Henry
Winter Davis was
born
in
Annapolis, Maryland on 16th August November, 1817. After graduating
from Kenyon College he studied law at the University of Virginia.
Davis worked as a lawyer in Baltimore,
where he became an active member of the Whig
Party. In the dispute over slavery
Davis refused to support the political factions
on either side and in 1860 was elected to the House of Representatives
as a member of the Union Party.
Although critical of Abraham Lincoln,
it was mainly due to Davis that Maryland did not secede from the Union.
On the outbreak of the Civil War Davis
joined the Republican Party and in
1863 was re-elected to the House of Representatives. During the war
Davis developed strong opinions against slavery
and was associated with the Radical Republicans
in Congress.
In 1864
Davis joined with Benjamin
Wade in sponsoring a bill the that provided for
the administration of the affairs of southern states by provisional
governors until the end of the war. They also argued that civil government
should only be re-established when half of the male white citizens
took an oath of loyalty to the Union.
The
Wade-Davis Bill was passed on 2nd
July, 1864, with only one Republican
voting against it. However, Abraham
Lincoln refused to sign it. Lincoln
defended his decision by telling Zachariah
Chandler,
one of the bill's supporters, that it was a question of time: "this
bill was placed before me a few minutes before Congress adjourns.
It is a matter of too much importance to be swallowed in that way."
Six days later Lincoln issued a proclamation explaining his views
on the bill. He
argued that he had rejected it because he did not wish "to be
inflexibly committed to any single plan of restoration".
The Radical Republicans
were furious with Lincoln's decision. On 5th August, Davis and Benjamin
Wade
published an attack on Lincoln in the New
York Tribune. In what became known as the Wade-Davis
Manifesto, the men argued that Lincoln's actions had been taken "at
the dictation of his personal ambition" and accused him of "dictatorial
usurpation". They added that: "he must realize that our
support is of a cause and not of a man."
Davis also opposed Andrew Johnson and
his Reconstruction Plan before losing his
seat in the House of Representatives in 1865. Henry
Winter Davis, who
returned to his law practice in Baltimore,
died
on 30th December, 1865.
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