Prior to his appointment to the Court, John Chandler Bancroft Davis was a politically active and ambitious man. A Harvard educated attorney, Davis held a number of public service and political appointment jobs ranging from Asst. Secretary of State for two Presidents to Minister of Germany to Court of Claims Judge.
This was no ordinary court reporter, in the sense of today's professionals who do their jobs with clarity and precision but completely uninvolved in the cases or with the parties involved. He was a political animal, well educated and traveled, and well connected to the levers of power in his world, which in the 1880s were principally the railroads.
In 1875, while Minister to Germany, Davis even took the time to visit Karl Marx, transcribing in their conversations one of what was considered one of the era's clearest commentaries about Marx. But Davis also left out part of what Marx said - Davis apparently viewed himself as both reporter and editor. In late 1878, a second reporter tracked down Marx and asked about Davis' omission. Here's an excerpt from that second article, as it appeared in the January 9, 1879 issue of The Chicago Tribune:
During my visit to Dr. Marx, I alluded to the platform given by J.C. Bancroft Davis in his official report of 1877 as the clearest and most concise exposition of socialism that I had seen. He said it was taken from the report of the socialist reunion at Gotha, Germany, in May, 1875. The translation was incorrect, he said, and he [Maarx] volunteered correction, which I append as he dictated"-"
Marx then proceeds to give this second reporter an entire Twelfth Clause about state aid and credit for industrial societies, and suggests that Davis had cooperated with Marx in producing a skewed record in recognition of the times and place where the discussion was held.
I own twelve books written by Davis, which give an insight into the status and role he held as Recorder for the Court. In his Mr. Sumner, the Alabama Claims and Their Settlement, published by Douglas Taylor in New York in 1878, my frayed, disintegrating copy is filled with Davis's personal thoughts and insights on a testimony before Congress. The book, first published as an article in The New York Herald by Davis, says such things as, "Like Mr. Sumner's speech in April 1869, this remarkable document would have shut the door to all settlement, had it been listened to. To a suggestion that we should negotiate for the settlement of our disputed boundary and of the fisheries, it proposed to answer that we would negotiate only on condition that Great Britain would first abandon the whole subject of the proposed negotiation. I well remember Mr. Fish's astonishment when he received this document."
He summarizes with extensive commentary such as, "I add to the foregoing narrative that Mr. Motley's friends were (perhaps not unnaturally) indignant at his removal, and joined him in attributing it to Mr. Sumner's course toward the St. Domingo Treaty"-" He indirectly references his own time as Envoy to Germany when he writes, "They apparently forgot that the more brilliant, the more distinguished, and the more attractive in social life an envoy is, the more dangerous he may be to his country when he breaks loose from his instructions and communicates socially to the world and officially"-"
As you can see, Davis was fond of flowery writing, and thought well of himself.
And then I realized what I was reading. It related to the famous 1871 Geneva Arbitration Case, led by attorney Morrison Remick Waite, which won over $15 million for the US Government from England for their help of the Confederate army during the Civil War. Going to another book by Davis that I'd purchased while researching this book, published in 1903 and titled A Chapter in Diplomatic History, I discovered that Davis had been quite active in the Geneva Arbitration Case.
During the negotiations with England, he writes, "I answered that I was very sorry at the position of things, but that the difficulty was not of our making; that I would carry his message to Lord Tenterden, but could hold out little hope that he would adopt the suggestion; and that, in my opinion, the Arbitrators should take up the indirect claims and pass upon them while this motion was pending.
"That evening I saw Lord Tenterden," Davis continues, "and told him what had taken place between me and Mr. Adams and the Brazilian arbitrator"- About midnight he came to me to say that he had told Sir Roundell Palmer what had passed between him and me, and that Sir Roundell had made a minute of some points which would have to be borne in mind, should the Arbitrators do as suggested. He was not at liberty to communicate these points to me officially; but, if I chose to write them down from his dictation, he would state them. I wrote them down from his dictation, and, early the next morning, convened a meeting of the counsel and laid the whole matter before them."
That Davis was playing more than just the role of a stenographer in this case was indisputable. And the case?
It was, again, the Alabama Claims or Geneva Settlement case, which had made Morrison Remick Waite's career. Checking the University of Virginia's law school, I found the following notes on the Geneva Arbitration case: "The United States' case was argued by former Assistant Secretary of State Bancroft Davis, along with lawyers Caleb Cushing, William M. Evarts, and Morrison R. Waite, under the direction of Secretary of State Hamilton Fish and Secretary of Treasury George Boutwell" (italics added).
Waite and Davis had worked side-by-side on one of the most famous cases in American history (at the time), both in Geneva, Switzerland, and before the United States Congress. And all this a full 15 years before Davis was to put his pen to his understanding of the Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad case when it came before the Supreme Court which Waite was now Chief Justice of and for which Davis was the head Recorder.
Searching for traces of Davis on the Internet, I found an autograph for sale - it was a letter by President Ulysses Grant, signed by Grant, and also signed by Grant's Acting Secretary of State - J. C. Bancroft Davis.
And looking through the records of the City of Newburgh, New York, where Davis once lived, the Orange County New York Directory of 1878-9 lists the following note about one of that city's distinguished citizens:
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