In 1836 Conness arrived in the United States at age 15 as an
immigrant. For more than a decade on the
East Coast in
New York, Conness learned to make
pianofortes and also worked as a merchant. He emigrated to
California in 1849 to join the excitement and promise of the
California Gold Rush. He was among the thousands of "forty-niners" attracted by the Gold Rush in the
Sierra Nevada, and the hundreds of thousands who quickly followed. For two years, he mined
Mormon Island, and the Middle Fork of the
American River, and was interested in the industry for the rest of his life. Having made a stake, he settled in the new community of
Georgetown and operated a store selling supplies to miners. The state was bustling with new people. In the 1850s, the
Democratic Party was the only partisan organization, and it stretched to accommodate the many interests of the new residents. Elected to the
State Assembly in the 1853–54 and 1860–61 sessions, Conness was nominated as the
Anti-Lecompton Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor in
1859 and the
Union Democratic candidate for Governor in the
1861 election. After losing to
John G. Downey in the first election and
Leland Stanford in the second, Conness was elected by the legislature to the
United States Senate for the term beginning in
1863. (Senators were selected by state legislatures until the
17th Amendment was ratified in 1913.) 1863–1869 A
Douglas Democrat who later became a
Union Republican while serving in the Senate, Conness earned President
Abraham Lincoln's respect. The two men worked together on legislation Conness introduced to protect
Yosemite National Park and
Mariposa Grove. In addition, Conness gave support to Lincoln's war measures. Lincoln once said of Conness that he "is habitually careful not to say what he does not know," and described him on another occasion as "one of our United States Senators, of high standing, whom I cheerfully endorse." Conness was with his Senate colleagues
William M. Stewart of
Nevada and
Charles Sumner of
Massachusetts the night Lincoln was assassinated. "Upon hearing of the attack on
Secretary of State William H. Seward, the three men ran to Seward's lodgings. There they were turned away by a doctor who was attending to Seward, and they ran to the White House, where they heard the news that Lincoln had been shot. Conness declared that 'this is a conspiracy to murder the entire cabinet' and directed soldiers to go protect Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton." Conness had the honor of being a
pallbearer at Lincoln's funeral on April 19, 1865. At the beginning of
Reconstruction, Conness alienated some of his California constituents by advocating strongly for
Chinese immigration and
civil rights. At a time of rising anti-Chinese feelings in California, his was an unusual and unpopular view, and he lost the support of his party. He strongly believed in justice for all immigrants. In the Senate debate on the
14th Amendment, Conness said “We are entirely ready to accept the provision proposed in this constitutional amendment, that the children begotten of Chinese parents in California … shall be citizens.” After his Senate term ended in 1869, Conness relocated to
Boston, Massachusetts, a center of Irish-American life. He lived there the remainder of his life, for nearly four decades. He died in an insane asylum in Jamaica Plain, now part of Boston. He was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery in
Dorchester, Boston. ==Legacy and honors==