DAVIS, JOHN WILLIAM (1873— ), American lawyer, was born at Clarksburg (W. Va.), April 13, 1873, where he re ceived his early education. He graduated at Washington and Lee university in 1892, and from the law school there in 1895, being admitted to the bar in the same year. After a year as assistant professor of law at his alma mater, he returned in 1897 to Clarks burg, where he entered into an informal partnership with his father, also a lawyer, which continued until 1913. In '899 he was elected a member of the West Virginia house of delegates, and in 19o4 was a delegate to the Democratic national convention at St. Louis. He was elected to the 62nd (19I I) and 63rd 09'3) congresses for the first West Virginia district. During his period of service he was one of the managers on the part of the House in the successful impeachment of Judge Archbald.
In Aug. 1913, he was appointed solicitor-general of the United States, an office which he held until 1918. In this position he con ducted many important cases, among them the Midwest Oil case, involving the right of the President to withdraw from entry pub lic lands thought to contain mineral deposits. From 1913 to 1918 he was counsel for the American Red Cross. In 1918 he was ap pointed American delegate to a conference with Germany at Bern on the treatment and exchange of prisoners of war, and in the same year succeeded Walter Hines Page as American ambas sador to Great Britain, retaining this post until 1921. Among the honours conferred upon him was that of election as a bencher of the Middle Temple.
During the Peace Conference John W. Davis was one of Presi dent Wilson's advisers, and was the American representative on the joint committee which drafted the form of Allied control and government in the occupied Rhineland territory. In 192 1 he re turned from England and accepted a partnership in the New York law firm of Stetson, Jennings and Russell, which had many dis tinguished clients, among them J. P. Morgan and Co., and the Guaranty Trust Company. Davis was nominated on the io3rd ballot as Democratic candidate for the presidency at the Demo cratic national convention held in New York city, July 1924. The ensuing election resulted in an overwhelming victory for Calvin Coolidge, the Republican candidate, the electoral vote be ing 382 for the latter, 136 for Davis and 13 for La Follette, the Progressive candidate, while the popular vote was 15,748,356 for Coolidge, 8,617,454 for Davis and 4,686,681 for La Follette.