In Sacramento, Republican railway builder Leland Stanford becomes the eighth governor of California

Thirty-seven year-old railway entrepreneur and Lincoln supporter A. Leland Stanford had been elected Republican governor of California on September 4, 1861. He took office, succeeding the seventh governor, Democrat John Gately Downey, and worked during his two year term to keep the state in the Union and support the Lincoln Administration as best he could.  At the same time, he began the building of the Central Pacific Railroad out from Sacramento eastwards.  (By John Osborne)