Daniel was born in Stafford County, Virginia, in 1784 to Travers Daniel, a plantation owner, and Frances Moncure Daniel. He was educated at home by private tutors and entered the College of New Jersey at the age of 18. He returned to Virginia after one year and subsequently studied law under former Virginia governor and U.S. attorney general Edmund Randolph. In 1808 he was admitted to the bar. Shortly after returning he entered into a conflict with a Fredericksburg businessman, John Seddon, which resulted in the parties agreeing to a duel. Since dueling was prohibited in Virginia, the Daniel-Seddon duel was fought in Maryland. The duel took place and Daniel wounded Seddon, who later died of his wound shortly after returning to Virginia. Daniel married Randolph's daughter, Lucy, two years later. In 1809, Daniel was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, and in 1812 became a member of the advisory Virginia Privy Council. In 1818 he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, retaining his Council seat. During the 1830s, he was a member of the Richmond Junto, a powerful element of the Jacksonian Democrats, and a strong supporter of both Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren. In 1830, he ran unsuccessfully for governor of Virginia.
On February 26, 1841, Daniel was nominated by President Martin Van Buren, a Democrat, to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, again to a seat vacated by Barbour. As Daniel's nomination to the Court came during the last week of the president's term it was strongly opposed by Whigs in the Senate. Nonetheless, he won Senate confirmation by a wide margin on March 2, 1841, and received his commission the following day. His actual service on the Supreme Court began on January 10, 1842, and ended May 31, 1860, upon his death. Daniel was the most frequent dissenter in the Taney Court with nearly two-thirds of his opinions going against the majority. Of the seventy-four opinions he wrote, fifty of them were dissents. His political views were extremely reactionary and made the other justices around him seem moderate in comparison. He was a supporter of slavery, arguably the largest of the Taney Court, and he disagreed with the amount of power that was given to the federal government. He authored only one significant opinion, West River Bridge Co. v. Dix, in his eighteen years. He sided with the majority in the 1857 case Dred Scott v. Sandford by writing a concurring opinion, in which he stated that "the African negro race never have been acknowledged as belonging to the family of nations." He was also in Jones v. Van Zandt, and concurred with the majority in Prigg v. Pennsylvania which affirmed the legality of the Fugitive Slave Act. Daniel wrote:
Death
Daniel died on May 31, 1860, in Richmond, Virginia at the age of 76. He was preceded in death by his first wife Lucy Nelson Randolph who died in November 1847. He left behind his second wife, Elizabeth Harris, and five children.
