 General Bennett C. Riley who had fought in the Siege of Veracruz and Chapultepec during the Mexican–American War and considered an able military commander, was the last military governor of California in 1849–1850.In response to popular demand for a better more representative government, General Riley issued an official proclamation dated June 3, 1849, calling for a Constitutional Convention and an election of representatives on August 1, 1849.Convention delegates were chosen by secret ballot but lacking any census data as to California's population and where they lived its representatives only roughly approximated the rapidly changing state population as later shown in the 1850 U.S. California Census taken a year later.