Senator Daniel Oren Hastings

Daniel Oren Hastings (March 5, 1874 – May 9, 1966) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician from Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware. A member of the Republican Party, he served two terms in the United States Senate representing Delaware from 1928 to 1937, contributing to the legislative process during a significant period in American history. Over the course of his public career, he held a series of important legal and governmental positions at both the state and municipal levels before and after his service in Congress.

Hastings was born on March 5, 1874, in Somerset County, Maryland, near Princess Anne. He later moved into the legal and political orbit of Delaware, establishing his professional and political identity in Wilmington. Seeking formal legal training, he studied law at Columbian University in Washington, D.C., an institution that would later become George Washington University. After completing his legal studies, he was admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1902 and began the practice of law in Wilmington, where he made his long-term home and built a reputation as a capable attorney.

Early in his career, Hastings entered public service through a series of legal and administrative posts in Delaware. He served as Deputy Attorney General of Delaware from 1904 until 1909, gaining experience in the enforcement and interpretation of state law. In January 1909 he became Secretary of State of Delaware, a position he held until June 1909. He resigned from that office to accept an appointment as an Associate Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, where he served from 1909 until his resignation in January 1911. In 1911 he was Special Counsel for the Delaware General Assembly, advising the legislature on legal matters. That same year he became City Solicitor of Wilmington, serving in that capacity from 1911 until 1917 and playing a central role in the legal affairs of the city.

Hastings continued to combine legal practice with judicial and public responsibilities in the years leading up to his Senate career. After his service as City Solicitor, he returned to private practice and later assumed judicial duties as Judge of the Municipal Court of Wilmington, a position he held from 1920 until 1929. Through these roles he became a prominent figure in Delaware’s legal community, known for his work in municipal law and state governance and for his close association with the Republican Party in Delaware.

Hastings’s congressional service began with an appointment to the United States Senate. On December 10, 1928, he was appointed to the Senate to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of U.S. Senator T. Coleman du Pont. He served the remainder of du Pont’s term and, during this initial period in the Senate, sat with the Republican majority in the 70th and 71st Congresses. In 1930 he was elected in his own right to a full six-year term as U.S. Senator from Delaware, defeating Democrat Thomas F. Bayard Jr., a former United States Senator and member of a prominent Delaware political family. As a member of the Senate, Daniel Oren Hastings participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his constituents during a time marked by the onset of the Great Depression and the early New Deal era.

During his elected term, Hastings served with the Republican majority in the 72nd Congress, but as national political currents shifted during the Great Depression, he found himself in the minority in the 73rd and 74th Congresses. His tenure in the Senate thus spanned the end of the Hoover administration and the beginning of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, encompassing the critical years in which Congress debated and enacted major economic and social legislation. In all, he served in the United States Senate from December 10, 1928, to January 2, 1937, completing two terms in office under the constitutional system in which U.S. Senators are popularly elected, with elections held the first Tuesday after November 1 for six-year terms that, at that time, commenced on March 4.

Hastings sought reelection in 1936 but was defeated in his bid for a second full term by Democrat James H. Hughes, a lawyer from Dover, Delaware. Following the conclusion of his Senate service on January 2, 1937, he returned to Wilmington and resumed the practice of law, remaining active in his profession and in the civic life of his community. He continued to reside in Wilmington for the remainder of his life, maintaining the legal career that had first brought him into public prominence.

Daniel Oren Hastings died in Wilmington, Delaware, on May 9, 1966. He was interred in Lower Brandywine Cemetery, near Centerville, Delaware. His long career, spanning roles as Deputy Attorney General, Secretary of State of Delaware, Associate Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, Special Counsel to the General Assembly, City Solicitor of Wilmington, Judge of the Municipal Court of Wilmington, and United States Senator, reflected more than three decades of continuous engagement in the legal and political life of Delaware and the nation.