Connecticut western news., 1900-11-29
SENATOR DAVIS.

sissippi, part of the time on stan duty. When in 1864 broken health compelled his retirement, he was first lieutenant of Company B, Twenty-eighth Wisconsin volunteer infantry.
 Going to St. Paul, he formed q law partnership with his army chief, General w. A. German, ex-governor of Minneso- ta territory. In 1868 he was elected to the state legislature and two years later was appointed United States district at torney, serving five years in that position.
 In 1873, by a majority of one vote, he was nominated by the Republicans for governor and elected by a majority of 5,496. The campaign issue was then new, being whether the state could con- trol the charges of railroads. Governor Davis asserted this right, and such legis- lation was enacted and enforced during his term of office. During a protracted senatorial contest at that session Gov ernor Davis was one of the candidates, but Chief Justice McMillan was finally elected. It was at this time that the great grasshopper plague devastated southwestern Minnesota, and Governor Davis raised over S100, 900 in money, be- sides supplies, for the victims of the plague.
 Governor Davis declined a renomina- tion and resumed the practice of law. His successor, Governor Pillsbury, retained him to argue in the United States SUI preme court the case of the state of Wis consin against the city of Duluth and the state of Minnesota to restrain the open ing of the present Duluth ship canal, through which all the commerce of that port now passes. Mir. Davis won the suit for Minnesota. He continued in the Io. n. .x,x considerable attention to politics. In 1884 be headed the Blaine delegation to Chicago, where he made one of the nomi- seting speeches for that candidate.
 Election to senatorshfp.
 During 1886 many of the state news papers advocated his election as United States senator, and when the legislature of 1887 met Senator McMillan withdrew as a candidate for reelection, and MT. Davis received every vote.
 Senator Davis first chairmanship in the senate was of the committee on pen sions, which he held throughout his first term. He was the author of the pension law of 1890, which terminated the de- mands for excessive pension legislation and also satisfied the old soldiers. As a member of the committee on territories Senator Davis led the fight for the ad- mission of the Dakotas to statehood, making his first speech in the senate on that subject.
 As a student and an authority on inter national law Senator Davis furnished briefs to President Harrison and Secre- tary of State Blaine on the Chilean dis pute and the Boring sea controversy. His advocacy of the new locks al she Sault Ste. Marie ship canal carried to a success f,,l r,ela fhax -t1In Nf has since been amply demonstrated.
 In 1893 the Republican legislative eau GUS voted in favor of tn, reelection of Senator Davis, but before the legislature voted on the senatorship various inf1u- ences intervened, and he was finally elect ed by a majority of one, although the Re publicans had a majority of IT on joint ballot.
 At the beginning of his second term Senator Davis was placed on the commit tee on foreign relations, and when Sena- tor Sherman was transferred to the cabi- net of President Mckinley Senator Davis was placed at the head of that important committee.
 In 1S95-6 many friends of the senator pressed his name for the presidential nomination, but before the state conven- ton to name delegates met he withdrew, and Mckinley delegates were sent from Minnesota.
 During the past four years Senator Da- vis' position as chairman of the foreign relations committee of the senate and lat CT as one of the Paris peace commission CTS had kept him prominently before the public of all nations. He was reelected without opposition in 1899 for his third term.
 tAr x,to hal hao txf-tn a1 His first wife was Miss Laura Bowman, and after she had secured a divorce from him he married in 1880 Miss Anna Nal eolno