CHARLES E. DE LONG.

PY THE EDITOR.

HIS popular favorite of the Silver State was born at Beekmansville, Dutchess county, New York, August 13, 1832. His ancestors arrived in America from France about the year 1780. It was his father's wish (himself a farmer) that he should follow the noble pursuits of husbandry; accordingly, Charles worked upon his father's farm until his boyhood had almost passed, and he began to think and act for himself. He received a common school education. Before he had completed his studies, or prepared himself for any profession or trade, he determined to strike for an easily acquired fortune in the far West.

Though yet a boy, unacquainted with the world, unaccustomed even to the harsh accents of a stranger's voice, the love of adventure--natural attribute of youthwas so strong in his breast, that the exciting reports from the Pacific shores were sufficient to persuade him away from the old homestead, and tempt him to new and distant regions.

Mr. DeLong arrived in California June 5, 1850, and settled in Yuba county; which county, in after years, honored him with many trusts, and where he remained until his final departure from the State, in 1863.

Immediately after his arrival in Yuba county, the young man, then only eighteen years of age, went reso

lutely to work. He was no stranger to manual exertion: his father had taught him the true nobility of labor. For years he followed the fortunes of mining life: being not only young, but of diminutive stature, his childish form was daily seen bending in arduous toil.

From 1850 to 1856, Mr. DeLong engaged in a variety of occupations. As the writer has heard him say, in conversation among his friends, "I followed mining, store-keeping, bar-tending, and almost everything else, for a livelihood, until, in 1856, having failed in a mercantile business I was engaged in at Young's Hill, Yuba county, California, I turned my attention to the study and practice of the law."

Mr. DeLong did not attend any law lectures or lawschool, for such evidences of civilization were lacking in his section of the country. He studied in the woods; and being of quick perception, and possessed of a natural aptitude for the "accumulating science," he progressed rapidly, and when he thought he could pass a creditable examination, he presented himself before the District Court of Yuba county, and was admitted to practice as an attorney and counselor-at-law. He then opened a law office in Marysville, the principal town in northern California, and entered upon the practice at a time when litigation was rife, and when the Marysville bar embraced many of the first legal minds of the State-Field, Mitchell, McQuade, Barbour, Reardon, Lindley, and others.

In the fall of 1857, Mr. DeLong was elected to the lower branch of the State Legislature, from Yuba county, on the Democratic ticket. He took his seat at the beginning of the session, in January, 1858. During the session of the Legislature in that year, he appeared before the Supreme Court of California, sitting at Sacramento, and was admitted to practice in all the courts of the State. The next year, he was reëlected to the Assembly, on the Anti-Lecompton Democratic ticket-the Legislature convening on the first Monday of January, 1859. In the fall of 1859, he was nominated by the Douglas Democrats for State Senator, for the term commencing in January, 1860, but was defeated by Hon. H. P. Watkins. In the fall of

the latter year, he was again nominated for the State Senate by the same party, and was elected, defeating Hon. N. E. Whitesides, formerly Speaker of the Assembly, and once his colleague in that body.

Mr. DeLong held this position two years. He entered the Senate on the first Monday in January, 1861, and, on the 18th day of that month, introduced into the Senate resolutions in regard to the then troubled state of the Union.

These resolutions were the first of a great many of similar nature, sustaining the Federal Government, repudiating the suggestion of a Pacific Republic, and urging coercion on the part of the general government against the seceding States. Messrs. Edgerton, Watson, Burbank, and others, having offered substitutes, or additional resolutions, upon the subject, the entire file was referred to the Committee on Federal Relations. Upon the report of that committee, a lengthy and spirited debate ensued, in which Mr. DeLong joined. His speech upon the occasion was pronounced by the leading newspaper of the State, "well-considered and forcible;" and, for argumentative power and eloquence, was equalled only by the brilliant efforts of Edgerton and Thornton.

On the 23d of the same month, Mr. DeLong presented in the Senate a petition from a large number of his constituents, praying that the resolutions of censure against Senator Broderick (for refusing to resign, in obedience to the request of a previous Legislature) be expunged from the journals of the two houses.

During his term as a senator, the "Corporation Act" and other leading measures received Mr. DeLong's serious attention. The journals of the Senate and the files of the Sacramento Union will attest his industry and his usefulness as a legislator.

In the fall of 1862, Mr. DeLong was again nominated by his party as a candidate for the State Senate, but was defeated, and in May, 1863, removed to "Washoe." The great flood of the previous year had swept over the entire valley of the Sacramento, and erected everywhere its mournful monuments. The practice of law in Marysville

had declined to barrenness, and business of all kinds in that once proud, thrifty, and beautiful city, was utterly stagnant. The afflicted populace were fleeing from the wide-spread desolation, and seeking new homes and fresh fields of enterprise. A silver star was rising in the east, whose happy light refreshed the dejected multitudes. WASHOE was the word of hope and promise. The fabulous wealth of the newly-discovered mines, and the conflicting interests of the claimants, had called into being a vast world of litigation, such as no diligent votary of law had ever dreamed of beholding. The enormous fees received by the pioneer lawyers of Washoe had excited the wonder and cupidity of attorneys throughout California, and towards the beginning of the year 1864, the bar of Virginia city numbered about one hundred practitioners. Mr. DeLong arrived in that place before the lawyers' silver harvest had been fully gathered, and soon formed a partnership with Mr. D. W. Perley, now a leading member of the profession at White Pine. He found upon his arrival that he had been preceded by many of his friends and former constituents, citizens of Yuba county. Being an old miner, he was at home amid the restless mass around him. His experience as a miner and as a lawyer, his close application to business, his fidelity to his clients, soon gave him a prominent place and a lucrative practice at the Virginia bar.

In 1864, Mr. DeLong was elected a member (from Storey county) of the Constitutional Convention which framed the present Constitution of Nevada. At the election of United States senators in that year, he was a prominent candidate for that high position. The first ballot stood: Stewart, 32; DeLong, 24; Nye, 23. On the next day, Messrs. Stewart and Nye were chosen. Mr. DeLong bore his defeat with patience, and continued his practice in Virginia city.

In 1865, the law-firm of Perley & DeLong was dissolved, the latter entering into partnership with Judge Lewis Aldrich, formerly of San Francisco.

In January, 1868, Mr. DeLong was again brought forward as a candidate for the United States Senate.