of the Spanish–American War. Walsh's vote to restrict the hours that women and children could work to 58 led to his defeat when he sought another term. He next lost the race for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1910, but ran again and won in 1912, becoming the state's first Democratic lieutenant governor in 70 years. He became the first Irish and the first Catholic Governor of Massachusetts in 1914, successfully challenging the incumbent Democratic governor Eugene Foss for the party nomination, and then defeating a divided Republican opposition (and Foss, who ran as an independent) with a comfortable plurality. He served two one-year terms. He offered voters an alternative to boss-dominated politics, expressing a "forthright espousal of government responsibility for social welfare". Walsh proposed increased government responsibility for charity work and the care of the insane and reorganized the state's management of these areas with little opposition. In his 1914 campaign for re-election, he cited as accomplishments an increase in the amounts paid for workman's compensation and improved administration of the state's care for the insane. As governor, Walsh fought unsuccessfully for a Women's Suffrage Amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution. He also campaigned for film censorship in the state after large protests were mounted against the racial depictions in D. W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation. He supported the work of the Anti-Death Penalty League, a Massachusetts organization founded in 1897 that was particularly active and nearly successful in the decade preceding World War I. As governor he asked the legislature to call a Constitutional Convention without success. When the legislature later called a convention, Walsh won election as a delegate-at-large as part of a slate of candidates who endorsed adding provisions for initiative and referendum to the state constitution, key Progressive-era reforms. He served as a delegate-at-large to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention in 1917 and 1918 that saw those reforms passed. His speech on behalf of initiative and referendum shows him in the role of populist and reformer: In 1914, Walsh was challenged for the governorship by Samuel W. McCall, a moderate Republican. He narrowly won reelection, probably due to the presence of a Progressive (Bull Moose) candidate who took votes from McCall. McCall successfully reunited the Republicans and the Progressives the next year, and defeated Walsh, in part by supporting Walsh's call for a constitutional convention. Walsh returned to the practice of law after leaving