New York state election, 1857

The 1857 New York state election was held on November 3, 1857, to elect the Secretary of State, the State Comptroller, the Attorney General, the State Treasurer, the State Engineer, a Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, a Canal Commissioner and an Inspector of State Prisons, as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.

The Democratic state convention met on September 10 and 11 at Syracuse, New York. Gideon J. Tucker (Tammany) was nominated for Secretary of State "by acclamation" after a first informal ballot showed a large majority for him and the other candidate George B. Wood was withdrawn. Sanford E. Church (Soft) was nominated for Comptroller "unanimously" after a first informal ballot showed a large majority and the other candidates Alfred M. Wood and Thomas B. Mitchell were withdrawn. Lyman Tremain, Benjamin Bailey and Francis Kernan were proposed for Attorney General but Tremain (Hard) was nominated by acclamation. Isaac V. Vanderpoel, Joseph M. Lyon and Thomas Osborne were proposed for Treasurer, but Vanderpoel (Soft) was nominated unanimously. John M. Jaycox (Hard) was nominated for Canal Commissioner. The nomination for State Engineer caused much excitement when Charles R. Graham was proposed and had his party allegiance questioned when it was remembered that he had chaired a Whig convention in New York City four years previously. After much controversy, including speeches by Daniel E. Sickles and Mayor Fernando Wood, Van Rensselaer Richmond (Soft) was nominated on the first ballot. William C. Rhodes (Hard) was nominated unanimously on the first ballot for Prison Inspector. The re-nomination of Hiram Denio caused another even bigger controversy. Ex-Governor Horatio Seymour rose to urge Denio's nomination, Mayor Fernando Wood spoke fiercely against it, because Denio had made decisions against Wood, and was accused of not being a Democrat. Replying to Wood, Sickles defended Denio in a speech and John Cochrane also endorsed Denio who was nominated on the first ballot with 67 out of 117 votes cast.

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