DAVIS, HENRY WINTER American polit ical leader, was born at Annapolis (Md.), U.S.A., on Aug. 16, 1817. He graduated from the law department of the University of Virginia in 1841, and began to practice law in Alexandria (Va.), but in 185o removed to Baltimore (Md.). Early imbued with strong anti-slavery views, he began political life as a Whig, but when the Whig party disintegrated, became an "American" or "Know-Nothing," and as such served in the national House of Representatives from 1855 to 1861. In 186o, not ready to ally himself wholly with the Republican party, he declined to be a candidate for the Republican nomination for the vice-presidency. After Lincoln's election, he became a Republican, and was re elected in 1862 to the National House of Representatives, in which his radical views commanded especial attention owing to his being one of the few representatives from a slave state. From Dec. 1863 to March 1865 he was chairman of the committee on foreign affairs. With other radical Republicans Davis was a bitter opponent of Lincoln's reconstruction plan of the Southern States. On Feb. 15, 1864, he reported a bill placing reconstruction under the control of Congress. The bill finally passed both houses but failed to receive the approval of the president, who on July 8 issued a proclamation defining his position. On Aug. 5, 1864, Davis joined Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio, in issuing the so-called "Wade-Davis Manifesto," which violently denounced President Lincoln for encroaching on the domain of Congress. He was one of the radical leaders who preferred Fremont to Lincoln in 1864, but subsequently supported the President. In July 1865, he pub licly advocated the extension of the suffrage to negroes. He died in Baltimore (Md.), on Dec. 3o, 1865.
See The Speeches of Henry Winter Davis (1867) , to which is pre fixed an oration on his life and character delivered in the House of Representatives by Senator J. A. J. Creswell of Maryland.