the state's child labor and education laws, which were widely flouted. He opposed enactment of a labor bill limiting work to ten hours per day, a subject of regular labor agitation during his tenure. When United States Senator Charles Sumner died in March 1874, the state senate, which then chose the state's US senators, met to choose his replacement. After a long and contentious debate involving thirty-three ballots, Washburn was chosen to succeed Sumner as a compromise candidate acceptable to supporters of Henry L. Dawes and George F. Hoar. Washburn then resigned the governorship, leaving Lieutenant Governor Thomas Talbot as Acting Governor. Washburn served from April 17, 1874, until the term ended on March 3, 1875, and refused to run for reelection. Other activities Not long after leaving the governorship, Washburn was appointed to a state commission established to investigate the finances and operations of the Hoosac Tunnel, whose construction, originally estimated at $2 million ($), had instead cost over $14 million ($) and the financing and involvement of the state to complete. This commission filed its report with the legislature in 1875. Washburn served at various times as a trustee of Yale, the Massachusetts Agricultural College (now UMass Amherst), Amherst College, and Smith College, whose Washburn House he funded. Harvard University conferred a law degree upon him in 1872. He was a member of a number of missionary societies, which were major beneficiaries of his estate. He was a benefactor of the Greenfield Public Library, funding the construction of its first building and endowing it with funds. Washburn died in Springfield, Massachusetts, on October 5, 1887, while attending a session of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), of which he was a member. He was buried in Green River Cemetery in Greenfield. Notes References (five volume history of Massachusetts until the early 20th century) 1820 births 1887 deaths People from Winchendon, Massachusetts American people of English descent Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts Republican Party United States senators from Massachusetts Republican Party governors of Massachusetts Republican Party Massachusetts state senators Republican Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives 19th-century American politicians People from Greenfield, Massachusetts Businesspeople from Massachusetts American chief executives of manufacturing companies Yale College alumni People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War 19th-century American businesspeople