GARRETT DAVIS. Among the list of the illustrious dead of Kentucky, no name
has passed into history, bearing with it greater honors as a statesman, a
patriot, and an honest and faithful servant of the cause of liberty, the
Union and his State, than the lamented Garrett Davis. Living, as he did,
from the early morn until the eventide of the nineteenth century, at a time
when the nation most needed men of stalwart principle and sterling
integrity Garrett Davis filled the busy years of his faithful life full of
noble deeds and heroic, unfaltering labor for the nation's good, and that
of his native State, and fearlessly battled for what, in his unprejudiced
mind, seemed right. The following brief statement of facts concerning his
useful and eventful life, are gleaned from a published volume of Memorial
Addresses on his Life and Character, delivered in the Senate and House of
Representatives of the Forty-second Congress of the United States, Dec.
18, 1872, upon which occasion eulogies were delivered by Senators
Stevenson of Kentucky, Cameron of Pennsylvania, Thurman of Ohio, Sumner of
Massachusetts, Bayard of Delaware, Trumbull of Illinois, and many other
noted statesmen. Garrett Davis was a native of Kentucky; he was born at
Mount Sterling, Sept. 10, 1801. His father and mother emigrated from
Montgomery Co., Maryland, to the county of the same name in Kentucky. His
mother was a Miss Garrett--a family widely known in Maryland, and it was
from her family that he derived his baptismal name. His father as a man
of marked character; to energy and industry he added strong will and great
personal popularity. He was for many years the Sheriff of his adopted
county, and several times represented his district in the lower branches of
the General Assembly of Kentucky. Garrett Davis was one of three brothers.
The brilliant talents of two of them, also long since departed this life,
are still remembered in Kentucky. Garrett enjoyed the advantages of what
is known in Kentucky as a common school education. His early years were,
however, fraught with a constant study of books, and he thus acquired a
good English education, and a practical knowledge of the Latin and Greek
languages; at an early age he determined to study law, and with a view of
gaining practical knowledge, he sought and obtained employment as a
deputy in the Circuit Court Clerk's office of Montgomery County. In 1823,
he removed to Bourbon County, where he occupied a clerical position similar
to that held in Montgomery County. About the year 1824, he commenced the
practice of his profession in Paris, and to it he consecrated the earlier
years of his life with enthusiastic devotion. His first wife was the
daughter of Robert Trimble, a distinguished Jurist, who became subsequently
a Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. His second wife was a
Mrs. Elliott, widow of a prominent lawyer, also of Paris. Mr. Davis was an
assiduous law student, and his industry received its reward. His business
rapidly increased, and he soon rose to a high position at a bar which then
numbered some of the most eminent lawyers of the Commonwealth. He regarded
the law as the noblest science of intellectual triumph, and loved the
administration of justice. All who have encountered him as an opponent in
trial of an important cause, will bear willing testimony to his high
qualities as an able and strong lawyer. His last argument but one, in the
Supreme Court of the United States, in the reported case of Missouri vs.
Kentucky, is a lasting memorial of his legal learning and professional
power. Mr. Davis always took an active and prominent part in the political
contests of Kentucky, from his earliest manhood--always an ardent Whig, and
frequently the selected standard-bearer of his party. In its most excited
struggles, his clarion voice rang throughout this Commonwealth in defense
of the principles of that patriotic and gallant organization. He was the
trusted and true friend of Henry Clay, and enjoyed to a pre-eminent degree
his confidence and regard. He represented Bourbon County in the lower
branch of the General Assembly of Kentucky for many years. Always
conservative in his views, he took a prominent and successful part in
shaping the legislation of the State. For eight consecutive years he was
chosen over able and distinguished competitors by the electors of the
Ashland district, their Representative to the House of Representatives of
the United States, and then voluntarily retired. The debates of that body
during that period attests his power and strength as a ready and skillful
debater. He was nominated as Lieutenant Governor on the Gubernatorial
ticket with John J. Crittenden, but at his earnest request was excused by
the convention. In 1861, amid perils and dangers of a revolutionary
struggle, he was elected as an old line Union Whig, to succeed John C.
Breckinridge in the United States Senate. He was the strongest opponent
of secession, and at the period of his election, an earnest advocate of the
rigid prosecution of the war to restore the Union. The result of the war,
so far as it resulted in the overthrow of the rebellion, was an agreeable
to him as to any other union man. But the changes in the form of
government, the constitutional amendments, the acts of reconstruction, and
other governmental acts which, by the dominant party, were deemed
necessary in order to make the Government conform to the altered condition
of things, were very repulsive to him, and he opposed them bravely and
earnestly, though sustained by a hopeless minority. In 1867, he was
re-elected to the United States Senate, a proud tribute to his fidelity
and zeal in upholding the honor and guarding the interest of his State. For
twelve years he occupied his seat in the Senate. Constitutional questions,
novel and startling in their character, were during his time discussed and
adopted, and Garrett Davis was never silent when duty prompted him to
speak, and he was never known to quail before the power of an overwhelming
political majority, and amid the bitterest party contests of the past, his
honesty was never impeached or his spotless purity of character ever
questioned. With him as a Representative, the conscientious discharge of
his duty was paramount to every other consideration. His actions were
prompted by conviction, and his convictions were the creations of a
well-ordered mind, greatly strengthened by a pure and manly spirit, and
throughout life he maintained the same elevated standard. In the death of
this truly great and good man, Kentucky lost one of its most illustrious
sons, his country, one of its purest and ablest statesmen. Such a man was
Garrett Davis, and what higher praise could human statesmanship deserve?
He died at his home in Paris, upon the 22d of September, 1872, and all
that was mortal of the beloved Kentucky statesman rests beneath the blue
grass sod of Bourbon County, in the Paris cemetery.
