BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

DANIEL STEVENS DICKINSON was born in the town of Goshen, Litchfield county, Connecticut, September 11, 1800. He was the fourth in a family of eight children. His parents, both natives of Connecticut, were of English ancestry. His father, Daniel T. Dickinson, was a farmer of moderate means; a man of intelligence and probity, and of great energy and decision of character. His mother, whose maiden name was Mary Caulkins, possessed the qualities of a good mind, a kind and benevolent disposition and unaffected religious sentiment, and discharged, in her sphere, with fidelity and devotion, all the duties of a life of practical worth and usefulness. In 1806 the family removed to Chenango county in the State of New York, and settled in the east part of Oxford, now the town of Guilford. The country was then new, and the hardships, adventures, and privations of pioneer life were to be encountered. Here the subject of this sketch passed his youth, mostly in the hardy and laborious occupations of the farm; but the parents brought with them to their new home their New England love for social order, and mental, moral and material improvement, and became early interested in procuring for their children the best advantages of education that they could command. The first school organized in the neighborhood was taught in a room of their dwelling. But their means and the literary resources of the country did not enable them to go beyond the facilities afforded by the common schools, and those of a system then in its infancy. By making the most of these, how

2

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

ever, aided by home instruction and encouragement, he suc ceeded, between the whiles of labor, in laying the foundation of a thoroughly practical education, more useful than many acquirements of greater show and pretension; and from this beginning, by pursuing a system of self-education and extensive reading, aided by a fine literary taste, he became a thorough English scholar, well versed in the classics, and familiar with poetry, history, political economy, the various branches of science and general literature.

At a very early age his inclination evidently led him to debate, with himself, the possibility of making the legal profession his future occupation, and to form plans with that object in view; but the entrée to the profession was then much more difficult than it has since become; and his father, who regarded practical manual labor of some kind as the truest sphere of usefulness, did not encourage his aspirations. At about the age of sixteen or seventeen, he was apprenticed to a worthy mechanic, a clothier or cloth dresser, and became well skilled in the trade, though he never pursued it to any extent after serving out his apprenticeship.

In 1820 he commenced teaching, and was thus engaged, in both the common, and in select schools, a considerable portion of the time up to 1825. The employment was congenial, and he was both popular and successful as a teacher. During this time he learned, without an instructor, the art of land surveying, in which he became proficient as a practical surveyor. While engaged in teaching he also devoted a portion of the time to the study of the law, which he continued afterwards in the office of Clark & Clapp, Esqs., at Norwich; the senior member of the firm, the late Hon. Lot Clark, then being a leading lawyer of Central New York.

In 1828 he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court, and to the Court of Chancery, and commenced practice at Guilford, where he held at the time the office of postmaster.

In December, 1831, seeking a more extensive field of business, he removed to Binghamton, the county seat of Broome county, New York, where he continued to reside the remainder of his life. Here he entered at once upon a large legal practice, and soon took rank among the prominent lawyers of the State. He also took an active part in the organizations of the Democratic party, with which he had been identified from his earliest political action.

In 1834, on the municipal organization of Binghamton, he was elected its first President. In 1835, he was a member of the Democratic National Convention, at Baltimore, which nominated Van Buren and Johnson for President and Vice President.

He was elected to the State Senate in 1836, from what was then the 6th Senate District, composed of the counties of Chenango, Broome, Tompkins, Tioga, Chemung, Steuben, Livingston, Allegany and Cattaraugus. The term commenced Jan. 1, 1837, and continued four years; during which he served as Senator and Member of the Court for the Correction of Errors, the highest judicial tribunal of the State. In both capacities, as a legislator and as a jurist, he maintained a prominent rank. He took a leading part in the many important subjects that came. before the Legislature for adjustment; prominent among which, were the financial questions growing out of the discontinuance of the United States Bank, and the establishing of the Independent Treasury, to which the State policy had to be conformed; the small-bill law; the bank-suspension law; various measures in reference to the enlargement of the Canals, and for the construction of the Erie Railroad, in which he took especial interest. As a debater he was found ready and effective. speech on the usury laws is a good specimen of his style and powers of debate at this time. It may be truly said to conclude argument on the question. As a judicial writer his opinions, delivered in the Court for the Correction of Errors, to be found

His

in the law reports of the State, are characterized by clearness and ability. Discarding mere technicalities, they go to the merits of the question, and vindicate the law as having its best foundation in sound and practical common sense.

His course in the Senate was so well approved that the Democratic State Convention of 1840 nominated him for Lieutenant Governor. The election was that at which Mr. Van Buren ran, as the Democratic candidate, for President, against General Harrison; and the whole Democratic ticket, State and National, was defeated, though Mr. Dickinson received five thousand more votes in the State than the Democratic Presidential ticket. In 1842, his name being again brought forward in connection with the office of Lieut. Governor, he published a letter in advance of the meeting of the Convention, declining to be a candidate; but he was nevertheless unanimously nominated, and was elected by twenty-five thousand majority. As Lieut. Governor he became President of the Senate; Presiding Judge of the Court of Errors; Member of the Canal Board; Regent of the University, &c. The term continued till December 31, 1844, and the various duties imposed by the office were so discharged as to add to the reputation he had gained in the Senate.

In the Presidential campaign of 1844, he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and afterwards canvassed the State for Polk and Dallas, the Democratic candidates, advocating as a prominent issue in the contest, the annexation of Texas. He was one of the State Electors, and assisted, in the Electoral College, in casting the vote of New York for the successful candidates.

In December 1844, he was appointed by Governor Bouck to the United States Senate, in place of Hon. N. P. Tallmadge, who had resigned the seat, and immediately proceeded to Washington in discharge of the duties of the appointment. The term for which Mr. Tallmadge was elected expired on the 3d of March, 1845, and on the meeting of the Legislature Mr.