The 1861 Vermont gubernatorial election for governor of Vermont was held on Tuesday, September 3.[1] In keeping with the "Mountain Rule", incumbent Republican Erastus Fairbanks, who had also served as governor from 1852 to 1853, was not a candidate for a third one-year term.[2][3] The Republican nominee was Frederick Holbrook, a former member of the Vermont Senate.[2] With the Democratic Party split nationally over the issue of slavery during the American Civil War, Andrew Tracy, a former member of the United States House of Representatives, appeared on the ballot as a pro-Union Democrat.[4] Benjamin H. Smalley was on the ballot as a "Peace Democrat," Democrats who favored a compromise with the states that had formed the Confederacy.[5]
Vermont continued to oppose slavery and support the Union, which was reflected in its support of Republican candidates.[2] Holbrook easily defeated both Democrats and won a one-year term that began on October 15.[2][6] Illness confined Holbrook at home for most of October,[7] and he delayed traveling to Montpelier to take his oath of office until October 22.[8]
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