brief campaign, Sibley won the election with 236 votes to Rice's 122 votes. Sibley had stronger support in St. Paul and the St. Croix valley, while Rice found his strongest support from his own employees and business associates at Crow Wing, as well as the majority of mill workers at St. Anthony Falls, where Rice was said to have bought votes outright on election day. Speech before House Committee and recognition by Congress In early November 1848, Sibley made the long journey to Washington with his wife Sarah and their two children. On December 22, 1848, Henry H, Sibley delivered his famous speech before the House Committee on Elections. Henry Sibley's biographer, Rhoda R. Gilman, writes: That winter in Washington was not only the beginning, but also in one sense the high point of Sibley's political career. Certainly it was the most satisfying part, for he became at once an agent of history and a symbol of the new territory. The tale of how he rose, polished and urbane, before a Congress that had expected a figure in buckskin and eloquently defended the right of pioneers to the protection of government and law became — almost immediately — Minnesota's most cherished founding legend. Congressional delegate for Minnesota Territory The Wisconsin Territory's At-large congressional district was eliminated with the creation of the Territory of Minnesota on March 3, 1849. He was subsequently elected as the first representative of the Minnesota Territory's At-large congressional district, serving in the 31st and 32nd congresses from July 7, 1849 – March 3, 1853. Legislator in Minnesota Territorial House of Representatives Sibley was elected to the Minnesota Territorial House of Representatives, convened from January to March 1855, as the representative of Dakota County. President of Minnesota Constitutional Convention He was a member of the Democratic Party wing of the first Minnesota Constitutional Convention, of which he eventually became president. Assembled July 13, 1857, the convention resulted in adoption of the constitution as framed on October 13, 1857. First governor of state of Minnesota In 1858 Sibley was elected as the first governor of the state, and is one of just four Minnesota Democrats to win a gubernatorial election with a Democrat in the White House. He served from May 24, 1858, until January 2, 1860. After narrowly defeating Republican Alexander Ramsey in the first state gubernatorial contest, Sibley declared in his inaugural address, "I have no