Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/126

 O'CONOR

O'CONOR

1854-60; corresponding clerk of the light-house board, Washington. 1861-73, and chief clerk, 1873-74; librarian of the U.S. treasury depart- ment, 1874-78; assistant general superintendent of the U.S. life-saving service. 1878-^9. and wrote their annual reports. He was married in 1856 to Ellen M. Tarr of Boston. He was a radical in politics, religion and social ethics. "When Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" was under ban in Boston, lie vindicated him in The Good Gray Poet (1866). He also supported the theory that Shakespeare's plays were written by Francis Ba- con. He contributed to magazines and news- papers, is the author of jwems: To Fanny; To Athos; TJie Shadow on the Wall: Mabel; The Lost Land; Resurgemus, and Earl Lord, and also the author of: Harrington, an antislavery ro- mance (1860); Hamlet's Xote-Book, a reply to Richard Grant White on the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy (1886); Mr. Donnelly's Reviewers (1889), and of popular imaginative short stories published in the magazines. He died in Wash- ington. D.C.. May 9. 18^9.

O'CONOR, Charles, lawyer, was born in New York city. Jan. 22, 1804; son of Thomas O'Con- nor (1770-1855), a native of county Roscommon, Irelan<l. who came to the United States in 1801, married a daughter of Hugh O'Conor, who was not related to him, and became associated with William Keman in establishing a settle- ment in Steuben county, N.Y., on which he re- sided, 180.5-06; and was editor, publisher and author in New York city, 1812-55. Charles re- ceived a classical education under direction of his father, and was a student at law, 1820-24. being admitted to the bar in 1824, although non-age. He changed the spelling of his name to conform to ancient usage. He became one of the most prominent lawyers in the United States, and his practice included cases involving, for the time in which he lived, the disposal of vast sums of money. In 1848 he became a member of the Directory of the Friends of Ireland, and he pre- sided at several of their meetings. He was the Democratic candidate for lieutenant-governor of New York in 1848, and at the election received 3.000 more votes than the other candidates on the ticket, but failed of election. He was counsel for Mrs. Forrest in her suit for divorce against Edwin Forrest, the actor, and in token of his service in securing the divorce the friends of Mrs. Forrest presented him with a silver vase, as did also his fellow-members of the bar. He wa.s counsel in the Parrish will case in 1862. and in the Jumel suit in 1871. He was U.S. district attorney for New York under President Pierce, 18.53-.54, and was married in 1854 to Mrs. Cornelia (Livingston) ^IcCracken. He was a State-rights Democrat, and made a literal interpretation of the constitu-

tion as giving no power to the general QuK-ern- ment to coerce a state. He defended Jetferson Davis as his senior counsel when he was tried for treason, and when the result of the trial enabled the court to accept bail, he went on the bail-bond with Gerrit Smith, Horace Greeley, Horace F. Clark and Augustus Schell. He was elected president of the Law institute of New York citj' in 1869, and in his will bequeathed to the institute the two vases presented to him in commemora- tion of his defence of Mrs. Forrest. He was one of the chief prosecutors of William M. Tweed in his trial in 1871, and was commissioned by Governor Hoffman, with W. M, Evarts, James Emott and Wheeler H. Peckham, a bureau of municipal correction to recover the money taken. The court of appeals in 1875 decreed that the county and not the state of New York should have brought suit, and Mr. O'Conor at once drafted the Civil Remedies act, which passed the legisla- ture, but the slow progress made discouraged him and called forth his book " Peculation Tri- umphant." He was nominated by the straiglit Democratic national convention that met at Louisville, Ky., Sept. 3, 1872. as the candidate for president of the United States, with Jolm Quincy Adams of Massachusetts for vice-president; and in the general election in November the ticket received 29,408 popular votes but secured no elector. In the contest for electors between Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877, each claiming a majority, Mr. O'Conor ap- peared before the electoral commission for Mr. Tilden, and always claimed that his client was cheated out of the election liy fraud in the re- turns of Louisiana and Florida. He removed to Nantucket, Mass., in 1881, and retired from public life. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Union college in 1865, and from Columbia in 1872. He is the author of: Peculation Triumph- ant, Being the Record of a Five Years' Campaign against Official Malverism, A.D. 1S71-75 (1875). He died in Nantucket. Mass., May 12, 1884.

O'CONOR, John Francis Xavier, educator, was born in New York city, Aug. 1, 1852; son of Daniel and Jane (Lake)O'Conor, and a descendant of Gen. William Lake. He was graduated from the College of St. Francis Xavier in 1872, and joined the Society of Jesus the same year. He studied English in London, 1874. and philosophy in Louvain. Belgium, 1874-79; pursued oriental studies at Johns Hopkins university, 1879, and theology at Woodstock, 1883-87. He was i)rofes- sor in West Park college. Georgetown university, 1880-82, in Boston university. 1883, was made pro- fessor of philosophy and of rhetoric and literature, College of St. Frqncis Xavier, New York, in 1890. and was vice-president of the college, 1887- 88. and of Gonzaga college, Washington. D.C.,