Career
In 1849, Davis became secretary of the American embassy in London and later its chargé d'affaires. He practiced law in New York City and was the correspondent for The Times in London. Because of ill health, he retired from his law work in 1862. He was a member of the New York State Assembly (Orange Co., 1st D.) in 1869, but vacated his seat on March 26 after his appointment as Assistant U.S. Secretary of State.
Under President Ulysses S. Grant, he was Assistant Secretary of State in 1869–1871 and again in 1873–1874.
Between times he was a secretary of the commission which concluded the Treaty of Washington in 1871, to create a tribunal to settle the Alabama claims. He subsequently represented the United States at the tribunal, the Geneva Court of Arbitration, which met at Geneva on December 15, 1871. The American case was prepared and presented by him.
In 1874, he was appointed as the U.S. Minister to Germany, serving in that position until 1877. President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him to be an associate judge on the United States Court of Claims on December 14, 1877, replacing retiring Judge Edward G. Loring.
For another special assignment at the State Department, he resigned from the Court of Claims in 1881 at the request of President Chester A. Arthur, who reappointed him to the court in 1882. He resigned again in 1883 to become Reporter of Decisions for the Supreme Court, and was replaced on the Court of Claims by Lawrence Weldon.
Read more about this topic: Bancroft Davis
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