The Salomon brothers, Edward, Frederick, Charles, and Herman, hated slavery and sided with the Union cause at the start of the Civil War. Three Salomon brothers joined the Union army and in 1861 the Republican Party chose Edward as its candidate for lieutenant-governor. He was elected, and when Gov. Louis P. Harvey accidentally drowned in April 1862, he succeeded him as the eighth governor of Wisconsin. At thirty four-years-old, he was the youngest Wisconsin Governor and the first who was not born in the United States.