Charles O'Conor

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For people with a similar name, see Charles O'Connor.

Charles O'Conor (22 January 1804 - 12 May 1884) was an American lawyer who ran in the U.S. presidential election, 1872.

He was born in New York City, the son of Thomas O'Conor (1770-1855), who in 1801 emigrated from Roscommon County, Ireland, to New York, where he devoted himself chiefly to journalism.

Charles O'Conor studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1824, and soon won high reputation in his profession. He was United States district attorney for New York in 1853-1854. In politics an extreme States' rights Democrat, he opposed the coercion of the South, and after the American Civil War became senior counsel for Jefferson Davis on his indictment for treason, and was one of his bondsmen; these facts and O'Conor's connection with the Roman Catholic Church affected unfavourably his political fortunes.

In the U.S. presidential election, 1872, O'Conor was nominated for the presidency by the "Bourbon" Democrats, who refused to support Horace Greeley, and by the "Labor Reformers"; he declined the nomination but received 21,559 votes. Election was won by incumbent President Grant of the Republican Party.

O'Conor was surpassed by five other unsuccessful candidates:

• Thomas Andrews Hendricks of the Democratic Party. He received 42 electoral votes from supporters of the deceased Greeley.
• Benjamin Gratz Brown of the Democratic Party. He received 18 electoral votes from supporters of the deceased Greeley.
• Charles J. Jenkins of the Democratic Party. He received 2 electoral votes from supporters of the deceased Greeley.
• David Davis III of the United States Liberal Republican Party. He received 1 electoral vote from supporters of the deceased Greeley.
• Horace Greeley. Received 2,834,125 popular votes. His 63 electoral votes were divided among the above four unsuccessful candidates.

He took a prominent part in the prosecution of Boss Tweed and members of the "Tweed Ring", and published Peculation Triumphant, Being the Record of a Five Years' Campaign against Official Malversation, A.D. 1871-1875 (1875).

He moved to Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 1881, and died there in 1884; he is entombed in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York.

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain.