The son of a Democratic gubernatorial candidate and grandson of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Nathan Clifford was born in Portland, Maine, on June 17, 1867.
A graduate of Portland High School and Phillips Academy, Clifford went on to Harvard where he matriculated with the class of 1890.
Studying law in his father’s office he was admitted to the bar in 1893 and became a member of the firm Clifford, Verrill & Clifford.
Mayor of Portland in 1905 and, like his father and grandfather before him, a staunch Democrat, Clifford probably was as surprised as anyone to become President of the Maine Senate when the Democrats organized the Legislature in 1911 for the first time since before the Civil War and for the lst time until the 1960’s.
Dissatisfaction with Governor Fernald and a strong candidate in the person of Frederick W. Plaisted gave Democrats not only the Governorship but the Legislature as well.
Clifford’s career as a Senator was short, however, for in 1912, while Teddy Roosevelt was splitting the Republican Party nationally, Maine Republicans rallied to regain the Legislature with Clifford as one of the victims.