hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

POLITICAL HISTORY. 326
able for their propriety of principle and diction, and
considering the character of some of California's executives,
it was to many a source of regret that a
candidate so manifestly possessing the firmness and
dignity required for the position should be sacrificed
to circumstances so untoward as those attending this
campaign. He was not unknown in politics, having
served in the legislature, and as federal assessor iu
the 1st California district. He was spoken of for
governor by the best men in the union party before
the division, but was found too inflexible for the approval
of the Connegs-Gorham management.
The democratic candidate for governor was H. H.
Haight, 10 a man who enjoyed an excellent reputation,
though one long accustomed to politics and place. The
contest under these conditions, with the existence of
a party at stake on one hand, the success of deep-laid
schemes on the other, with a third party striving to return
to power, was the most bitter and exciting of the
many exciting political campaigns witnessed by this
politician-ridden state. 11 It ended, as might have been
expected, in the triumph of the democratic third party,
and the extinction of the union organization, composed
originally of the best men in the commonwealth, but
19 Henry H. Haight was bom in Rochester, N. Y., in 1825. His father,
Fletcher M. Haight, was judge of the U. S. Dist court, for the southern dist
of Cal. The son came to Cal. in 1850, from St Louis, having graduated at
Yale, studied law, and been admitted to the bar in that city. The father
followed in 1854, and together they practised law in S. F.
11 The ticket of the Couness-Gorham union party contained the following
names: For congress, 1st dist, T. G. Phelps; 2d dist. William Higby; 3d
dist, C. Hartson; governor, George C. Gorham; lieut-gov., J. P. Jones; sec.
of state, William H. Parks: controller, Josiah Howell; supreme judge, John
Currey; att'y-gen., John G. McCullough; sur.-gen., Charles F. Reed; trea?.,
Romualdo Pacheco; harbor com'r, Charles Clayton; clerk of sup. ct., R. H.
Farquahar; state printer, D. 0. McCarthy; sup. of public instruc., John
Swett. The revised ticket, as before stated, changed four of these candidates.
The democratic ticket contained the names of the following candidates:
for congress, 1st dist, S. B. Axtell; 2d dist, James W. Coffroth; 3d
dist, James A. Johnson; gov., H. H. Haight; lieut-gov., William Holden;
sec. of state, H. L. Nichols; controller, Robert Watt; treas., Antonio F.
Caronel; sur.-gen., John W. Bost; att'y-gen., Joseph Homilton; harbor
com'r, James H. Cutter; clerk of sup. ct, George Seckel; state printer, D.
\V. Gelwicks; sup't pub. instruc., O. P. Fitzgerald; judge of sup. ct, Royal
L. Sprague.