The press of the State justly commended Mr. Gaston’s conduct in not forcing his own nomination, a course so completely in accord with his character, and his entire devotion to the party welfare.  He did not display the least semblance of self-seeking.

He has seen not a little of public life, but with the exception of five years, has succeeded in conducting his large and important professional practice the entire period from his early beginning to this day.  The five years referred to were:  two years, 1861 and 1862, while he was Mayor of the city of Roxbury; the two years, 1871 and 1872, as Mayor of Boston (this being after the annexation of Roxbury), and the year 1875 when Governor.

His mayoralty term of Roxbury antedated the years he was Mayor of Boston by just ten years.  While such Mayor of Roxbury in 1861-2 he was very active in speechmaking and raising troops in preservation of the American Union.  He went to the front several times, and was enthusiastically patriotic during the entire critical period.

He was five years City Solicitor of Roxbuxy.  In 1853 and 1854 he was elected to the Legislature as a Whig, and in 1856 was re-elected by a fusion of Whigs and Democrats in opposition to the Know-Nothing candidate.  In 1868, although the district was strongly Republican, he was elected as a Democrat to the State Senate.

In the fall of 1872 Mr. Gaston positively declined the further use of his name in the Mayoralty election in Boston that year.  He concluded to be a candidate, however, upon the earnest solicitation of so many of the best citizens, and of the press, and in consideration of the perfectly unanimous action of the ward and city committee, in reporting in favor of his re-nomination and speaking of him as a man pre-eminently qualified for the duties which required “wisdom, discretion, firmness and courage when needed, combined with the most exalted integrity and unselfish devotion to the honor, welfare, and prosperity of the city.”

In commenting on this subject the Post in an editorial, November 26, 1872, said in commendation of the above words of the committee:  “The language employed is none too strong or emphatic.  The history of Mayor Gaston’s two administrations is an eminently successful one, so far as he is personally responsible for them, and there is not the least room to question that if he were to be re-elected and supported by a board of aldermen of similar character and purpose the city would at once find the uttermost requirements of its government satisfied.”  In that election in December, 1872, for the year 1873 his opponent, Hon. Henry L. Pierce, was declared elected Mayor by only seventy-nine plurality.  This fact indicates Mr. Gaston’s popularity, as General Grant had carried Boston the year previous by about 5,500 majority.  As her Representative, her presiding officer, her head of affairs, Mayor Gaston was a success; an honor to the great city which honored him.