18933 Public Services 



Arrived in California in 1852, Stanford's first General 

 venture was the establishment of a general mer- merchant 

 chandise store at Michigan Bluff, a mining camp on 

 the American River. Thence he moved (1856) to 

 Sacramento, the great distributing point of the region, 

 where he resumed the practice of law. Becoming 

 soon a prominent citizen, he was chosen as a dele- 

 gate from California to the Chicago Convention 

 which nominated Lincoln, whereupon, having pros- 

 pered in business, he planned to return and settle 

 permanently in the East. But his selection as 

 Republican nominee for the governorship of Cali- 

 fornia - - and subsequent election to that office - 

 kept him a resident in the state of which he was for 

 a generation the most conspicuous public figure. 

 As "war governor" during the critical period from w ar 

 1861 to 1863, he immediately took his stand for z< rnor 

 the Union and, ably seconded by Starr King, was a 

 decisive force in holding California against secession. 

 He thus became one of Lincoln's trusted associates. 



Another noteworthy contribution to both state Railway 

 and nation was the earnest advocacy - - in his builder 

 inaugural address, which powerfully influenced the 

 whole country of a transcontinental railway con- 

 necting California with the rest of the Union. For 

 this purpose the national government, alive to the 

 pressing need, first made offers of large grants of 

 land along the proposed line, and subsequently 

 loans of money for the completion of the scheme. 

 The system was then developed in two parts, 

 by separate corporations - - the Union Pacific from 

 Omaha to Utah, and the Central Pacific, undertaken 

 by Stanford and his partners, eastward from Sac- 

 ramento to Utah, Ogden being ultimately made 



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