{{Short description|American politician (1850–1906)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Elliot Danforth | image = ElliotDanforth.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1850|03|06}} | birth_place = Middleburgh, New York, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1906|01|07|1850|03|06}} | death_place = New York, New York, U.S. | resting_place = Woodlawn Cemetery | other_names = | occupation = Lawyer, politician | spouse = {{Marriage|Ida Prince|December 17, 1874}} | children = 2 | awards = | education = | party = Democratic | signature = Signature of Elliot Danforth (1850–1906).png | office = New York State Treasurer | term_start = 1890 | term_end = 1893 }} '''Elliot Danforth''' (March 6, 1850 – January 7, 1906) was an American lawyer and politician.

==Life== He was born on March 6, 1850, in Middleburgh, Schoharie County, New York, the son of Peter S. Danforth, a justice of the New York Supreme Court.<ref name=NYTObit>{{Cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/01/08/101425583.pdf |title=Elliot Danforth Dead; One Power in Politics |newspaper=The New York Times |page=7 |date=1906-01-08 |access-date=2021-04-19}}</ref><ref name=Cyclopaedia>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lcVKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA364 |title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography |volume=I |publisher=James T. White & Company |pages=364–365 |year=1893 |access-date=2021-04-19 |via=Google Books}}</ref> He studied law with his father and was admitted to the bar in 1872.<ref name=Bainbridge>{{Cite web |url=http://www.terrariums.org/jerichoarts/early.html |title=The Early History of Bainbridge |publisher=Jericho Arts Council |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530192537/http://www.terrariums.org/jerichoarts/early.html |archive-date=2009-05-30 |url-status=dead |access-date=2021-04-19}}</ref> On December 17, 1874, he married Ida Prince, and they had a son, Edward Danforth, and a daughter.<ref name=NYTObit/> In 1878, he removed to Bainbridge, N.Y., where his father-in-law was President of the First National Bank. There, Danforth practiced law in partnership with George H. Winsor, and was President of the Corporation of Bainbridge.<ref name=Bainbridge/>

He was a delegate to the 1880 and 1884, 1888, 1892, 1896, 1900 and 1904 Democratic National Conventions.<ref name=Cyclopaedia/>

He was Deputy Treasurer under Lawrence J. Fitzgerald from 1885 to 1889, and was New York State Treasurer from 1890 to 1893, elected in 1889 and 1891.<ref name=Cyclopaedia/>

In November 1891, he was a member of the State Board of Canvassers (made up by the Secretary of State, Treasurer, Comptroller, Attorney General and State Engineer), when the electoral fraud in the Dutchess County senatorial election happened by which Governor David B. Hill gained control of the New York State Senate. The Republican candidate Gilbert A. Deane had received 78 votes more than Democrat Edward B. Osborne, but the Board changed 92 votes and declared Osborne elected by a plurality of 14. The New York Supreme Court issued a writ to Danforth, ordering him to certify the election of Deane, but Danforth refused to obey. For this he and the other members of the Board were fined $500 by Justice D. Cady Herrick. The sentence was later upheld by the New York Court of Appeals.

In August 1893, it became known that Danforth had received a loan of $50,000 (about seven times the annual salary of the Treasurer) from the Madison Square Bank in New York City in exchange for keeping a large amount of State monies in that bank. Danforth managed to withdraw the State's $250,000 from the bank in the early hours of August 9, the day the bank (of which Fitzgerald was a director) closed.

After leaving the Treasury, he resumed the practice of law at New York City. From 1896 to 1898, he was Chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee, and in 1897 campaigned successfully for the election of Alton B. Parker as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. In 1898, he ran for Lieutenant Governor of New York with Augustus Van Wyck but they were narrowly defeated by Theodore Roosevelt and Timothy L. Woodruff.

He died on January 7, 1906, at his home at 51, East 58th Street in Manhattan, of pneumonia, and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.<ref name=NYTObit/>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category|Elliot Danforth}} * {{Find a Grave|126502054}}

{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | title = New York State Treasurer | before = Lawrence J. Fitzgerald | after = Addison B. Colvin | years = 1890–1893}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=James W. Hinckley}} {{s-ttl|title=New York State Democratic Committee Chairman|years=September 1896 – September 1898}} {{s-aft|after=Frank Campbell}} {{s-bef|before=Frederick C. Schraub}} {{s-ttl|title=Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of New York|years=1898}} {{s-aft|after=William F. Mackey}} {{s-end}}

{{NYSTreasurer}} {{New York State Democratic Committee}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Danforth, Elliot}} Category:1850 births Category:1906 deaths Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) Category:Deaths from pneumonia in New York City Category:New York state treasurers Category:People from Bainbridge, New York Category:Politicians from New York City Category:People from Middleburgh, New York Category:Lawyers from New York City