Daniel S Dickinson; Daniel Stevens Dickinson

Male

September 11, 1800

April 12, 1866

Goshen, CT

Guilford, NY
Binghamton, NY
New York, NY

Lydia Knapp Dickinson (1822)

  Daniel Stephen Dickinson was the son of Daniel T. and Mary (Caulkins) Dickinson. His family moved to New York in 1806 and settled in Guilford, NY where his father became a farmer of moderate means. As a child, Dickinson was apprenticed to a clothier and studied Latin and mathematics on his own.
   For five years he taught in public and private schools, studying law and surveying at the same time. He also read law in the office of Clark and Clapp in Norwich, NY. During this time Dickinson married. Unlike many law students, Dickinson attended the Law School as a married man and without having gone to college first. He was admitted to the bar the following year and served as a lawyer and postmaster in his hometown of Guilford, NY for a short time.
   He ...soon moved to Binghamton, NY in 1831 where he became a prominent member of the Democratic party. He rose through the local and state ranks. In 1844 he attended the Democratic National Covention in New York and cast his vote for James Polk. Later that year, Dickinson was appoointed by Gov. Bouck to fill the Senate seat of N.P. Tallmadge. He was reelected in 1845 and served for six years.
  As a Senator, Dickinson spoke on the annexation of Texas, the occupation of Oregon, the Mexican War and offered opposition to the Wilmot Proviso. He retired from Congress in 1851 and returned to his law practice. When President Franklin Pierce nominated him to be the Collector of the Port of New York in 1853, he declined, hoping instead to receive the Democratic nomination for President in 1860. He did not receive enough votes at the convention to be nominated.
   When South Carolina seceeded from the Union, he felt the North was responsible and strove for reconciliation. After Fort Sumter, however, Dickinson vigorously supported the Union government and made hundreds of speeches encouraging young men to enlist. Later, Dickinson sought a Republican nomiantion to the U.S. Senate but lost. He declined an appointment to the Northwest Boundary Commission and a seat on the Court of Appeals. In 1864, he was a delegate to the Union Convention, but lost the candidacy for Vice President. He died in New York City.
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1827

Lawyer; Political Office

New York in 1828

He read the law in the office of Clark and Clapp in Norwich, CT.

Democrat

U.S. Senator (NY) 1845-1851
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (NY) 1865-1866

Chairman of the Finance Committee from 1849-1850. Member of the Committee on Manufactures from 1845 - 1848. And a member of the Committee on Private Land Claims from 1849-1850.

State Senator (NY) 1837-1840
Lt. Governor (NY) 1843-1844
Attorney General (NY) 1862-1863

Postmaster (Guilford, NY) 1827-1832

[We are currently working to update and confirm citations of attendance.]

Dickinson, John S., ed. Speeches, Correspondence, etc. of the Late Daniel S. Dickinson of NY. New York: G.P. Putnam & Son, 1867.