Daniel Cady

Daniel Cady (1773-1859)

Daniel Cady (April 29, 1773 – October 31, 1859 in Johnstown, Fulton County, New York) was a prominent American lawyer and judge in upstate New York. While perhaps better known today as the father of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Judge Cady had a full and accomplished life of his own.

Life

Cady was born in that part of Canaan, Columbia County, New York which was later split off to form Chatham, New York. He learned the shoemaker's trade, but accidentally injured an eye and lost the sight of it at age 18. He then studied law, first in Canaan with Judge Whiting, then in Troy with John Woodworth. Cady was admitted to the bar in 1795, and commenced practice in Florida, Montgomery County, but after a year moved to Johnstown, then the county seat. As a young lawyer, he worked with such notables as Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, and toward the end of his career, he served on a case with Abraham Lincoln, where they each represented clients in a land dispute associated with Beloit College.

Cady was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1808-09, 1810, 1811 and 1812-13.

From February to April 1813, Cady was District Attorney of the Fifth District, which comprised Albany, Saratoga, Montgomery, Schoharie and Schenectady counties.

Cady was elected as a Federalist to the 14th United States Congress, holding office from March 4, 1815, to March 3, 1817.

He is considered by some the father of Fulton County, virtually engineering the county's creation in 1838 after the Montgomery county seat was moved from Johnstown to Fonda, New York. The newly established county was named after Robert Fulton, a cousin of Cady's wife Margaret Livingston.

Cady was a justice of the New York Supreme Court (4th D.) from 1847 to 1854, when he resigned, and was ex officio a judge of the New York Court of Appeals in 1849.

In 1856, Cady was a presidential elector on the Republican John C. Fremont ticket. Cady presided over the New York electoral college which cast 35 votes for Fremont who lost the election to Democrat James Buchanan.

He died in Johnstown on October 31, 1859 and was buried at Johnstown Cemetery.

External links

• United States Congress. "Daniel Cady (id: C000014)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 70, 182ff, 187, 263, 332, 351, 368 and 448; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)
• Biographical Sketches of the Distinguished Men of Columbia County by William Raymond (Weed, Parsons & Co.; Albany; 1851; pages 44f)
• DANIEL CADY.; Biographical Sketch in NYT on January 25, 1855
• DEATH OF HON. DANIEL CADY in NYT on November 3, 1859
• http://www.beloit.edu/~libhome/Archives/papers/lincoln.html
• http://www.nps.gov/wori/archives/judgecady.htm
• http://www.danielcady.com/
• http://www.danielcady.com/letters/