Mr. Daly entered upon the practice of law with the tact and energy peculiar to self-made men. He practiced law in all the courts of New Jersey, represented the defense in more capital cases than any lawyer in the State, and stood in the front rank of criminal lawyers. In the great Erie Railroad strike of 1878 he appeared as counsel for the arrested freight-handlers and secured their acquittal. In 1887 he conducted the defense of the Cigarmakers' Union in Jersey City, whose leaders were charged with conspiracy. In this case also he succeeded in obtaining a verdict of acquittal.

In appreciation of his legal ability President Cleveland, during his first term, appointed him Assistant United States Attorney, and this office he held for three years, handing in his resignation to an incoming administration. In 1888 he was made an alternate delegate to the National Demo cratic Convention at St. Louis, and again in 1892 to the Chicago Convention. In 1891 he was urged to accept the nomination for member of the House of Assembly from the Eighth District of Hudson County. Elected by a rousing majority, he took his place on the floor of the House as the practical leader of his party. The same courtesy which had characterized his work as a practitioner won for him hosts of friends as a legislator, even from the opposition, and at the close of the session the same Legislature appointed him Judge of the Hoboken District Court. This office he resigned upon his election to the Senate in 1892.

The election which resulted in the choice of Judge Daly to the Senate was won after a most exciting campaign. He was triumphantly elected by 5,645 plurality-the largest vote ever given a Senatorial candidate in Hudson County. In 1895, after an exciting contest, Mr. Daly was re-elected Senator from Hudson County for a term of three years. In 1896 he was a district delegate to the National Democratic Convention at Chicago. During his six years' service in the State Senate he gained a high reputation as a legislator, and for more than half that period was the leader of his party on the floor. He made a brilliant record in 1895, when the riparian rights question was before the Senate, during his opposition to the Creamery Trust, and while serving as a member of the Special Investigating Committee of the Senate. During the Presidential campaign of 1896 he rendered his party valuable service on the stump and also as Chairman of its State Committee. He was a prominent candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1898.

Mr. Daly was elected to Congress in 1898 from the Seventh District of New Jersey, comprising all of Hudson County except the City of Bayonne. He received a plurality of 10,108, the largest ever given to a candidate for Congress in the district. He died, while holding that office, July 31, 1900.