Life
Cady was born in that part of Canaan, Columbia County, New York which was later split off to form Chatham, New York. He learned the shoemaker's trade, but accidentally injured an eye and lost the sight of it at age 18. He then studied law, first in Canaan with Judge Whiting, then in Troy with John Woodworth. Cady was admitted to the bar in 1795, and commenced practice in Florida, Montgomery County, but after a year moved to Johnstown, then the county seat. As a young lawyer, he worked with such notables as Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, and toward the end of his career, he served on a case with Abraham Lincoln, where they each represented clients in a land dispute associated with Beloit College.
Cady was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1808-09, 1810, 1811 and 1812-13.
From February to April 1813, Cady was District Attorney of the Fifth District, which comprised Albany, Saratoga, Montgomery, Schoharie and Schenectady counties.
Cady was elected as a Federalist to the 14th United States Congress, holding office from March 4, 1815, to March 3, 1817.
He is considered by some the father of Fulton County, virtually engineering the county's creation in 1838 after the Montgomery county seat was moved from Johnstown to Fonda, New York. The newly established county was named after Robert Fulton, a cousin of Cady's wife Margaret Livingston.
Cady was a justice of the New York Supreme Court (4th D.) from 1847 to 1854, when he resigned, and was ex officio a judge of the New York Court of Appeals in 1849.
In 1856, Cady was a presidential elector on the Republican John C. Fremont ticket. Cady presided over the New York electoral college which cast 35 votes for Fremont who lost the election to Democrat James Buchanan.
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