John Bigelow is reelected mayor of Boston.

Bigelow (W), with 4,543, defeats Joseph Hall, with 705, and others to be reelected to his second consecutive terms as mayor. In his inaugural address in January 1850, he declares, “Foreign paupers are rapidly accumulating on our hands. . . Numbers of helpless beings, including imbeciles, in both body and mind, – the aged, the blind, the paralytic, and the lunatic, have been landed from immigrant vessels, to become instantly, and permanently charge upon our public charities.”