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 Ex-Judge David Davis (Now Senator) at Home
  Cartoonist:  Thomas Nast
  Source:  Harper's Weekly
  Date:   February 17, 1877, p. 121

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Caption: After wandering abroad for many a year.
Complete HarpWeek Explanation:
In supporting the Electoral Commission Act, Democrats assumed that David Davis would be the fifth justice. On a commission otherwise evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, the independent Davis would be the decisive vote. Democratic leaders were confident that he would see the logic and justice of their case for Tilden's election.

Davis had longed desired political office, so Tilden's disreputable nephew, Colonel William Pelton, urged a Democratic-Greenback coalition in the Illinois state legislature to elect Davis to the U.S. Senate. Instead of remaining on the commission, grateful to the Democrats, Davis resigned since he would soon no longer be a Supreme Court justice, but a senator. He was replaced on the commission by Justice Joseph P. Bradley, a Republican who cast all his votes for Hayes.

 

 
 
 
 
   

 

     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 
     
 

 

 

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