Daniel Gott

Daniel Gott (July 10, 1794 – July 6, 1864) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. representative for New York’s 24th congressional district from 1847 to 1851. A member of the Whig Party and earlier the Anti-Masonic movement, he was active in New York state and national politics during a period of intense sectional conflict and was noted for his opposition to slavery, particularly in the District of Columbia.

Gott was born in Hebron, Tolland County, Connecticut, on July 10, 1794, the son of Hazael Gott and Abigail (Phelps) Gott. He attended the common schools of Hebron and, as a young man, taught school while also beginning to learn the clothier’s trade from his uncle, Ebenezer Snow. Demonstrating an early inclination toward the law, he commenced legal studies under attorney Sylvester Gilbert in Hebron. During the War of 1812, Gott served in the New York Militia. He was commissioned an ensign in the 98th Regiment, a unit of the 18th Division’s 27th Brigade, and later appointed regimental adjutant. The regiment was called into active service in October 1814 for the defense of Sackets Harbor, New York. Gott remained in the militia until 1816, gaining early experience in public duty and organization.

In 1817, Gott moved to Pompey, Onondaga County, New York, where he supported himself by teaching school while continuing his legal studies under prominent local attorneys Victory Birdseye and Daniel Wood, the latter being the father of future congressman Daniel P. Wood. He was admitted to the bar in 1819 and began practicing law in Pompey as the partner of Samuel Baldwin. Over the ensuing decades, Gott built a substantial legal practice and became a respected figure in the local bar. Among the aspiring lawyers who read law in his office were L. Harris Hiscock, George Henry Williams, Charles Mason, Charles Foster, and his stepsons Charles B. Sedgwick and Henry J. Sedgwick, several of whom later attained distinction in public life. Gott also served for many years as a trustee of Pompey Academy, reflecting his interest in education and civic improvement. In 1828 he suffered from a serious ailment affecting his vision, at times forcing him to remain in a darkened room, but he continued to practice law despite this disability and ultimately recovered his sight fully by 1840.

Gott’s political involvement began in earnest in the early 1830s, when he became active in the Anti-Masonic Party, which opposed the perceived influence of Freemasonry in public affairs. As that movement declined, he aligned himself with the Whig Party, which drew many former Anti-Masons into its ranks. By the mid-1840s he was an established Whig leader in his region. In 1844 he was chosen as a Whig presidential elector pledged to Henry Clay, although the Democratic candidate, James K. Polk, ultimately carried New York in the general election. Gott’s growing prominence within the party led to his selection as a delegate from his Assembly district to the Whig state conventions in 1849 and 1851, where he participated in shaping the party’s state-level agenda.

In 1846, Gott was elected as a Whig to the United States House of Representatives from New York’s 24th congressional district. He was re-elected in 1848 and served two full terms in the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Congresses, from March 4, 1847, to March 3, 1851. During his tenure in Congress, he served on the Committee on Territories, participating in deliberations at a time when questions about the status of slavery in the western territories and the balance of free and slave states dominated national politics. An advocate of ending slavery, Gott became particularly noted for his efforts to restrict the institution in the nation’s capital. In December 1848 he introduced a resolution condemning slavery in the District of Columbia and directing the committee with jurisdiction to prepare legislation to abolish it. The resolution passed the House by a vote of 98 to 88, in part because many pro-slavery members were absent when the vote was taken, but it provoked intense opposition. In January 1849, pro-slavery representatives succeeded in reversing the measure. During this controversy, Abraham Lincoln, then a fellow Whig representative from Illinois, privately circulated a proposal to end slavery in the District with compensation to slaveowners; Gott expressed support for Lincoln’s compromise idea, though it never attracted sufficient public backing to be formally introduced. While in Congress, Gott also exercised his patronage authority by appointing Henry Warner Slocum to the United States Military Academy in 1848; Slocum would later serve as a major general in the Union Army during the Civil War and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Gott was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1852, marking the end of his congressional career.

After leaving Congress, Gott continued to seek judicial and political roles within New York. In 1851 he was the Whig nominee for a seat on the New York Supreme Court, but he was not elected. In 1853 he moved from Pompey to the growing city of Syracuse, New York, where he resumed the practice of law in partnership with his son Daniel F. Gott. As the national political landscape shifted in the 1850s with the collapse of the Whig Party and the rise of the Republican Party as the principal anti-slavery organization, Gott became an early adherent of the new party, consistent with his long-standing opposition to the expansion and continuance of slavery. Outside of politics and law, he was deeply involved in religious and philanthropic work. A lifelong member of the Presbyterian Church, he helped found the Pompey Bible Society in 1852 and served as its first president, reflecting his commitment to religious education and moral reform.

Gott’s personal life was closely intertwined with his professional and political networks. In 1819 he married Anna Baldwin, the sister of his law partner Samuel Baldwin and the widow of attorney Stephen Sedgwick. Their children included Daniel Francis, Amelia, Anne, Charles, and Samuel Sackett. Through this marriage, Gott became stepfather to Anna’s sons by her first marriage, Charles B. Sedgwick (1815–1883), who later served in Congress, and Henry J. Sedgwick (1812–1868), who became a member of the New York State Senate; both had studied law under Gott’s supervision. These family and professional connections contributed to a broader circle of legal and political influence in central New York.

Daniel Gott died in Syracuse on July 6, 1864, at the age of 69. He was interred in Pompey Hill Cemetery in Pompey, New York, returning in death to the community where he had first established his legal career and local reputation. His life spanned the early republic, the rise and fall of several political parties, and the mounting sectional crisis that culminated in the Civil War, during which many of the younger men he had mentored, including Henry Warner Slocum and members of the Sedgwick family, played prominent roles in public affairs.