Bancroft Davis

Born on December 29, 1822, in Worcester, Massachusetts,{{cite web|url=https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/davis-john-chandler-bancroft|title=Davis, John Chandler Bancroft - Federal Judicial Center|website=www.fjc.gov}} Davis read law in 1844 and received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1847 from Harvard University. He originally entered Harvard with the class of 1840 but was suspended in his senior year and did not graduate with his original class.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} He was Secretary and charge d'affaires for the London legation with the United States Department of State from 1849 to 1852. He entered private practice in New York City, New York from 1853 to 1862. He was an American correspondent for the London Times from 1854 to 1861. Because of ill health, Davis retired from his law work in 1862, and settled on a farm in rural New York until he regained his health.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} He was a member of the New York State Assembly (Orange County, 1st District) in 1869 but vacated his seat on March 26, 1869 to accept a federal post. He was a United States Assistant Secretary of State from 1869 to 1871, and from 1873 to 1874, under President Ulysses S. Grant.{{cite news|title=Assistant Secretary of State.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1869/03/25/archives/assistant-secretary-of-state.html|accessdate=21 February 2017|work=The New York Times|date=25 March 1869}} He was Secretary and United States Agent for the Joint High Commission in Geneva, Switzerland from 1871 to 1873. In 1874, he was appointed as the United States Envoy to the German Empire, serving in that position until 1877.

Davis was nominated by President Rutherford B. Hayes on December 12, 1877, to a seat on the Court of Claims (later the United States Court of Claims) vacated by Judge Edward G. Loring. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 14, 1877, and received his commission the same day. His service terminated on December 9, 1881, due to his resignation to again accept the post of United States Assistant Secretary of State from 1881 to 1882.

Davis was nominated by President Chester A. Arthur on December 13, 1882, to the seat on the Court of Claims vacated by himself. He was confirmed by the Senate on December 20, 1882, and received his commission the same day. His service terminated on November 5, 1883, due to his resignation.

File:Bancroft Davis.png

Davis served as Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1883 to 1902.

Acting as court reporter in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, 118 U.S. 394 (1886), dealing with taxation of railroad properties, Davis plays a historical role in the corporate personhood debate.{{cite web|title=The murky history of J. C. Bancroft Davis and corporate personhood|url=https://booksbelow.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/the-murky-history-of-j-c-bancroft-davis-and-corporate-personhood/|website=Thoughts and Observations|accessdate=21 February 2017|date=22 January 2010}} The position of court reporter entailed that he write "a summary-of-the-case commentary." Why Bancroft Davis's role in the controversy is worth mentioning is that he noted in the headnote to the court's opinion that the Chief Justice Morrison Waite began oral argument by stating, "The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does."118 U.S. 394 (1886) - Official court Syllabus in the United States Reports

In a published account of Bancroft's collected Supreme Court reports and notes from 1885 to 1886,{{cite book|last=Davis|first=J.C. Bancroft|title=Vol. 118 of United States Reports: Cases Adjudged in the Supreme Court at October Term 1885 and October Term 1886|date=1886|publisher=Banks & Brothers Publishers|location=New York City}} he wrote of the Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad case that, "The defendant Corporations are persons within the intent of the clause in section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."{{cite book|last=Hartman|first=Thom|title=Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights|date=2002|publisher=Rodale|location=New York, NY|isbn=1-57954-627-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/unequalprotectio00hart/page/107 107]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/unequalprotectio00hart/page/107}}

Journalists and authors such as Thom Hartman have since cited Davis's prior position as president of Newburgh and New York Railway as evidence of a conflict of interest in the corporate personhood interpretation of a Supreme Court ruling dealing with a railroad.{{cite web|last1=Hartmann|first1=Thom|title=To Restore Democracy: First Abolish Corporate Personhood|url=http://www.thomhartmann.com/articles/2001/12/restore-democracy-first-abolish-corporate-personhood|website=Thom Hartmann - News & info from the #1 progressive radio show|accessdate=21 February 2017|date=31 December 2001}} The controversy regarding Bancroft Davis's summary remains unsolved.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/03/corporations-people-adam-winkler/554852/|title='Corporations Are People' Is Built on an Incredible 19th-Century Lie|last=Winkler|first=Adam|date=2018-03-05|work=The Atlantic|access-date=2018-08-14|language=en-US}}

Davis died on December 27, 1907, at his residence, 1621 H Street NW, in Washington, DC{{cite news|title=JOHN C. B. DAVIS DIES. {{!}} He Had Been Reporter for the Supreme Court Twenty-four Years.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1907/12/28/archives/john-cb-davis-dies-he-had-been-reporter-for-the-supreme-court.html|accessdate=21 February 2017|work=The New York Times|date=28 December 1907}}{{cite news|title=Obituary 1 -- No Title|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1907/12/30/101032303.html?pageNumber=7|accessdate=21 February 2017|work=The New York Times|date=December 30, 1907|language=en}}

Davis was the son of John Davis, a Whig Governor of Massachusetts, and was the older brother of United States Representative Horace Davis.{{cite news | title=Davis, John Chandler Bancroft (1822–1907) | url =http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/davis5.html#RK40GFFXZ | work=Political Graveyard | accessdate = September 17, 2008 }}

On November 19, 1857, Davis married Frederica Gore King (1829–1916).{{Cite journal |last=E. |first=H. H. |date=April 1908 |title=Obituaries: John Chandler Bancroft Davis |url=https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44806538.pdf |journal=Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=17}} Frederica was the daughter of James G. King (1791–1853), an American businessman and Whig Party politician and the granddaughter of both Archibald Gracie and Rufus King, who was the Federalist candidate for both Vice President (1804 and 1808) and President of the United States (1816).{{Cite book |last=Lamb |first=Martha J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XkM4AQAAMAAJ |title=History of the City of New York: Its Origin, Rise, and Progress |last2=Harrison |first2=Burton |publisher=A. S. Barnes and Company |year=1896 |volume=III |location=New York |pages=384–385 |author-link=Martha J. Lamb |author-link2=Constance Cary Harrison}} They did not have any children.

Davis was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1851.{{cite web|url=https://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlistd|title=MemberListD|website=American Antiquarian Society}}

• (1847) The Massachusetts Justice {{LCCN|05017539}}
• (1871) The Case of the United States Laid before the Tribunal of Arbitration at Geneva {{LCCN|10016624}}
• (1873) Treaties and Conventions Concluded between the United States of America and Other Powers, Since July 4, 1776 (Revised edition) {{LCCN|11033794}}
• (1893) Mr. Fish and the Alabama Claims: A Chapter in Diplomatic History {{LCCN|11024903}}, {{LCCN|71095065}}
• (1897) Origin of the Book of Common Prayer of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America

{{Commons category|John Chandler Bancroft Davis}}

• Davis political family

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web|url=https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/davis-john-chandler-bancroft|title=Davis, John Chandler Bancroft - Federal Judicial Center|website=www.fjc.gov}}
• The United States Court of Claims : a history / pt. 1. The judges, 1855–1976 / by Marion T. Bennett / pt. 2. Origin, development, jurisdiction, 1855–1978 / W. Cowen, P. Nichols, M.T. Bennett. Washington, D.C. : Committee on the Bicentennial of Independence and the Constitution of the Judicial Conference of the United States, 1976 i.e. 1977–1978. 2 vols.
• {{cite book |last1=Schlup |first1=Leonard |editor1-last=Schlup |editor1-first=Leonard C. |editor2-last=Ryan |editor2-first=James Gilbert |title=Historical Dictionary of the Gilded Age |year=2003 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=9780765621061 |page=124 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lhRqUo9HzVwC&pg=PA124 |accessdate=March 4, 2016}}
• {{cite news | title=Annual Report of the State Engineer and Surveyor of the State of New York, and of the Tabulations and Deductions from the Reports of the Railroad Corporations for the Year Ending September 30, 1867 | year=1868 | publisher=The Argus Company, Albany, NY | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=hJIaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA336 | pages=336 | accessdate=2009-10-04 }}

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{{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States}}|years=1883–1902}}

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Category:1822 births

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