With population growth at an all-time high, immigrants of many stripes and talents were making names for themselves in California. One of the more notable figures was Leland Stanford, the chairman of the California Pacific Railroad and often called the first millionaire in California. Stanford had quickly inserted himself into the political world, funding campaigns for the Bear Flag Party during the midterms in 1857. In fact, Stanford himself had become what the Bear Flag Party badly needed: a popular face. Stanford not only built railroads all across California, he also used his wealth to create philanthropic projects all across California, most notably the San Francisco Public Library, generously covering most of the costs that would have needed to be footed by the government.
Stanford's popularity was actually sufficient that people began clamoring for him to run for the Presidency, despite him being born in the United States and not a native born citizen of California. Regardless of this, Stanford quite liked the idea, and he soon organized a campaign to enact the Twelfth Amendment to the California Constitution, which would allow naturalized citizens (such as Stanford) to be eligible for the Presidency. This gained a lot of traction in the Congress, since many of the new Senators and Representatives had come during the Rush. It barely squeaked by with a narrow majority in both houses, then got to the desk of President Hart, who refused to sign it initially, but a petition delivered to his desk with hundreds of signatures from all over California impelled him to sign the act, and it went to the states. At the time, California had grown from 4 states and a territory to 7 states and 3 territories. Through an excellent round of publicity, again heeled by Stanford, 5 states ratified it, and the Amendment became law. With this in place, Stanford immediately resigned from the board of the California Pacific Railroad in order to begin his campaign for the Presidency of California.
In the east, a problem had started arising from two groups. With more and more immigrants coming into California through Alcatraz, people had started moving further east into the frontier of California. With this, more and more people had begun moving into the land that the Mormons had claimed, but had gone unrecognized by the Californian government. More settlers, however, brought the problem to the forefront. People in San Francisco had begun talking more and more about what to do with the Mormons, who had ingrained themselves deeply into the Bonneville Valley. The main problem the Californians had with the Mormons was their practice of polygamy, which had been made illegal in California back in 1851. A similar problem existed with the Navajo, the largest native group in California. The tensions soon boiled over into a simmering guerilla war in 1858, with the Navajo attacking any settlers that moved into their lands, and constantly escaping into the desert before they could be caught.
The "Crisis in the East" soon became one of the driving issues in the political campaign of 1859-60. President Hart's Vice-President, Scott Kimberly, campaigned on a promise of crushing the enemies of the Navajo and the Mormons, and "taming" the east. Leland Stanford, however, criticized the Freedom Party for their inability to properly handle the conflict, with a war against the Navajo and a proper uprising by the Mormons imminent. He portrayed the Freedom Party as resting on their laurels, no longer capable of properly governing the nation in a time of crisis, and the Bear Flag Party as a reasonable force for moderation, to negotiate an amicable end to the crisis. This easily won him a lot of votes, and in 1860, Leland Stanford became the 5th President of California, and the first one not from the Freedom Party. It was an upset in Californian politics, and reestablished the Bear Flag Party as a legitimate force in California politics.
Beyond the Rio Grande, the United States had devolved into a full-scale civil war, with the southern states fighting to secede from the Union with British support. Many people had begun fearing that the Navajo and the Mormons would start a similar uprising. Stanford worked quickly to begin a new round of recruitment and military spending to strengthen the California military, and in 1861, traveled to Salt Lake City to negotiate with the Mormons. He presented his case clearly: abolish polygamy, or be crushed. It was that year that Brigham Young "conveniently" had a vision that they should discontinue the faith, and quickly came to a peace with the California government. Many splinter sects of Mormonism fled into the desert, continuing their practice. California would spend decades hunting them down to try and end the practice one and for all, but Salt Lake City was officially recognized by California, and enabled them to turn the Northeastern Territory into the state of Deseret.
The Navajo, by contrast, got much more generous concessions. President Stanford was convinced that by apportioning land to be exclusively for the natives, he could quell their unrest and still have most of the rest of California's land available for settlement. The Navajo quickly took the deal, and the Arizona Territory had the State of Navajo carved out of it, becoming analogous to the Indian Territory in the United States (which at the time was split between the CSA and the USA). In the space of 4 months, President Stanford had solved a crisis of two years that the Freedom Party could not solve, which cemented his political effectiveness as well as his popularity as President. Under his administration, the government took an approach of transitioning subsidies from farming to industry, not the least of which was Stanford's own California Pacific Railroad. California soon managed the construction of a railroad to Salt Lake City, connecting the interior like never before. However, one notable new direction the retooled Bear Flag Party took under President Stanford was the enactment of several "National Reserves", areas where development would be limited, in order to "preserve the natural heritage of California for the future", kicking off the start of conservationism in California.
The Bear Flag Party saw an era of moderate but significant growth in the Californian economy, with towns like Stockton and Redwood becoming centers of industry in California and producing manufactured goods such as canned goods, textiles, and furniture. The Napa Valley region soon became a very big region for grape production, and wines started getting produced in earnest. Fruits, vegetables, grains, and meats were abundant, and California didn't spend a single dime on importing food for the populace at-large. The cities were also growing rapidly, with San Francisco transitioning from a city of tents and shacks to a well-designed city with wide boulevards and green parks, courtesy of designs from the Stanford Administration. Rather than the uncontrolled growth of the Rush, the Stanford Presidency and the Bear Flag Party's first term in charge of the nation had produced an era of steady, meaningful growth, earning the President the nickname "Slow-and-Steady Stanford". He ended his Presidency in 1866 with the highest approval rating of any President in the history of California, with Senator Harold Bennett becoming the 6th President of California after him.