch-enemy to the Secessionists. Born a Southern man, he spoke for the South; for its duty to the Federal Government; for its best and highest destiny. To him, before all other men, is due the maintenance of loyalty in Maryland. His course was censured by the Democratic Legislature of his State in the winter preceding the Rebellion. He replied through an address to the voters of Maryland, which, for eloquence of expression, force and conclusiveness of reasoning, is entitled to rank in the political classics of America, as the address to the Electors of Bristol ranks in the political classics of England. As a debater in the House, Mr. Davis may well be cited as an examplar. He had no boastful reliance upon intuition or inspiration, or the spur of the moment, though no man excelled him in extempore speech. He made elaborate preparation by the study of all public questions, and spoke from a full mind, with complete command of premise and conclusion. In all that pertained to the grace of oratory, he was unrivaled. he was unrivaled. He died at fortyeight. Had he been blessed with length of days, the friends who best knew his ability and his ambition, believed that he would have left the most brilliant name in the parliamentary annals of America."

Mr. Davis was one of the most earnest supporters of President Lincoln's administration, but was opposed to the assumption of extraordinary powers by the Executive, and was fierce in his denunciation of Congress, for not passing laws to effect what it wanted the Executive

to perform upon his own responsibility. He was one of the first to advise the enlistment of the Negroes in the army, and in this connection, said: "The best deed of emancipation is a musket on the shoulder."

He was from his earliest childhood opposed to slavery, having drawn from his own experiences as a youth. He said when he had arrived at manhood, in speaking on this subject: "My familiar association with the slaves, while a boy, gave me great insight into their feelings and views. They spoke with freedom before a boy, what they would have repressed before a man. They were far from indifferent to their condition; they felt wronged, and sighed for freedom. They were attached to my father, and loved me, yet they habitually spoke of the day when God would deliver them."

When he was ten years old, his father settled in Anne Arundel county, and here he delighted to spend his time with shotgun in hand, roaming through the fields and in the forest, caring but little for his studies, and giving very little promise of what he was to be in the years that were to come. On these occasions of his wanderings over the country, he was always attended by one of his father's slaves, and it was this intimate acquaintance with the despised race, that his great humane heart was turned in pity toward them, and that the seed was sown which made him detest the institution of slavery when he grew to manhood and became able to maintain their cause by his radiant eloquence. The mere politicians of Mr. Davis' day, regarded him as visionary and chimerical. He used frequently to say that "he who compromised a moral principle was a scoundrel, but he who would not compromise a political measure was a fool."

He possessed a magnificent library, was a great reader, and had a remarkably retentive memory, and being gifted with a naturally brilliant mind, found more