 He and his family then embarked on another three-year stay in Europe (1873–75).In March 1877 the Governor of New York, Lucius Robinson, nominated McClellan to serve as the first state Superintendent of Public Works, but the New York State Senate rejected him as "incompetent for the position".McClellan was a resident of West Orange, New Jersey in 1877 when the New Jersey Democratic Party nominated him for governor, an action that took him by surprise because he had not expressed an interest in the position.