One of Abraham Lincoln’s staunchest and most effective allies, Judge David Davis masterminded the floor fight that gave Lincoln the presidential nomination at the 1860 Republican National Convention. This history-changing event emerged from a long friendship between the two men. It also altered the course of Davis’s career, as Lincoln named him to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1862.
Raymond J. McKoski offers a biography of Davis’s public life, his impact on the presidency and judiciary, and his personal, professional, and political relationships with Lincoln. Davis lent his vast network of connections, organizational and leadership abilities, and personal persuasiveness to help Lincoln’s political rise. When Davis became a judge, he honed an ability to hear each case with complete impartiality, a practice that endeared him to Lincoln but one day put him at odds with the president over important Civil War–era rulings. McKoski details these cases while providing an in-depth account of Davis’s role in Lincoln’s two unsuccessful campaigns for U.S. Senate and the fateful run for the presidency.
By:
Raymond J. McKoski
Imprint: University of Illinois Press
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: New edition
Dimensions:
Height: 235mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 33mm
Weight: 653g
ISBN: 9780252046636
ISBN 10: 0252046633
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 31 July 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Acknowledgments Introduction A Biographical Sketch of David Davis Part I Davis, Lincoln, and the U.S. Senate Lincoln’s First U.S. Senate Campaign Lincoln’s Second Senate Defeat Part II Davis, Lincoln, and the Presidency Davis Secures Lincoln’s 1860 Presidential Nomination Davis and the 1860 General Election Part III Davis, Lincoln, and the U.S. Supreme Court Lincoln Puts Davis on the Supreme Court Justice Davis and Wartime Presidential Edicts Part IV Judge Davis: A Model of Judicial Impartiality Impartiality on the Trial Court Bench Impartiality on the Supreme Court Bench Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
Raymond J. McKoski is a retired Illinois Circuit Judge and adjunct professor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. He is the author of Judges in Street Clothes: Acting Ethically Off-the-Bench.
Reviews for David Davis, Abraham Lincoln's Favorite Judge
“Drawing on his more than two decades of experience as a trial judge, historical researcher, and expert on judicial ethics, Raymond J. McKoski restores David Davis’s place in state and federal judicial history as a model of impartiality on the bench. In an era when Americans have become increasingly skeptical about partisanship and the courts, Judge Davis serves as a model of judicial decision making.”--Jonathan W. White, author of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize-winning A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House
