Elections for state-wide offices were held in Vermont with the Republican Party emerging as victors. Prosperous businessman Erastus Fairbanks, who had served earlier in the decade as a two-term Whig governor, was elected again, this time as a Republican easily defeating the Democrat, poet John Godfrey Saxe. Fairbanks was Vermont's largest employer and he went on to serve two terms and lead his state's support for Lincoln's efforts to restore the Union. (By John Osborne)