The Democratic state convention met on September 10 and 11 at Syracuse, New York. Gideon J. Tucker 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acclamation" after a first informal ballot showed a large majority for him and the other candidate George B. Wood was withdrawn.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 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a first informal ballot showed a large majority and the other candidates Alfred M. Wood and Thomas B. Mitchell were withdrawn.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 was nominated by acclamation. Isaac V. Vanderpoel, Joseph M. Lyon and Thomas Osborne were proposed for Treasurer, but Vanderpoel was nominated unanimously. John M. Jaycox 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 was nominated on the first ballot. William C. Rhodes 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. The American state convention met on September 15 at Syracuse, New York. The Republican state convention met on September 23 at Wieting Hall in Syracuse, New York. Almon M. Clapp was Temporary Chairman until the choice of Abijah Mann, Jr. as President. Timothy Jenkins was nominated for the Court of Appeals on the second ballot after much debate on the proposal to endorse Democrat Hiram Denio which course was defended by David Dudley Field. William Curtis Noyes was nominated for Attorney General, and Robert Denniston for Comptroller by acclamation. Almon M. Clapp was nominated for Secretary of State on the ballot. John T. Hogeboom was nominated for Treasurer by acclamation. Ariel S. Thurston was nominated for Canal Commissioner on the third ballot. George Geddes was nominated for State Engineer on the first ballot. Thomas Kirkpatrick was nominated for Prison Inspector on the second ballot.
Results
The whole Democratic state ticket was elected with a plurality of less than 20,000 votes over the Republican ticket while only in New York County, the stronghold of Tammany Hall, the ticket had a plurality of about 24,000 votes. The incumbent Denio was re-elected. 15 Republicans, 14 Democrats, two Americans and one Independent Republican were elected to a two-year term in the New York State Senate. 61 Republicans, 58 Democrats and 9 Americans were elected for the session of 1858 to the New York State Assembly.
