Daniel Dougherty

Daniel Dougherty (October 15, 1826 – September 5, 1892) was a Philadelphia lawyer involved in Democratic Party politics. Known as a great orator, he is most famous for having delivered the nominating speeches for Winfield Scott Hancock at the 1880 Democratic National Convention and for Grover Cleveland at the 1888 convention.

Dougherty was born in Philadelphia in 1826, the son of an Irish-born surveyor and his native-born wife. From a young age, Dougherty gained a reputation as a natural orator; he made his first political speech in 1847, before he was old enough to vote. Dougherty's family was poor, and he left home at a young age after his mother died and his father remarried to a woman with whom Dougherty did not get along. After several years as a "careless youth," he began to study law at the age of eighteen in the law office of William and Samuel Badger. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1849.

His powers of oratory helped him as a lawyer. He achieved an acquittal in a homicide case early in his career when the defendant was widely perceived to be guilty; the result was largely attributed to Dougherty's speech to the jury. The verdict swelled Dougherty's reputation and helped him to build a successful law practice. His gift for composition also led him to enjoy some local success as an amateur poet and playwright. Dougherty's oratorical powers became known to a wider audience in 1856, when he addressed the state Democratic convention to some acclaim. He became friendly with the Pennsylvania-born president, James Buchanan, but came to disagree with Buchanan on the admission to the Union of Kansas as a slave state. In 1860, Dougherty favored Stephen A. Douglas's candidacy for the presidency. When the Civil War began, he supported the Union cause and was among the founders of the Union League of Philadelphia. Dougherty worked for President Abraham Lincoln's reelection in 1864, the only time he did not support the Democratic candidate.

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