Daniel Cady

Daniel Cady (April 29, 1773 – October 31, 1859) was an American lawyer, politician, and judge in upstate New York. A prominent Federalist and later Whig and Republican sympathizer, he served one term as a U.S. representative from New York and became widely known in his lifetime as a leading jurist of the Mohawk Valley. He was the father of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the noted women’s rights activist and suffragist, and through her and his other children was connected to several influential political and intellectual families of the nineteenth century.

Cady was born on April 29, 1773, in that part of Canaan, Columbia County, New York, which was later set off to form Chatham, New York. He was the son of Eleazer Cady (1745–1819) and Tryphena (née Beebe) Cady (1749–1839). His siblings included Typhema Cady (1768–?), Zilpha Cady Halsey (1770–1858), Eleazer Cady (1775–1856), Ruth Cady (1777–?), and Sally Cady Eaton (1780–1816). Through this family network he was uncle to John W. Cady (1790–1854), who also served as a U.S. representative from New York. As a young man he learned the shoemaker’s trade, but at about age eighteen he accidentally injured one of his eyes and lost its sight, an event that ended his prospects as a craftsman and helped direct him toward the study of law.

Following his injury, Cady turned to legal studies, first reading law in Canaan with Judge Whiting. He later continued his preparation in Troy, New York, under John Woodworth, and pursued further legal training at the Albany Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1795 and commenced practice in Florida, then in Montgomery County, New York. After about a year he moved to Johnstown, then the county seat of Montgomery County, where he established the base of his long legal and political career. As a young lawyer he became associated with some of the most prominent figures of the early republic, working professionally with Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Toward the end of his career, he appeared in a notable land dispute associated with Beloit College, in which he and Abraham Lincoln represented opposing parties.

Cady entered public life in New York State politics in the early nineteenth century. He was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1808 and served three consecutive terms in the 32nd, 33rd, and 34th New York State Legislatures, from July 1, 1808, to June 30, 1811. He returned to the Assembly for a further term in the 36th New York State Legislature, serving from February to April 1813. During this latter period he simultaneously held the post of District Attorney of the Fifth District of New York, which then comprised Albany, Saratoga, Montgomery, Schoharie, and Schenectady counties. In regional affairs he became an influential figure in Johnstown and the surrounding area, and he is considered by some to be the “father” of Fulton County, having virtually engineered its creation in 1838 after the Montgomery County seat was moved from Johnstown to Fonda, New York. The newly established county was named Fulton County in honor of Robert Fulton, a cousin of Cady’s wife.

At the national level, Cady was elected as a member of the Federalist Party to the Fourteenth United States Congress. Representing New York, he served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1815, to March 3, 1817. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, in the aftermath of the War of 1812 and amid the waning influence of the Federalist Party. As a Federalist representative, Daniel Cady contributed to the legislative process during his single term in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his New York constituents. He was not a candidate for renomination at the close of his term and, after leaving Congress, returned to the active practice of law in Johnstown and the broader region.

Cady’s judicial career became the defining feature of his later professional life. On June 7, 1847, he was appointed a justice of the New York Supreme Court for the Fourth Judicial District, a position he held until his retirement and resignation on January 1, 1855. By virtue of this office he also served ex officio as a judge of the New York Court of Appeals in 1849 and again in 1853, participating in the state’s highest appellate work during a period of significant legal and constitutional development in New York. In national politics he remained engaged as a senior statesman; in 1856 he served as a presidential elector on the Republican ticket headed by John C. Frémont. Cady presided over the New York electoral college, which cast 35 electoral votes for Frémont, who ultimately lost the presidential election to Democrat James Buchanan.

On July 8, 1801, Cady married Margaret Livingston (1785–1871), daughter of Colonel James Livingston, an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution who fought at Saratoga and Quebec and assisted in the capture of Major John André at West Point. Margaret Cady was remembered as an unusually tall woman for her time, with a commanding, “queenly” presence, as described by their daughter Elizabeth. The couple suffered the loss of many of their children: five died in early childhood or infancy, and a son, Eleazer Livingston Cady (1806–1826), died at age twenty just before his graduation from Union College in Schenectady, New York. Only five daughters lived well into adulthood and old age. Their surviving children included Tryphenia Cady (1804–1891), who married Edward Bayard (1806–1889), a Union College classmate of Eleazer and son of U.S. Senator James Bayard; Harriet Elizabeth Cady (1810–1894), who married her first cousin Daniel Cady Eaton (1804–1855), son of scientist Amos Eaton and brother of General Amos Beebe Eaton; Elizabeth Smith Cady (1815–1902), who in 1840 married Henry Brewster Stanton, brother of Robert L. Stanton; Margaret Chinn Cady (1817–1901), who married Duncan McMartin (1817–1894), son of New York State Senator Duncan McMartin Jr.; and Catherine Henry Cady (1820–1899), who married journalist and railroad executive Samuel Wilkeson (1817–1889), son of Samuel Wilkeson, a mayor of Buffalo. The repeated bereavements deeply affected Margaret Cady, who was said to have fallen into a lasting depression that limited her involvement in the lives of her surviving children.

Through his marriage and his children, Cady was linked to several prominent reform and professional families. His wife’s sister Elizabeth married Peter Gerrit Smith and was the mother of Gerrit Smith, the noted abolitionist and social reformer who married Ann Carroll Fitzhugh and was a candidate for President of the United States in 1848, 1856, and 1860. Through his daughter Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Daniel Cady was the grandfather of Daniel Cady Stanton (1842–1891), Henry Brewster Stanton Jr. (1844–1903), Gerrit Smith Stanton (1845–1927), Theodore Weld Stanton (1851–1925), a prominent journalist, Margaret Livingston Stanton Lawrence (1852–1930), Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch (1856–1940), a leading suffragist, and Robert Livingston Stanton (1859–1920). Through his daughter Harriet, he was the grandfather of Daniel Cady Eaton (1834–1895), professor of botany at Yale College from the 1860s and the first Governor of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut.

Daniel Cady spent his final years in Johnstown, New York, where he had long been a central figure in legal, political, and civic affairs. He died there on October 31, 1859, and was buried in Johnstown Cemetery. His life and career, spanning from the early republic through the eve of the Civil War, left a legacy in New York’s legal and political institutions and in the reform movements advanced by his descendants.