Daniel Manning (1831-1887) [Section 27 Lot 5]
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Director of The National Commercial Bank, Journalist, Businessman, Chairman of New York State Democratic Committee Chairman of Albany County Democratic Committee, namesake to Manning Boulevard
Daniel Manning was born on August 16, 1831. He was the second child of John Manning and Eleanor Oley. Due to the death of his father when he was six, Manning worked a number of jobs to help his family’s finances. In 1842 he worked as a page for the New York State Assembly and a paperboy for the Albany Altas while attending school. A year later, he left formal education to take a full-time job at the paper as a “boy of all work.”
At the newspaper, Manning started off as a printer and later a reporter when it merged with the Albany Argus in 1856, working in this role until 1863. The Argus was the Democratic-leaning newspaper and rivaled the Evening Journal, the Republican publication which was operated by Thurlow Weed. The Albany Argus would refer to itself as “The Cheapest and Most Widely-Circulated Democratic Newspaper in the United States” when advertising to the public.
During the Civil War, he covered stories of the State Legislature for the Associated Press as well as the Brooklyn Eagle. At the Argus, he served as assistant to one of the newspaper partners, eventually becoming a partner himself. With the death of William Cassidy, president of the newspaper in 1865, Manning was elected to be his successor as well as director of The National Commercial Bank.
Working for a Democratic newspaper, Manning eventually became involved with politics. In 1868, he was elected chairman of the Democratic Committee for Albany County. In 1874, he was a member of the state convention, which elected Samuel Tilden as Governor. Starting in 1876 he held several positions with the New York Democratic Party: committee member (1876); secretary (1879-80); chairman (1881-84); and leader of the delegation due to the health of Governor Tilden (1877). On the national level he served as the chairman of the Democratic National Convention in 1880, which helped elect Grover Cleveland to the governorship, and his brother John, to replace him as the Mayor of Buffalo.
In 1884 Grover Cleveland became the Democrat Presidential nominee, with Republicans nominating James Blaine and not the current president Chester A. Arthur, an Albany native. In addition to the first female candidate Belva Ann Lockwood on the Equal Rights Party, other parties like the Greenback, and Prohibition party split the popular votes, with Cleveland getting 48.85%, and Blaine getting 48.28%. Though Cleveland received more electoral votes, which made him the clear winner, this was the first time a Democrat took office in 24 years. Manning had to testify on Cleveland’s behalf.
That same year, on November 19, 1884, Manning married his second wife, Mary Margarette Fryer, a descendant of Robert Livingston. President-elect Cleveland attended the marriage.
Cleveland appointed Manning as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. During his tenure, he reduced tariffs, opposed efforts to reduce a federal surplus, and oppose unnecessary appropriations. He was responsible for helping being known for bringing back the Silver Standard back into the circulation since the Coinage Act of 1873. Though he would not see the Bland-Allison Act passed which required the U.S. Treasury to purchase domestic silver, his face appeared on a $20 silver certificate in 1891, and 1892.
Manning retired from both the Treasury in 1887 and took over as president of the Bank of New York. The same year he retired from the Argus and his son, John Manning took over as editor. In December 1887 Manning died of heart disease and buried across from his political and newspaper rival, Thurlow Weed. Daniel Manning’s legacy lives on in Albany as a portion of Fredrick Law Olmsted’s plan for a parkway around Albany. Though not complete, a part of it is named in his honor, Manning Boulevard.