1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [30]
Davis, Jefferson (1808–1889) A hero of the United States-Mexican War (1846–1848), a U.S. Representative, and secretary of war under Franklin Pierce, Davis, a Mississippian, accepted appointment as president of the Confederate States of America in 1861 and served as such throughout the Civil War. After the war, he was held in prison by the federal government for two years before he was charged with treason. The government dropped its case in 1868, however, and Davis returned to private life, becoming a president once again—this time of a Memphis, Tennessee, insurance company.
Davis, Stuart (1894–1964) Philadelphia-born Davis was the son of a graphic artist and newspaper art editor. The graphic designs young Davis grew familiar with as a child influenced his mature abstract painting style, which combined Cubism (inspired by Picasso, Cezanne, and Braque) with elements of American commercial art. This combination, innovative and idiosyncratic at the time, became highly influential on later modern American art movements, including the Pop Art movement of the 1960s.
Dayton, Jonathan (1760–1824) At 27, Dayton was the youngest member of the U.S. Constitutional Convention. He rose to become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and went on to develop huge portions of the Ohio territory, especially the area that later became the state of Ohio. This earned him the honor of having a major Ohio city named for him, even though he was implicated in Aaron Burr’s grandiose scheme to establish an empire in the American West. Like Burr, Dayton was indicted for high treason; unlike him, he was never prosecuted. Dean, John (1938– ) Dean earned his law degree in 1965 from Georgetown University and in 1970 became President Richard M. Nixon’s White House counsel. In 1972, Nixon appointed Dean to investigate the “possible involvement” of White House personnel in the break-in at Democratic National Headquarters in Washington’s Watergate complex. Refusing President Nixon’s request that he fabricate a report denying an investigation cover-up, Dean soon turned against his boss, revealing to federal investigators all he knew about Watergate. Two months after Nixon fired Dean on April 30, 1973, Dean testified publicly before the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, revealing in detail how the White House had systematically obstructed justice following the Watergate break-in. Imprisoned briefly for his role in Watergate, Dean told all in the confessional memoir Blind Ambition (1976).
Debs, Eugene (1855–1926) Debs revolutionized the concept of the American labor union when he organized workers by industry rather than by craft. After becoming president of the American Railway Union in 1893, he united railway workers from various crafts, thereby creating the nation’s first industrial union. He led the union in the great Pullman strike of 1895, for which he was given a six-month jail sentence. During this time, he read the works of Karl Marx and became a confirmed socialist, convinced that the essence of the labor movement was a struggle between classes. Between 1900 and 1920, he ran for U.S. president five times as a member of the Socialist Party.
Decatur, Stephen (1779–1820) Decatur became a national naval hero in 1804 when he led an expedition into Tripoli harbor to burn the U.S. frigate Philadelphia, which had fallen into Tripolitan hands during action against the Barbary pirates. During the War of 1812, he compiled a magnificent record against the ships of the mighty British fleet. After further victories against Barbary pirates in 1815, he famously replied to a toast in his honor: “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.” He met his death in a duel with a former officer in whose court martial he had been involved.
Deere, John (1804–1886) After working as a blacksmith in his native Vermont, Deere moved west and set up a smithy at Grand Detour, Illinois. Kept busy repairing plows