Frederick Morgan Davenport

Frederick Morgan Davenport (August 27, 1866 – December 26, 1956) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New York who served four consecutive terms in Congress from 1925 to 1933. Over the course of his legislative career, he contributed to the national lawmaking process during a period of profound political and economic change in the United States, representing the interests of his New York constituents in the House of Representatives.

Davenport’s service in Congress took place during a significant era in American history, spanning the later years of the Roaring Twenties and the onset of the Great Depression. As a member of the House of Representatives, he participated in the democratic process at the federal level, engaging in debates and votes on issues that reflected the shifting priorities of the nation in the years leading up to and following the economic collapse of 1929. A member of the Republican Party, he worked within the majority party framework of the 1920s and then experienced the political realignments that accompanied the economic crisis at the beginning of the 1930s.

Elected as a Representative from New York, Davenport served in four terms of Congress between 1925 and 1933, a span that covered the Sixty-ninth through the Seventy-second Congresses. During these years, he took part in the legislative deliberations that addressed questions of economic policy, federal regulation, and social welfare that were increasingly at the forefront of national concern. His role as a Republican representative from New York placed him at the intersection of state and national interests at a time when New York was emerging as a central hub of finance, industry, and immigration, and when federal policy was beginning to respond more directly to the challenges of a modern, urban, and industrial society.

Throughout his congressional tenure, Davenport’s work reflected the responsibilities of a House member in representing local constituencies while also contributing to broader national policy. He participated in the formulation and consideration of legislation that affected both his district and the country as a whole, helping to shape the federal government’s response to the changing economic and social conditions of the late 1920s and early 1930s. His service concluded in 1933, as the New Deal era was beginning to transform the scope and scale of federal action in American life.

After leaving Congress, Davenport lived through the subsequent decades of the twentieth century, witnessing the long-term consequences of the political and economic transformations that had begun during his years in office. He died on December 26, 1956, closing a life that had spanned from the immediate post–Civil War era through World War II and into the early years of the Cold War. His congressional service from 1925 to 1933 remains the central public chapter of his career, marking his contribution to the legislative history of New York and the United States.