David Davis, Abraham Lincoln's Favorite Judge
The story of a Lincoln loyalist and impartial jurist
Cloth – $50
978-0-252-04663-6
eBook – $19.95
978-0-252-04794-7
Publication Date
Cloth: 07/22/2025
About the Book
One of Abraham Lincoln’s staunchest and most effective allies, Judge David Davis masterminded the floor fight that gave Lincoln the presidential nomination at the 1860 Republican National Convention. This history-changing event emerged from a long friendship between the two men. It also altered the course of Davis’s career, as Lincoln named him to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1862.Raymond J. McKoski offers a biography of Davis’s public life, his impact on the presidency and judiciary, and his personal, professional, and political relationships with Lincoln. Davis lent his vast network of connections, organizational and leadership abilities, and personal persuasiveness to help Lincoln’s political rise. When Davis became a judge, he honed an ability to hear each case with complete impartiality, a practice that endeared him to Lincoln but one day put him at odds with the president over important Civil War–era rulings. McKoski details these cases while providing an in-depth account of Davis’s role in Lincoln’s two unsuccessful campaigns for U.S. Senate and the fateful run for the presidency. He also looks at the unofficial wartime communications Davis sent to the president to avert embarrassing court rulings and examines how Davis’s even-handedness impacted the judicial branch of government.
Engaging and meticulous, David Davis, Abraham Lincoln’s Favorite Judge tells the story of an essential figure in the career of America’s greatest president.
About the Author
Raymond J. McKoski is a retired Illinois Circuit Judge and adjunct professor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. He is the author of Judges in Street Clothes: Acting Ethically Off-the-Bench.Reviews
"“Drawing on his more than two decades of experience as a trial judge, historical researcher, and expert on judicial ethics, Raymond J. McKoski restores David Davis’s place in state and federal judicial history as a model of impartiality on the bench. In an era when Americans have become increasingly skeptical about partisanship and the courts, Judge Davis serves as a model of judicial decision making.”—Jonathan W. White, author of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize–winning A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House“Raymond McKoski has given the fullest treatment of Abraham Lincoln’s mentor, David Davis. From riding the circuit to Davis’s obtaining appointment to the US Supreme Court, Judge Davis demonstrated judicial independence, even writing the majority opinion in Ex parte Milligan that defied the President’s action to choose military tribunals. For students of Abraham Lincoln and the law, this is an essential addition to their library.”—Frank J. Williams, former Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court
"A seminal and groundbreaking work of meticulous and exhaustive research, David Davis, Abraham Lincoln's Favorite Judge is an extraordinary and informative study.... Exceptionally well written and thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation."-- Midwest Book Review
"McKoski's interesting and informative biography reminds readers of David Davis's importance and explores some of what the judge's life can tell us about the tumultuous 19th century United States." --Civil War Monitor
“McKoski’s analysis of the Chicago convention in 1860 is one of the best readers will find anywhere in print. . . . This volume will delight students of Lincoln and the Civil War by shifting the spotlight from the leader in the White House to the man who put him there. Highly recommended.”--Emerging Civil War"
Blurbs
“Drawing on his more than two decades of experience as a trial judge, historical researcher, and expert on judicial ethics, Raymond J. McKoski restores David Davis’s place in state and federal judicial history as a model of impartiality on the bench. In an era when Americans have become increasingly skeptical about partisanship and the courts, Judge Davis serves as a model of judicial decision making.”--Jonathan W. White, author of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize-winning A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House
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