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THE AUTHORIZED CAMPAIGN EDITION. 
 
 Price] [25 cts. 
 
 LIFE, EXPLORATIONS, 
 
 AOT) 
 
 PUBLIC SERTICES 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN CHARLES FREMONT. 
 
 • NEW YORK: 
 
 LIVERMORE & RUDD, 310 BROADWAY. 
 1856. 
 
IN PKESS, 
 
 HISTOKY AND RECORDS 
 
 THE ELEPHANT CLUB, 
 
 12mo.f Chth. Price U Oi). 
 
 No writer who has appeared befOTc the Aniencan public has met, in so 
 short a period, with such success as he, who within less than two yeai's 
 unpremeditatedly hiid the foundation of liis fame as the 
 
 GREAT AMERICAN WIT AND HUMORIST, 
 
 by a series of letters written over the imposing sign'atore of 
 
 Q. K. PHILANDER DOESTICK'S, P.B., 
 
 Their appearance marks the birth of a new school of humor, and the 
 unprecedented sale C?f his first volume, " Doesticks^ What He Says," as 
 also the popularity of his poem, '*Plu-ri-bus tah," is stfffieient evidence of 
 their originality and literary excellence. 
 
 •^ SECOjrn PROSE j¥^ons£ n\* noESTiCKS 
 
 is now in press and will be issued in September. In the perpetration of 
 which, he has been aided and abetted by 
 
 a humorist of celebrity. 
 
 The work has been illustrifctcd from original designs by the best "^'-^'^ 
 and the Publishers believe it will enjoy a greater popularity thau eitHer 
 of the Author's preceding workH, 
 
 *** Copies sent by mail to any address, on receipt of $1 00. 
 
 LIYERMORE & RUDD, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 310 Broadway, N. Y. 
 
 W. H. Tinbon, Stc 
 
 Beekmiiii str-jct. 
 
JOHN C. FEEMONT. 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE, EXPLORATIONS, 
 
 AND 
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES 
 
 JOHN CHARLES FREMONT. 
 
 z^"" 
 
 NEW YOEK: 
 LIYERMORE k RUDD, 310 BROADWAY, 
 
 1856. 
 
 TRUMAN k SPOFFORD, CINCINNATI, O. 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S56, 
 
 By LIVERMOKE c!o ilUDD, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern 
 District of New York. 
 
 R. C. VALENTINE, 
 
 8TEUE0TYPEK AND ELECTR0TYPI3T, 
 n Dutch-st., cor. Fulton, N. Y. 
 
INTKODUCTIOK. 
 
 The deep sorrow and regret which pervaded the public 
 mind throngljout the length and breadth of the American 
 Union, when, in 1853-4, it was vaguely rumored that a 
 voung and gallant officer had fallen a victim to his per- 
 severance and intrepidity; an officer who, in spite of an 
 opposing Government — of deserts and eternal snows — of 
 savages and wild animals, had planted upon the highest 
 peak of the Eocky Mountains " the stars and stripes ;" 
 had crossed prairies of ocean-like vastness, where the 
 intruding foot of civilization had never before trampled 
 down its wild-flowers; had braved the dangers of the 
 tomahawk and seal ping-knife, and conferred with hostile 
 Indians outnumbering his own little retinue a hundred- 
 fold ; had climbed the steeps of the Sierra Nevada, and 
 for months slept beneath the piercing winds of a frigid 
 zone ; had wrested California from the Hades of British 
 control, with a bravery and celerity that startled more 
 than one half of Europe and America ; and had, after 
 all his dangers and perils, the patriotic satisfaction of 
 reposing in the rich and magnificent valleys of the 
 Sacramento and San Joaquin, and of having made an 
 acquisition to the wealth and power of his country, more 
 bountiful and enduring than the additions made to the 
 empire of Charles Y. by the conquests of Cortez and 
 Pizarro : — that sorrow, we repeat, was only equalled by 
 its extreme of universal joy, when the Magnetic Tele- 
 graph announced to an expectant nation, that the hero 
 of all these adventures and of a thousand others, and the 
 immediate subject of this biography. Colonel John 
 Chajrles Fremont, was nominated by the Eepublican 
 
4 DTTRODUCTIOK. 
 
 Convention assembled at Philadelphia — where was first 
 adopted, significantly enough, the Deolajiation of Amer- 
 iCAjsr Independence — as its chosen candidate for the 
 Presidency of the United States! And who shall say 
 that either the people's sorrow or joy was not based upon 
 just apprehensions ? In the one case, they trembled for 
 the safety of the young hero, who was the pioneer of 
 civilization in regions so distant, and, as it was supposed, 
 so entirely worthless to enlightened humanity, that the 
 late Mr. McDuffie compared them to the British convict 
 colony. Botany Bay ! While, on the otlier hand, he 
 was recognized as the anticipated saviour of our glorious 
 NATION, (the blossom and fruit of the primal races of our 
 species, the last result of civilization in universal history, 
 and the hope and representative of humanity;) raised 
 up, as it were, by Providence to regenerate our common 
 country from the calamities which fasten foul stains upon 
 her (otherwise fair) escutcheon, and to the perpetuation 
 of which the representatives of all other political parties 
 are pledged, viz. : the extension upon American soil of 
 African slavery, the popular reign of brutality in the 
 American Senate, and the suppression of freedom of 
 speech and debate within the precincts of that venerable 
 hall! 
 
 These subjects, with many others that might be named 
 if it were the province of this work to recount them, are 
 vital national questions. They cannot be shirked ; they 
 must be met boldly and fearlessly ; and Colonel Fremont 
 has avowed himself their champion. In the following 
 brief and imperfect biography, we shall set forth an 
 account — ^so far as historically known — of his ancestry, 
 parentage, birth, early education, life, adventures, and 
 public services. We shall show that he is a child of 
 nature, and that he has never proved recreant to his 
 great parent. We shall behold him, like Demosthenes, 
 contend with the national enemy abroad, and with hostile 
 
INTRODUCTIOK. 5 
 
 jealousy at home. We shall watch his career from the 
 moment he set out from Et. Louis, a fugitive from his 
 Government, until he '' returned with a name that went 
 over Europe and America, and with discoveries bearing 
 fruit which the civilized world is now enjoying." And 
 we shall again see him declare war, enter into treaties, 
 circumvent our oldest, wiliest, most powerful and jealous 
 enemy, and, finally, conque? a territory which proved to 
 be one of the most valuable acquisitions ever made by 
 any other country, ancient or modern ! 
 
LIFE AND PUPIIC SERVICES 
 
 OF 
 
 COL. JOHI C. EEEMONT 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 
 
 A MAN with noble ancestry, says Pauline in Bulwer's 
 " Lady of Lyons," is like a representative of the past. 
 But the supposed prince, Claude Melnotte^ to whom this 
 eulogy was applied, deprecated the idea of being con- 
 sidered " a pensioner on the dead !" 
 
 Fortunately or unfortunately, as the reader may choose 
 to consider, Colonel Fremont was not, in the ordinary 
 acceptation of the term, "nobly born." Although of 
 French extraction, upon the paternal side, he cannot 
 trace his descent from Bourbon, Capet, or Carlovingian 
 kings. Like King David, he has been taken from 
 among the people ; his origin was equally humble and 
 honest ; and a proper use of the natural inheritances of 
 man, is among his first titles to favor and distinction. 
 
 The French Revolution was the consequence of centu- 
 ries of feudal oppression. Its advent was dreadful as 
 the simoom of the desert. Disorders and social disrup- 
 tion followed in its track. Men fled from its terrible 
 devastations, as from the plague ; and, indeed, it was 
 one of the most fearful and afflicting of all plagues. 
 Neither rank, nor age, nor sex, found respect from its 
 
8 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 furj ; for it marched over the land destroying and to de- 
 stroy. Many French families fled from their beloved 
 homes, and sought for refuge and repose, far away from 
 the horrors of European political life, in the peaceful 
 woods and valleys of the JSTew World. Not a few of 
 them rose to honorable distinction in our midst ; many 
 of them have, by great public services, illustrated the 
 page of American history ; and, it would seem that 
 Providence had reserved for the distinguished de- 
 scendant of one of these exiles, the honor of being the 
 chosen representative of the freemen of the United 
 States in the year of our Lord, 1856. 
 
 Relative to the ancestors of Colonel Fremont we know 
 but little ; that little we shall here relate. 
 
 During the period of the Revolution, a French pas- 
 senger ship, bound for one of the West Indian posses- 
 sions of that nation, was captured by an English man-of- 
 war, when on the eve of reaching her destination. The 
 ship and her passengers were, of course, carried as pris- 
 oners of war into one of the English islands, where they 
 were subjected to all that rigid cruelty and hardship 
 .^ with which the conquerors were but too refinedly ac- 
 quainted. One of these unfortunate prisoners was born 
 and educated in the neighborhood of the pleasant city 
 of Lyons. Like all good Frenchmen, he was a devoted 
 lover of his country ; and it may readily be imagined 
 that the period of his captivity preyed heavily upon his 
 ardent patriotism. When he departed from home, it 
 was his resolution to join an aunt, who resided in the 
 island of St. Domingo ; but finding his designs frus- 
 trated, as above indicated, by a power over which he 
 had no control, to lighten the burden of his sufferings, 
 and to draw what consolation he could from industry 
 and activity, became the more immediate topics of his 
 contemplation. His captors being more remarkable for 
 worldly thrift than for refined and cultivated sensibili- 
 ties, he could not, even if capable of so doing, hope to 
 
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 9 
 
 have them imitate the ancient Syracnsans, by mitigating 
 his sufferings because of his poetical or musical accom- 
 plishments, therefore, in order to ingratiate himself in 
 their favor, he devoted his time to basket-making and 
 fresco-painting ; and in this manner he managed, during 
 the years of his captivity, to eke out a scanty living. 
 
 At length, after long patience and endurance, he was - 
 either liberated or effected his own escape ; which, can- 
 not be clearly shown, but most probably the latter. To 
 return to his beloved home, was the thought uppermost 
 in his mind ; and to the prosecution of this design, he 
 directed his ingenuity and all of his little worldly re- 
 sources. Pursuing his way in this direction, he arrived 
 in Norfolk, Ya., almost penniless ; but with a spirit still 
 buoyant, and a stout and manly resolution. There was 
 one resource by which he might obtain sufficient money 
 to enable him to reach the soil of his native country — 
 instruct in his mother tongue the citizens of Norfolk ! 
 He soon carried this design into practical execution, and 
 seemed upon the high road to the attainment of his dar- 
 ling object, when another obstacle ecountered his path- 
 way, that shattered all of his former resolutions. Cupid 
 played sad havoc with his day-dreams of home. 
 
 There resided in Norfolk, at this period, an orphan 
 young lady of extraordinary beauty and intelligence, be- 
 tween whom and himself there sprung up a warm and 
 tender attachment, which ripened into an affection that 
 scorned opposition, annihilated all doubts and misgivings, 
 and thought not of consequences. They were married 
 contrary to the wishes of the young lady's family : ^^^ V) 
 estrangement, which was never reconciled, followed, as a / ^ 
 natural result. 
 
 Anne Beverley Whiting, now the wife of John 
 Charles Fremont (father to the subject of this memoir), 
 w^as possessed of a small fortune in her own right. Her 
 husband was a highly cultivated man, endowed by 
 nature with that speculative order of intellect, which do- 
 
 A! 
 
10 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 lights in studying the Science of Ethnology. It had long 
 been his wish to visit, and to study the character and man- 
 ners of the American Indians, in whom he took a deep inter- 
 est ; but from the accomplishment of this laudable desire, 
 he had been hitherto precluded by his reduced circum- 
 stances. JSTow, however, he w^as a married man ; his 
 good and charming wife was the possessor of a small for- 
 tune ; and, like a noble woman, recognizing no greater 
 earthly grace than the happiness of her husband, and 
 resolved upon indulging his intellectual passions, she 
 placed her property at his disposal ; and both of them 
 travelled, during several years, through whole territories 
 of the Southern States, then occupied by the aboriginal 
 tribes, and by wild animals, the species of which are now 
 nearly extinct there. The roads and "means of commu- 
 nication in that country then w^ere very rude, and they 
 travelled, as was the custom of the day, when means per- 
 mitted, with their own carriage, horses, and servants, 
 stopping where convenience of towns and dwellings re- 
 quired, and not unfrequently passing the night in Indian 
 villages, or by a camp-fire." To men who take but lit- 
 tle interest in science ; who care not to know w^hat niche 
 in universal liistory any particular race of our species 
 should fill; and who are wholly indifferent to the place 
 of man in animated Nature, — the nomadic wanderings 
 of Mr. Fremont may appear senseless, meaningless, and 
 useless. But, how different will be the feelings of the 
 scientificist ! He beholds in such a one, an apostle of 
 a great cause — an evangelist, whose mission is the cul- 
 ture and mental elevation of humanity ! He will, assur- 
 edly, recognize in him a martyr of certain longing desires 
 and of thirst after knowledge, no less than of physical 
 hardships — hunger, cold, and want. It was during one 
 of these excursions that Mr. and Mrs. Fremont " chanced 
 to pass the night at the inn in Nasliville, where occurred 
 the personal encounter bet^/een Gen. Jackson and Col. 
 IBenton — well remembered in that country — the balb 
 
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 11 
 
 from whose pistols passed through the room in which 
 they happened to be sitting." Little did they dream, 
 that one of the combatants was destined to be the father- 
 in-law of their first-born ! 
 
 Of the hardships endm-ed by those who devote them- 
 selves to the cause of knowledge, and search for it among 
 American Indians, inexperienced persons can form no 
 accm-ate conception. Those, however, who are familiar 
 with the writings of Schoolcraft, will not fail to admire 
 the devotion and zeal with which Mr. Fremont and his 
 excellent lady prosecuted their long, and arduous re- 
 search. 
 
 The 21st day of January, 1813 — about one year after our 
 second war with England, and two before the exile of Na- 
 poleon Bonaparte — was to them bright with hope and joy. 
 On that day at Savannah, in Georgia, their eldest son 
 first saw the light; he who is the immediate subject of 
 our pen — and whose name, of all living men, is first to- 
 day upon the lips of his countrymen — Colonel John 
 Charles Fremont. The happy parents, in future life, 
 were favored with two other children ; a daughter, born 
 in Tennessee, and a son, in Yirginia. About this time, 
 Mr. Fremont prepared to return once more to his native 
 land ; but his preparations were vain, he fell a victim '' to 
 the king of terrors." 
 
 Francis Fremont, brother to the deceased, with his 
 family, were then in Norfolk. He had formerly been 
 settled in St. Domingo ; but preferring a closer proximi- 
 ty to his brother, he had early emigrated from thence, and 
 chose Norfolk as the place of his residence. The prema- 
 ture and unexpected death of his brother, as well as the 
 " loss of his eldest son, a boy of sixteen, who was killed 
 by the bursting of a gun at a Fourth of July celebration 
 in Norfolk, saddened the place to him, and he returned 
 with his family to France. He had been anxious to 
 take with him his brother's family, and made it a point 
 with his widow to accompany him. Her decided refu- 
 
12 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 sal to leave her own country occasioned an alienation 
 between them also, and she was left to herself, with the 
 nsnal defenceless lot and narrow circumstances which 
 are not the most uncommon heritage of widows and or- 
 phans." 
 
 In relation to the family of Francis Fremont, we have 
 but little additional information. A daughter of his, 
 named Cordelia^ died a few years since, in a convent in 
 South America, 
 
 The widow of Mr. Fremont, being now alone in the 
 wide world, desolate and discouraged, probably, as wid- 
 ows usually are, removed with her young family to 
 Charleston, S. C, where she permanently settled. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 YOUTH AND EAELY EDUCATION. 
 
 Mr. G. H. Lewes, the English biographer of the Ger- 
 man poet, Goethe, dwells with tenacious fondness upon 
 the infant precocity of his hero, and assures us, " that he 
 was really a wonderful child" — that " the child was fa- 
 ther to the man" — and that " when only three years old, 
 one day in a neighbor's house, he suddenly began to cry 
 and exclaim, ' That black child must go away ! I can't 
 bear him !' " so great was his juvenile horror of ugli- 
 ness, as well as love of the beautiful. 
 
 The writer of the present sketch is not so fortunate as 
 to possess any authentic information relative to the baby- 
 life of Mr. Fremont ; and, therefore, cannot follow the 
 example of Mr. Lewes. But it is fair to presume that 
 the common routine of his juvenile life bore a most sin- 
 gular resemblance to that of other children — that he was 
 dressed like them — fed like them — cried like them — and 
 
YOUTH Al^D EARLY EDUCATION. 13 
 
 was often very good ; that his parents were fondly and 
 affectionately devoted to him, and that many of the 
 neighbors complimented their " fine boy." In these sup- 
 positions there may be nothing too mythic or extraordi- 
 nary. 
 
 It would be equally futile to recount here the various 
 incidents of his school and college life. Precocious he 
 may, or may not, have been ; but it is with the man, 
 and not the schoolboy, that we have here to do. It may 
 not, however, ' be amiss to state, that the advantages 
 which he possessed were turned to the best account ; 
 and that, as the Neio Orleans Bulletin of March, 1846, 
 has so truly observed, " he is well versed in all those 
 branches of science requisite for a scientific exploration. 
 His favorite study is mathematics, in all branches of 
 which, pure and mixed, he is an adept. He is familiar 
 with astronomy, geology, meteorology, mineralogy, chem- 
 istry, botany, geography, and other sciences. Greek 
 and Latin have not been neglected ; French and Span- 
 ish have been mastered ; and German occupies no infe- 
 rior place among his acquisitions. His life has been 
 one of untiring labor and study, and is a noble example 
 for imitation." 
 
 That he was precocious, too, and at an early age dis- 
 played the most signal tokens of a brilliant genius, will 
 be clearly seen by what follows. 
 
 When yet a youth, he entered the law office of John 
 W. Mitchell, one of the most prominent lawyers of the 
 Charleston Bar. " Here," says the Evening Post^ " he 
 gave such evidence of intelligence and industry as 
 greatly to interest Mr. Mitchell, who found pleasure in 
 directing the capacity he seemed to possess, and devoted 
 many of his leisure hours to young Fremont's instruc- 
 tion. The lad's vigorous application required more 
 time than Mr. Mitchell had at his disposal, and, in 
 prosecution of the plan he had formed for him, he 
 placed him under the instruction of Dr. John Roberton, 
 
14 LIFE OF FREMO:t^T. 
 
 a Scotch gentleman, who had been educated at Edin- 
 biirg, and who had established himself as a teacher, 
 principally of ancient languages, at Charleston." 
 
 In 1850, Dr. Eoberton, then between sixty and seven- 
 ty years old, published a translation of Xenophon's 
 " Anabasis," in the preface to which he alludes at great 
 length to the promiising genius of young Fremont. The 
 work was affectionately dedicated to his pupils ; and 
 offering to them sage-like woi'ds of encouragement and 
 advice, he selected as a model for their imitation our 
 orphan youth, of whom he gave a lengthened account, 
 from which we extract the following : 
 
 "In the year 1827, after I had returned to Charleston 
 from Scotland, and my classes w^ere going on, a very 
 respectable lawyer came to my school, I think some time 
 in the month of October, with a youth apparently about 
 sixteen, or perhaps not so much (14), of middle size, 
 graceful in manners, rather slender, but well formed, 
 and upon the whole what I should call handsome ; of a 
 keen, piercing eye, and a noble forehead, seemingly the 
 very seat of genius. The gentleman stated that he found 
 him given to study, that he had been about three w^eeks 
 learning thq Latin rudiments, and (hoping, I suppose, to 
 turn the youth's attention from the law to the ministry) 
 had resolved to place him under my care for the puipose 
 of learning Greek, Latin, and Mathematics, sufhcient to 
 enter Charleston College. I very gladly received him, 
 for I immediately perceived he was no common youth, 
 as intelligence beamed in his dark eye, and shone 
 brightly on his countenance, indicating great ability, 
 and an assurance of his future progress. 1 at once put 
 him in the highest class, just beginning to read Caesar's 
 Commentaries, and although at first inferior, his pro- 
 digious memory and enthusiastic application soon ena- 
 bled him to surpass the best. He began Greek at the 
 same time, and read with some who had been long at 
 it, in which he also soon excelled. In short, in the 
 space of one year he had with the class, and at odd 
 hours with myself, read four books of CiBsar, Cornelius 
 Nepos, Sallust, six books of Yirgil, nearly all Horace, 
 
YOUTH AND EARLY EDUCATION. 15 
 
 ttiid two books of Livy ; and in Greek, all Grseca Minora, 
 about the half of the first volume of Grseca Majora, and 
 four books of Homer's Iliad. And whatever he read, he 
 retained. It seemed to me, in fact, as if he learned by 
 mere intuition. I was myself utterly astonished, and at 
 the same time delighted with his progress. I have hinted 
 that he was designed for the Church, but when I con- 
 templated his bold, fearless disposition, his powerful 
 inventive genius, his admiration of warlike exploits, and 
 his love of heroic and adventurous deeds, I did not think 
 it likely he would be a minister of the gospel. He had 
 not, however, the least appearance of any vice whatever. 
 On the contrary, he was always the very pattern of virtue 
 and modesty. I could not help loving him, so much did 
 he captivate me by his gentlemanly conduct and extra- 
 ordinary progress. It w^as easy to see that he would one 
 day raise himself to eminence. Whilst under my in- 
 struction, I discovered his early genius for poetic com- 
 position in the following manner. When the Greek 
 class read the account that Herodotus gives of the battle 
 of Marathon, the bravery of Miltiades and his ten thou- 
 sand Greeks raised his patriotic feelings to enthusiasm, 
 and drew from him expressions which I thought were 
 embodied, a few days afterwards, in some well-written 
 verses in a Charleston paper, on that far-famed unequal 
 but successful conflict against tyranny and oppression ; 
 and suspecting my talented scholar to be the author, I 
 went to his desk, and asked him if he did not write 
 them ; and hesitating at first, rather blushingly, he con- 
 fessed he did. I then said, ''I knew you could do such 
 things, and I suppose you have some such pieces by you, 
 which I should like to see. Do bring them to me.' He 
 consented, and in a day or two brought me a number, 
 which I read with pleasure and admiration at the strong 
 marks of genius stamped on all, but here and there re- 
 quiring, as I thought, a very slight amendment. 
 
 "' I had hired a mathematician to teach both him and 
 myself (for I could not then teach that science), and in 
 this he also made such w^onderful progress, that at the 
 end of one year he entered the Junior Class in Charles- 
 ton College triumphantly, while others w4io had been 
 studying four yeara and more, were obliged to take tlie 
 
16 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 Sophomore Class. About the end of the year 1828 I 
 left Cliarleston, but I heard that he highly distinguished 
 himself, and graduated in 1830. After that he taught 
 Mathematics for some time. His career afterwards lias 
 been one of heroic adventure, of hair-breadth escapes by 
 flood and field, and of scientific explorations, which have 
 made him world-wide renowned. In a letter I received 
 from him very lately, he expresses his gratitude to me 
 in the following words : ^ I am very fai'froin either for- 
 getting you or neglecting you^ or in any way losing the 
 old regard I had for you. There is no time to which I 
 go hack with rnore pleasure than that spent with you, for 
 there was no time so thoroughly well spent^ and of any 
 thing I may have learned^ I reme7n'ber nothing so well^ 
 and so distinctly^ as what I acquired with you.^ Here 
 I cannot help saying that the merit was almost all his 
 own. It is true that I encouraged and cheered him on, 
 but if the soil into which I put the seeds of learning had 
 not been of the richest quality, they w^ould never have 
 sprung up to a hundred-fold in the full ear. Such, my 
 young friends, is but an imperfect sketch of my once 
 beloved and favorite pupil, now a senator, and who may 
 
 YET RISE TO BE AT THE HEAD OF THIS GREAT AND GROWING 
 
 REPUBLIC. My prayer is that he may ever be opposed 
 to war, injustice and oppression of every kind, a blessing 
 to his country, and an example of every noble virtue to 
 the whole world." 
 
 The good Dr. Roberton seems to have seen propheti- 
 cally the destiny of his pupil ! 
 
 It has been stated in certain nameless prints, that the 
 religious faith of Mr. Fremont w^as that taught by the 
 Koman Catholic Church. If such had been the case, it 
 would hardly constitute a capital crime ; since, by ra- 
 tional beings especially, it is generally supposed that to 
 God alone, men are responsible for their conscientious 
 beliefs. And it is quite possible, too, that in the end, it 
 is the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, who will 
 decide relative to the moral right or wrong of being a 
 Roman Catholic 1 Be this, however, as it may, to assert 
 
YOUTH AND EAKLY EDUCATION. 17 
 
 that Mr. Fremont belongs, or ever did belong, to that 
 church, is a purely gratuitous fabrication ; having no 
 foundation, whatsoever, in truth ; and being in essence 
 a malignant falsehood, coined by the unpnncipled parti- 
 sans of his slave-driving enemies. The mother of Mr. 
 Fremont was a pious member of the Protestant Episco- 
 pal Church of America ; in that church he was baptized 
 when an infant ; there he was confirmed in his sixteenth 
 year ; to that religious denomination he has since, and 
 does now, belong ; and it is in the bosom of that faith 
 he is firmly resolved to live and to die ! Were he, con- 
 scientiously, a Roman Catholic, he, who from childhood, 
 has been brave and heroic, would be the last man to 
 deny his religious creed in this glorious country, where 
 all denominations are equally free to adore their God ! 
 but the charge was false, ab initio^ and even a Know 
 Nothing falsehood at that. 
 
 To return : soon after young Fremont's confirmation, one 
 of those youthful dreams, which are as necessary to early 
 happiness as sunshine is to flowers, marred the course of 
 his studies. Up to this time his application had been 
 vigorous and his acquirements remarkable. But Cupid 
 envied him, and for a while succeeded in casting a shade 
 upon his peace of mind. He chanced to meet with a 
 young lady of remarkable beauty, a native of the West 
 Indies, with raven hair, soft, black, and lustrous eyes ; 
 a very Haidee in appearance ; and she, instead of Greek 
 and mathematics, monopolized his studies, and his — 
 heart ! The faculty bore with him patiently, trusting 
 that the love affair would soon pass over, and that he 
 would return again to his studies. But the fair West 
 Indian had too deep a hold of his heart : after repeated 
 insubordinations, he was expelled from the college by 
 his irritated superiors. 
 
 Time brought its own cure ; and the unfortunate ca- 
 lamities with which Providence visited his family, ex- 
 erted an. important influence upon his future character. 
 
18 , LIFE OF FEEMONT. 
 
 When abruptly deprived, as above stated, of his colle- 
 giate career, he engaged in teaching mathematics, prin- 
 cipally to senior classes in different schools, and also 
 took charge of the " Apprentices' Library," an evening 
 school under a board of directors, of which Dr. Joseph 
 Johnston was president. It was while thus employed, 
 that a sad incident took place, which first awoke him to 
 the sober interests of life. 
 
 Every reader, almost, will remember Longfellow's ex- 
 quisitely melancholy description in "The Golden Le- 
 gend" of the death of " Little Elsie !" Thus it was that 
 Mr. Fremont saw his only sister fade away, in the seven- 
 teenth year of her life. His brother, who possessed an 
 ardent and enthusiastic temperament and unusual abili- 
 ty, when but fifteen years of age, in consequence of an 
 association with amateur players, had his taste turned to 
 the stage, on which he imagined that fame and fortune 
 were of easy acquisition. With these ideas, and full of 
 the generous impulses which belonged to his age and 
 character, he suddenly, and without consulting his fami- 
 ly, left his home to work out his fortune for himself. 
 His career was cut short, soon after, at Buffalo, 'N. Y., 
 by injuries received in a riot ; from the effects of which 
 he died afterwards at the residence of his mother. 
 
 These dreadful visitations roused the survivor to a 
 proper sense of his position ; and he never proved re- 
 creant again to his nobler instincts and reason. 
 
 CHAPTEE HI. 
 
 MANHOOD AND MATRIMONY. 
 
 Those who happen to be familiar with the political 
 history of our country, during the present century — with 
 the speeches of that noble race of American statesmen 
 
MANHOOD AND MATRIMONY. 19 
 
 which is now almost extinct — and with Benton's Thir- 
 ty Years' View in the United States Senate ; cannot fail 
 of remembering with regret, the nullification treason of 
 South Carolina ; nor of contrasting this stain upon the 
 escutcheon of that State, with her more recent traitorous 
 course, relative to the freedom of Nebraska, from the 
 polluting desolation of African slavery. 
 
 General Jackson was then President. He was a man 
 of iron will, indomitable power, and stern inflexibility. 
 All of these peculiar qualities of his nature, he brought 
 to bear with unbending vigor, in forcing obedience from 
 the nullifiers. For this purpose — the enforcement of his 
 proclamation against them — the sloop-of-war ISTatchez, 
 entered the port of Charleston in 1833. Having effected 
 this, she was ordered on a cruise to South America. At 
 tliis time Fremont was twenty years old. It seems that 
 he had been honored by an acquaintance with Mr. Poin- 
 sett, at that time Secretary of the JSTavy ; and that gen- 
 tleman cliose him as post-teacher of mathematics to the 
 Natchez, in which capacity he made with her a cruise 
 of nearly three years' duration. How much the respect- 
 able family from which Fremont was maternally de- 
 scended, the accomplishments and suavity of his father, 
 or his own personal energy, perseverance, and merits, 
 may have had to do in thus favorably influencing Mr. 
 Poinsett, we are not told ; but that each and all of these 
 qualities contributed their mite, in inducing him to 
 make the choice which he did, it is simply rational to 
 suppose. He returned once again after his cruise to his 
 native city ; the college that expelled him a few years 
 previously, now received him with open arms. It was 
 still under the presidency of Dr. Adams, who bestowed 
 upon the reformed truant, the degrees of Bachelor and 
 Master of Arts. 
 
 Success is parent to ambition ; and ambition, if prop- 
 erly directed, -^ill extort concessions from supposed im- 
 possibilities. The life of Fremont is a striking illustra- 
 
20 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 tion of the trutli of this assertion. I^o sooner had he 
 paid the first visits to his immediate friends, after hav- 
 ing returned from his long cruise, than his mind became 
 restless, and he thirsted again for fresh adventure and 
 new achievements. He was not left long, however, to 
 deplore his idleness. In a nation where the achieve- 
 ments of the individual are regarded as the ornaments 
 of the state, a spirit like that of Fremont could neither 
 be overlooked nor neglected. A law had been recently 
 enacted, creating professorships of mathematics in the 
 navy ; and after having passed through a rigorous and 
 searching examination, he was first, among the many 
 candidates, who succeeded with honor to himself, to re- 
 ceive the approval of the board of examiners convened 
 at Baltimore. But this was not sufficient to gratify his 
 ambition ; a larger field of labor presented itself to his 
 imagination ; and he made his first essay as surveyor 
 and railroad engineer, in an examination for an improve- 
 ment of the railway line between Charleston and Au- 
 gusta. In after years, when deprived of his commission 
 through envy and malice, by a court-martial, he was 
 ofifered the presidency of this road, at the annual salary 
 of five thousand dollars. 
 
 The war which our country was compelled to engage 
 in with Mexico, through the blindness and stupidity of 
 that government, deprived the nation of the services of 
 many eminently ]3romising and brilliant men ; among 
 many others Capt. G. "W. Williams, of the United States 
 Topographical engineers. Under his direction, and that 
 of Gen. W. G. McNeill, a corps of engineers was formed, 
 soon after Fremont had completed his survey of the 
 Charleston and Augusta railway, for the purpose of 
 making a preliminary survey of a route for a railway 
 line from Charleston to Cincinnati, and Fremont was 
 appointed one of the assistant engineers, charged with 
 the exploration of the mountain passes between South 
 Carolina and Tennessee, where he remained, until the 
 
MANHOOD AND MATRIMONY. 21 
 
 work was suspended in the fall of 1837. This under- 
 taking was exceedingly difBcult of performance. Those 
 engaged in it, were strangers, during their occupation, 
 to ease or luxury. Tliey deemed themselves furtunate 
 when they met with a farm-house among the mountains, 
 but they were, as a general thing, compelled to repose 
 beneath the canopy of an open sky, destitute of all shel- 
 ter save that suj)plied by their few tents and camp equi- 
 page. But the country abounded in rough, wild, and 
 
 '^ natural beauties ; and the impressions made by such in- 
 fluences upon the mind of Fremont, were well calculated 
 to strengthen his nerve and enlarge his views. He filled 
 his place with honor to himself, and in a ma,nner more 
 than satisfactory to his superior officers. 
 
 The government anticipated hostilities, at this period, 
 from the Cherokee Indians, then occupying the moun- 
 tainous country comprehending portions of the States of 
 Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Capt. Wil- 
 liams was ordered to make military reconnalsances of 
 those territories ; and, in preparing to do so, Fremont 
 . was his first chosen assistant. They set out upon a hur- 
 ] ried winter survey, enduring every hardship imagina- 
 ble ; making their reconnaissances upon horseback ; 
 building fires by night in the dense forest, around which 
 tliey endeavored to repose, when not startled from their 
 slumbers by wolves and panthers. This was Fremont's 
 second and severest campaign. Soon we shall find 
 him in regions where civilized man never stood before ; 
 enduring superhuman hardships ; and illustrating how 
 
 i the persevering bravery of man may wring concessions 
 from the greatest natural obstacles. 
 
 Among the earliest pioneers of civilization in Ameri- 
 ca, were French Jesuits — Marquette, his coadjutors and 
 successors. They were actuated more by the spirit of 
 religion than they were by the love of worldly progress. 
 If they could conquer souls, half of their cup of happi- 
 ness was deemed full ; but in endeavoring to convert the 
 
22 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 savage, topographical and useful information was not 
 overlooked by them. They were the first to attempt ex- 
 plorations, upon a grand scale, of the Mississippi Valley, 
 and of other almost equally extensive domains. A 
 learned countryman of theirs, actuated by their spirit, 
 and emulating their example — a man who was a scien- 
 tific philosopher, M. J. N. Nicollet — happened to be, at 
 the time of which we here treat, in this country. He 
 had risen to distinction in the French Academy of Sci- 
 ences ; and his life, although unfortunately brief, was 
 distinguished by extraordinary and varied learning, abil- 
 ity, and scientific attainments. The Baron Yon Hum- 
 boldt, in his Aspects of Nature^ deeply deplores his 
 early death, and hesitates not to assert, that Science had 
 lost in him one of her brightest ornaments. To him, as 
 a geographer, the Northwestern regions of our country 
 :.ad a peculiar interest. It was among the most cher- 
 ished of his wishes to follow in the footsteps of his mis- 
 sionary countrymen who had gone before him, to visit 
 the scenes of their labors, and to draw together the 
 scattered remains of a history which he thought re- 
 dounded to their honor. With these views, and in 
 the interest of geography, he had recently made an ex- 
 tended journey around the sources of the Mississippi, 
 the map and materials of which had been adopted by 
 our Government, and he had been commissioned to 
 make an examination of our almost unexplored North- 
 western region, in continuation of his own labors. In 
 the spring succeeding the winter spent by Fremont, 
 with Captain Williams, upon the aforesaid reconnoitering 
 expedition, M. Nicollet was prepared to depart upon Ids 
 exploring expedition to the Upper Mississippi. Mr. 
 Poinsett was now Secretary of War. He remembered 
 Fremont ; knew that his prudence was equal to his bra- 
 very ; that his love of rendering his country important 
 services, and of being foremost as the pathfinder of civ- 
 ilization, were among the many reliable virtues of his 
 
MANHOOD AND MATRIMONY. 23 
 
 nature ; and he regarded him, consequently, as a qualified 
 person to be the assistant and companion of M. ISTicoUet. 
 He sought, accordingly, and procured for him, the ap- 
 pointment of principal assistant, in v/hich capacity he 
 accompanied M. JS'icollet, during the years '38 and '39, 
 in two separate explorations of the greater part of the 
 region lying between the Missouri and the Upper Eivers, 
 and extending north to the British line. 
 
 It will be remembered, doubtless, that the corps of 
 Topographical Engineers had been reorganized during 
 the administration of General Jackson, with the pro- 
 vision that half of the corps should be taken from the 
 civil service. On the 4th of March, 1837, Martin Yan 
 Buren was inaugurated President of the United States. 
 In 1838, and while he was yet absent, Fremont was 
 among the first benefited by the provision of General 
 Jackson — Mr. Yan Buren having appointed him second 
 lieutenant in the corps of Topographical Engineers. 
 After the return of the expeditions to the Upper Missis- 
 sippi, more '' than a year was occupied in the reduction 
 of their materials, with a map and report in illustration of 
 them ; and during this time Fremont resided with M. 
 Nicollet and Mr. Hassler, then the head of the Coast 
 Survey. In the familiar society and conversations of 
 these two remarkable men, he enjoyed the rare opportu- 
 nity of a daily association with Science in her most at- 
 tractive guise. They were not men who had worked 
 laboriously up, branch by branch, to obtain an incom- 
 plete knowledge of science ; their genius had spread out 
 its fields distinctly before them, and they had surveyed 
 them from an eminence. They had invented new forms 
 for the easier expression of scientific results, and new 
 instruments to extend and apply them." Intercourse 
 with philosophers so eminent ; with men whose scien- 
 tific knowledge must have enlarged their views, and ex- 
 panded their visions ; had the effect, which, under such 
 circumstances, was natural, upon the mind of Fremont. 
 
94 LIFE OF FKEMONT. 
 
 Experience gave liim confidence in his own resources, 
 and enlarged the sphere of his ambition. It was in his 
 social and intellectual companionship with these eminent 
 men, that his " swelling heart conceived and communi- 
 cated the pure and generous purpose; where his slenderer 
 and younger taper imbibed its borrowed light from the 
 more redundant fountain of theirs" — a light of fame, 
 immortal and imperishable in itself ! 
 
 It was during this period of his life that he became 
 acquainted with the family of Thomas H. Benton — a 
 family destined to wield a salutary influence over the fu- 
 ture of his existence. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to add here, that Senator Ben- 
 ton is among the last survivors of that glorious school of 
 senatorial statesmen and rhetoricians, which once lent to 
 our national halls of legislation an air of intellectual 
 brilliancy and splendor, that would not have been deem- 
 ed unworthy of the Roman Senate-chamber, or Areopagus 
 of Athens, in their palmiest days. He, indeed, is the 
 Nestor of our times. 
 
 When Mr. Fremont became first acquainted with the 
 family of Senator Benton, his second daughter, Jessie, 
 was fifteen years of age. Between herself and Fremont 
 an attachment sprung up, which ripened into a love- 
 flame, that no opposing power could quench, and which 
 cast all obstacles into the shade. The union of their 
 daughter with an officer was warmly opposed both by 
 Mr. and Mrs. Benton. Although they entertained for 
 him, personally, the highest regard, it was impossible 
 that a fond and loving mother could consent to the 
 marriage of a daughter only fifteen years old, while Mr. 
 B. feared the possible death of Fremont, and then, the 
 natural consequence of his widow being thrown, per- 
 haps penniless, upon the War Department. But they 
 did not foresee that he would, in future years, be regard- 
 ed as the hope of human freedom ; and, probably, be 
 
MANHOOD AND MATRIMONY. 25 
 
 chosen First Magistrate of the American Republic, in 
 1856. 
 
 The course of true love never did run smooth ; at 
 least the aphorism was true so far as it related to Fre- 
 niont. During a period of about two years, he had con- 
 tinued to feed upon hope ; but a day of separation was 
 nigh at hand. In the summer of 1841, he received an 
 unexpected and mysterious, but inexorable, order to 
 make an examination of the river Des Moines, upon the 
 banks of w^hich the Sacs and Fox Indians had their 
 homes, Iowa being at that time a frontier country. It 
 has been truly said that the adversary who wrestles with 
 us, strengthens our limbs ; and opposition to youth and 
 love is simply what oil is to the flame. The new com- 
 mand received by Fremont fell u]3on him like a thunder- 
 clap ! Upon the one side he beheld the mistress of his 
 heart, from whom he was about being separated ; and 
 on the other, his country, demanding his services and 
 obedience. He resolved — perhaps by her advice — to 
 cheerfully confide in the constancy of the former, and to 
 obey the latter. Nor was his confidence misplaced or 
 betrayed. The flame which his presence had kindled, 
 continued to burn purely in his absence. 
 
 E'othing gives a parent more joy than to trace in the 
 lineaments of his child a striking resemblance to his 
 own ; but the sternness of will and unbending temper 
 which may characterize the parent, is often found in- 
 convenient in the child. 
 
 To her father, physically and mentally, Jessie Benton 
 bore an unmistakable resemblance. Her resolution once 
 shaped, it could not be altered. She loved Fremont ; 
 she had already bestowed upon him her heart ; and if 
 she could not bestow upon him also her hand, that heart, 
 she knew, would ever remain bankrupt. Conscious of 
 this, she resolved to brave all o])stacles, and to link her 
 mortal destiny ':o the object of her soul's affection. On 
 
26 LIFE OF FRFMONT. 
 
 the 19th day of October, after having discharged the 
 duties imposed upon him, John Charles Fremont was 
 married cLandestinely to • Miss Benton. The ceremony 
 was performed by a priest of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, ministers of all other denominations having 
 previously refused to sin against Mr. Benton, by per- 
 forming what they deemed to be a " contraband" ser- 
 vice. The fact that he was so married, is the only 
 foundation for the Know-Nothing libel which we have 
 above refuted, viz. — that Mr. Fremont is a Roman 
 Catholic. 
 
 As we shall see hereafter, Mrs. Fremont was in every 
 respect worthy of her gallant husband. He soon re- 
 ceived, not only the forgiveness, but the love, of her 
 parents ; and we shall, in the following pages, have oc- 
 casion, more than once, to quote in his favor from Ben- 
 ton's Thirty Years'^ View, 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 riEST EXPLOEATION. 
 
 When Columbus arrived at San Salvador, he erected 
 the Cross there as the object of his worship ! When 
 Fremont stood upon the highest pinnacle of the Rocky 
 Mountains, he waved aloft the American Flag, where, 
 as he himself so happily expresses it, flag was never 
 waved before ! The emblem raised by the one was that 
 of man's redemption ; that by the other, guarantees 
 Fiikf:dom to all that are embraced as citizens beneath its 
 folds. The greatness of the good old Genoese cannot 
 dim the lustre which belongs to his less famous suc- 
 cessor, in relation to whose wonderful adventures, almost 
 
FIRST EXPLORATION. 27 
 
 fabulous explorations, and brilliant discoveries, \Ye are 
 now more specially interested. 
 
 In 1842 commenced the great emigration of the 
 Anglo-American race to the shore of the Pacific Ocean ; 
 and during that year and the following, that enterprising 
 family succeeded in firmly establishing itself there, and 
 along the banks of the Columbia Eiver. " It was not 
 the act of the Government, leading the people and pro- 
 tecting them ; bnt, like all other great emigrations and 
 settlements of that race on onr continent, it was the act 
 of the people, going forward without Government aid or 
 countenance, establishing their possession, and com- 
 pelling the Government to follow with its shield, and 
 spread it over them." 
 
 With this emigration was intimately connected the 
 first expedition of Lieutenant Fremont to the Eocky 
 Mountains, undertaken and completed in the summer of 
 1842 ; conceived without the knowledge of Government, 
 and executed upon solicited orders, of which the design 
 was unknown. The knowledge which he had acquired 
 while exploring the Territories of the Northwest, reveal- 
 ed to him the public ignorance relative to the subject. 
 He soon discovered that much of what passed current as 
 fact, was simply composed of the marvellous fables re- 
 lated by frontier raconteurs, over their camp-fires, to 
 eager and credulous listeners. Indeed, so late as 1846, 
 one of the earlier editions of a general map of the 
 United States for the year in the Congressional Library 
 at Washington, regarded and quoted as an authority on 
 the Oregon question that year, even by the President 
 himself, with entire confidence, represented the great 
 Salt Lake as discharging itself by three great rivers into 
 the Pacific Ocean — from its southern extremities into the 
 Gulf of California — from its western side through the 
 Sierra ^N^evada range into the Bay of San Francisco, and 
 from its w^estern extremity into the embouchure of the 
 Columbia River. In his various explorations, Fremont 
 
28 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 had already not only disabused his mind of many such 
 absurdities as this, upon M'hich public curiosity had 
 been fed, but he also became strongly impressed both 
 with the feasibility and the necessity of an overland 
 communication of some kind between the Atlantic and 
 Pacific States. This became a leading idea with him 
 in his subsequent explorations, to which we are about 
 to direct our readers' attention, and remained at all 
 times, and in all situations, one of his favorite dreams. 
 
 Having, as we have above seen, assisted M. Nicollet, 
 in his two years' survey of the country between the Mis- 
 souri and Mississippi, Fremont's mind was trained to 
 such labor ; and, to quote the language of the distin- 
 guished author of The Thirty Years' Vieio, " instead of 
 hunting comfortable berths about the towns and villages, 
 he solicited employment in the vast regions beyond the 
 Mississippi. Colonel Abert, the chief of the topograph- 
 ical corps, gave him an order to go- to the frontier, be- 
 yond the Mississippi. That order did not come up to his 
 views. After receiving it, he carried it back, and got it 
 altered, and the Kocky Mountains inserted as an object 
 of his exploration, and the South Pass in those mountains 
 named as a particular point to be examined, and its po- 
 sition fixed by him. It was through this Pass that the 
 Orecron emip'ration crossed the mountains, and the ex- 
 ploration of Lieutenant Fremont had the double effect 
 of fixing an important point in the line of the emi- 
 grants' travel, and giving them encouragement from the 
 apparent interest which the Government took in their 
 enterprise. At the same time, the Government, that is, 
 the Executive Administration, knew nothing about it. 
 The design was conceived by the young lieutenant : the 
 order for its execution was obtained, upon solicitation, 
 from his immediate chief — importing, of course, to be 
 done by his order, but an order which had its conception 
 elsewhere." 
 
 Mr. Fremont left Washington on the 2d day of May, 
 
FIRST EXPLORATION. 29 
 
 1842. He completed his aiTaiigements beyond the 
 western boundaries of the State of Missouri, at Choteau's 
 trading-house; and he set out upon his expedition on 
 the 10th day of June. We quote the descrij)tion of his 
 party given by hin;iself, because we could not improve 
 it: 
 
 " I had collected in the neighborhood of St. Louis 
 twenty-one men, principally Creole and Canadian voy- 
 ageurs^ who had become familiar witli prairie life in the 
 service of the fur companies in the Indian country. Mr. 
 Charles Preuss, a native of Germany, was my assistant 
 in the topographical part of the survey. L. Maxwell, of 
 Kaskaskia, had been engaged as hunter, and Christopher 
 Carson (more familiarly known, for his exploits in the 
 mountains, as Kit Carson) was our guide. The persons 
 engaged in St. Louis were : 
 
 '^ Clement Lambert, J. B. L'Esperance, J. B. Lefevre, 
 Benjamin Potra, Louis Gouin, J. B. Dumes, Basil 
 Lajeunesse, Francois Tessier, Benjamin Cadotte, Joseph 
 Clement, Daniel Simonds, Leonard Benoit, Michel 
 Morly, Baptiste Bernier, Honore Ayot, Franpois Latu- 
 lippe, FrauQois Badeau, Louis Menard, Joseph Ruelle, 
 Moise Chardonnais, Auguste Janisse, Raphael Prone. 
 
 " Li addition to these, Henry Brant, son of Colonel 
 J. B. Brant, of St. Louis, a young man of nineteen years 
 of age, and liandolph, a lively boy of twelve, son of the 
 Hon. Thomas H. Benton, accompanied me, for the de- 
 velopment of mind and body which such an expedition 
 would give. We were all well armed and mounted, 
 with the exception of eight men, who conducted as many 
 carts, in which were packed our stores, with the baggage 
 and instruments, and which were each drawn by two 
 mules. A few loose horses, and four oxen, which had 
 been added to our stock of provisions, completed the 
 train. We set out on the morning of the 10th, which 
 happened to be Friday — a circumstance which our men 
 did not fail to remember and recall during the hardships 
 and vexations of the ensuing journey." 
 
 Their generous host, Mr. Cyprian Chonteau, accom- 
 panied the explorers a short distance, until they met an 
 
30 TJFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 Indian guide, who conducted them for the first thirty 
 miles, and then consigned them to the vast ocean of prai- 
 rie, which, they were told, stretched without interruption 
 to the foot of the Eocky Mountains. Fnrnisbed with 
 mathematical and philosophical instruments necessary 
 for a scientific exploration, almost every camping station 
 was made the scene of astronomical and barometrical 
 observations, which have furnished materials from which 
 Ca]3t. Fremont has made accurate maps and profiles of 
 the vast region he traversed. During their journey it 
 was customary to encamp a little before sunset, forming 
 a sort of barricade, with the carts, around a circle of 
 some eighty yards in diameter, in which the tents were 
 pitched, and after dark the animals confined. At day- 
 break the camp was roused, the animals turned loose to 
 graze, and the march renewed about 8 o'clock. As- 
 tronomical observations, to determine the latitude and 
 longitude, were taken at night ; the altitude of the polar 
 star determining the former, and occultations of the stars, 
 lunar distances, and the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, 
 the latter. Meridian altitudes of the sun also were taken 
 daily for the latitude, when the weather would permit ; 
 and regular barometrical observations determined the 
 elevation or depression of the country. Some of his 
 longitudes are chronometric. In determining longitudes 
 from the observation of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, 
 he always preferred the emersion; the same was also 
 relied on in occultations of stars, the phase at the bright 
 limb generally giving incorrect longitudes. For this 
 reason the result obtained from the emersion at the dark 
 limb was alone adopted. 
 
 In ten days' time they were far away from civilization, 
 in what longitude and latitude will fully appear from 
 the following inimitably beautiful extract, taken from 
 Mr. Fremont's report. It should, peiliaps, be remem- 
 bered in this connection, that the expedition commenced 
 at the mouth of the Kansas river, four hundred miles 
 
FIRST EXPLORATION. 31 
 
 above St. Louis. On the 10th clay of their journey, and 
 20th of Jnne, having reached Big Blue^ the party made 
 their usual halt at noon, " and encamped on the uplands 
 of the western side, near a small creek, where was a very 
 fine large spring of very cold water." 
 
 "This," continues Mr. Fremont, "is a clear and hand- 
 some stream, about one hundred and twenty feet wide, 
 running with a rapid current, through a well-timbered 
 valley. To-day antelope were seen running over the 
 hills, and at evening Carson brouo^ht us a fine deer. 
 Longitude of the camp 96° 32' 35",latitude 39° 45' 08". 
 Thermometer at sunset 75°. A pleasant southerly breeze 
 and fine morning had given place to a gale, with indi- 
 cations of bad weather ; when, after a march of ten 
 miles, we halted to noon on a small creek, wdiere the 
 water stood in deep pools. In the bank of the creek 
 limestone made its appearance in a stratum about one 
 foot thick. In the afternoon, the people seemed to suffer 
 for want of water. The road led along a high dry ridge ; 
 dark lines of timber indicated the heads of streams in 
 the plains below; but there was no water near, and the 
 day was oppressive, with a hot wind, and the thermome- 
 ter at 90°. Along our route the aviorjoha has been in 
 very abundant but variable bloom — in some places bend- 
 ing beneath the weight of purple clusters ; in others 
 without a flower. It seemed to love best the sunny 
 slopes, witli a dark soil and southern exposure. Every- 
 where the rose is met with, and reminds us of cultivated 
 gardens and civilization. It is scattered over the prairies 
 in small bouquets, and, when glittering in the dews and 
 waving in the pleasant breeze of the early morning, is 
 the most beautiful of the prairie flowers. The artemisia^ 
 absinthe, or prairie sage, as it is variously called, is in- 
 creasing in size, and glittering like silver, as the southern 
 breeze turns up its leaves to the sun. All these plants 
 have their insect inhabitants, variously colored — taking 
 generally the hue of the flower on which they live. Tlie 
 artemisia has its small fly accompanying it through 
 every change of elevation and latitude ; and wherever I 
 have seen the asclepias tuherosa^ I have always remarked, 
 too, on the flower a large butterfly, so nearly resembling 
 
32 LIFE OF FRPJMOXT. 
 
 it in color as to be distinguishable at a little distance 
 only by the motion of its wings." 
 
 . Of the various dangers encountered, and the hardships 
 which the little party commanded by Fremont nn<]er- 
 went, it would be impossible to give here a detailed 
 account. 'No narrative could be more brief, clear, and 
 comprehensive, than his own. It is as exciting and 
 interesting as the page of any romance ; yet its accuracy 
 has never been impeached. Having arrived at Fort 
 Laramie, on the 12th of July, they found that a bad 
 state of feeling had grown np between the Cheyennes 
 and Sioux Indians on the one hand, and the whites on 
 the other, in consequence of an unfortunate engagement 
 which had recently occurred, in which the Indians had 
 lost eight or ten warriors. Some eight hundred Indian 
 lodges were ascertained to be in motion against the 
 whites, and great alarm had been inspired by the intel- 
 ligence received of their advance. We quote again from 
 Fremont's report : 
 
 " Thus it would appear that the country was swarm- 
 ing with scattered war parties ; and when I heard, dur- 
 ing the day, the various contradictory and exaggerated 
 rumors which were incessantly repeated to them, I was 
 not surprised that so much alarm prevailed among my 
 men. Carson, one of the best and most experienced 
 mountaineers, fully supported the opinion given by 
 Bridger of the dangerous state of the country, and open- 
 ly expressed his conviction that we could not escape 
 without some sharp encounters with the Indians. In 
 addition to this, he made his will ; and among the cir- 
 cumstances which were constantly occurring to increase 
 their alarm, this was the most unfortunate ; and I found 
 that a number of my party had become so much intimi- 
 dated, that they had requested to be discharged at this 
 place. I dined to-day at Fort Platte, which has been 
 mentioned as situated at the junction of Laramie Iviver 
 with the Nebraska. Here I heard a confirmation of the 
 statements given above. The party of warriors, which 
 had started a few days since on the trail of the emi- 
 
FIRST EXPLORATION. 33 
 
 grants, was expected back in fourteen days, to join the 
 village with which their families and the old men had 
 remained. The arrival of the latter was hourly expect- 
 ed, and some Indians have just come in who had left 
 them on the Laramie fork, about twenty miles above. 
 Mr. Bissonette, one of the traders belonging to Fort 
 Platte, urged the p)ropriety of taking with me an inter- 
 preter, and two or three old men of the village ; in 
 which case, he thought there would be little or no 
 hazard in encoimtering any of the war parties. The 
 principal danger was in being attacked before they 
 should know who we were. 
 
 " They had a confused idea of the numbers and power 
 of our people, and dreaded to bring upon themselves the 
 military force of the United States. This gentleman, 
 who spoke the language fluently, ofltered his services to 
 accompany me so far as the Eed Biittes. He was de- 
 sirous to join the large party on its return, for purposes 
 of trade, and it would suit his views, as well as my own, 
 to go with us to the Buttes ; beyond which point it 
 would be impossible to prevail on a Sioux to venture, on 
 account of their fear of the Crows. From Fort Laramie 
 to the Eed Buttes, by the ordinary road, is one hundred 
 and thirty-five miles ; and, though only on the threshold 
 of danger, it seemed better to secure the services of an 
 interpreter for the partial distance, than to have none 
 at all. 
 
 " So far as frequent interruption from the Indians 
 would allow, we occupied ourselves in making some 
 astronomical calculations, and bringing up the general 
 map to this stage of our journey ; but the tent was gen- 
 erally occupied by a succession of our ceremonious vis- 
 itors. Some came for presents, and others for informa- 
 tion of our object in coming to the country ; now and 
 then, one would dart up to the tent on horseback, jerk 
 off his trappings, and stand sileiitly at the door, holding 
 his horse by the halter, signifying his desire to trade. 
 Occasionally a savage would stalk in with an invitation 
 to a feast of honor, a dog feast, and deliberately sit down 
 and wait quietly until I was ready to accompany him. 
 I went to one ; the women and children were sitting 
 outside the lodge, and we took oui- seats on buffalo robes 
 
34 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 spread around. The dog was in a large pot over the 
 fire, in the middle of the lodge, and immediately on our 
 arrival was dished up in large wooden bowls, one of 
 which was handed to each. "The flesh appeared very 
 glutinons, with something (>f the flavor and appearance 
 of mutton. Feeling something move behind me, I 
 looked round, and found that I had taken my seat 
 among a litter of fat young puppies. Had I been nice 
 in such matters, the prejudices of civilization might have 
 interfered with my tranquillity ; but, fortunately, I am 
 not of delicate nerves, and continued quietly to empty 
 my platter. 
 
 " The weather was cloudy at evening, with a moderate 
 south wind, and the thermometer at 6 o'clock 85 de- 
 grees. I was disappointed in my hope of obtaining an 
 observation of an occultation, which took place about 
 midnight. The moon brought with her heavy banks of 
 clouds, through which she scarcely made her appear- 
 ance during the night. 
 
 ^ " The morning of the 18th was cloudy and calm, the 
 thermometer at 6 o'clock at 64 degrees. About 9 o'clock, 
 with a moderate wind from the west, a storm of rain 
 came on, accompanied by sharp thunder and lightning, 
 which lasted about an hour. During the day the ex- 
 pected village arrived, consisting principally of old men, 
 women, and children. They had a considerable num- 
 ber of horses and large troops of dogs. Their lodges 
 were pitched near the fort, and our camp was constantly 
 crowded with Indians of all sizes, from morning until 
 night ; at which time some of the soldiers generally 
 came to drive them all off to the village. My tent was 
 the only place which they respected. Here only came 
 the chiefs and men of distinction, and generally one of 
 them remained to drive away the women and children. 
 The numerous strange instruments, applied to still 
 stranger uses, excited awe and admiration among them, 
 and those which I used in talking with the sun and stars 
 they looked upon with especial reverence, as mysterious 
 things of ' great medicine.' Of the three barometers 
 which I had brought with me thus far successfully, I 
 found that two were out of order, and spent the greater 
 part of the 19th in repairing them — an operation o^ no 
 
FIRST EXPLORATION. 35 
 
 small difficulty in the midst of the incessant interrnptlons 
 to which I was subjected. We had the misfortune to 
 break here a large thermometer, graduated to show fifths 
 of a degree, which I used to ascertain the temperature 
 of boiling water, and with which I had promised myself 
 some interesting experiments in the mountains. We 
 had but one remaining, on which the graduation extend- 
 ed sufficiently high ; and this was too small for exact ob- 
 servations. During our stay here, the men had been 
 engaged in making numerous repairs, arranging pack- 
 saddles, and otherwise preparing for the chances of a 
 rough road and mountain travel. All things of this na- 
 ture being ready, I gathered them around me in the 
 evening, and told them that ' I had determined to pro- 
 ceed the next day. They were all well armed. I had 
 engaged the service of Mr. Bissonette as interpreter, and 
 had taken, in the circumstances, every possible means 
 to insure our safety. In the rumors we had heard, I be- 
 lieved there was much exaggeration, and then they were 
 men accustomed to this kind of life and to the country ; 
 and tliat these were the dangers of every day occurrence, 
 and to be expected in the ordinary course of their ser- 
 vice. They had heard of the unsettled condition of the 
 country before leaving St. Louis, and therefore could 
 not make it a reason for breaking their engagements. 
 Still, I was unwilling to take with me, on a service of 
 some certain danger, men on whom I could not rely ; 
 and as I had understood that there were among them 
 some w^ho were disj)osed to cowardice, and anxious to 
 return, they had but to come forward at once, and state 
 their desire, and they would be discharged with the 
 amount due to them for the time they had served.' To 
 their honor be it said, there was but one among them 
 who had the face to conie forward and avail himself of 
 the permission. I asked him some few questions, in 
 order to expose him to the ridicule of the men, and let 
 him go. The day after our departure, he engaged him- 
 self to one of the forts, and set off with a party to the 
 Upper Missouri. I did not think that the situation ot 
 the country justified me in taking our young companions, 
 Messrs. Brant and Benton, along with lis. In case of 
 misfortune, it would have been thought, at the least, an 
 
36 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 act of great iinpmdence ; and therefore, thongh reluc- 
 tantly, i determined to leave them. Randolph had been 
 the life of the camp, and the '-petit gargon' was mnch 
 regretted by tlie nien, to whom his buoyant spirits had 
 afforded great amusement. They all, however, agreed 
 in the propriety of leaving him at the fort, because, as 
 they said, he might cost the lives of some of the men in 
 a tight with the Indians. 
 
 ''''July 21. — A portion of our baggage, with our field 
 notes and observations, and several instruments, were 
 left at the fort. One of the gentlemen, Mr. Galpin, took 
 charge of a barometer, which he engaged to observe 
 during my absence ; and I intrusted to Randolph, by 
 way of occupation, the regular winding up of two of my 
 chronometers, which were among the instruments left. 
 Our observations showed that the chronometer which I 
 retained for the continuation of our voyage had pre- 
 served its rate in a most satisfactory manner. As de- 
 duced from it, the longitude of Fort Laramie is 7 hours, 
 1 minute, 21 seconds, and from lunar distance, 7 hours, 
 1 minute, 29 seconds — giving for the adopted longitude 
 104 degrees, 47 minutes, 43 seconds. Comparing the 
 barometrical observations made during our stay here, 
 with those of Dr. G. Engleman at St. Louis, we find for 
 the elevation of the fort above the Gulf of Mexico, 4,470 
 feet. The winter climate here is remarkably mild for 
 the latitude ; but rainy weather is frequent, and the 
 place is celebrated for winds, of which the prevailing 
 one is west. An east wdnd in summer, and a south 
 wind in winter, are said to be alw^ays accompanied with 
 rain. 
 
 " We w^ere ready to depart ; the tents were struck, 
 the mules geared up, and our horses saddled, and we 
 walked up to the fort to take the stirrup-cup with our 
 friends in an excellent home-brewed ^preparation. While 
 thus pleasantly engaged, seated in one of the little cool 
 chambers, at the door of which a man had been sta- 
 tioned to prevent all intrusion from the Indians, a num- 
 ber of chiefs, several of them powerful fine-looking men, 
 forced their way into the room in spite of all opposition. 
 Handing me the following letter (in French), they took 
 their seats in silence : 
 
' FIEST EXPLORATION. 37 
 
 [Translation.'] 
 
 " 'Fort Platte, July 1, 1842. 
 * *Mr. Fremont: — Tlie chiefs, having assembled in council, have just 
 told me to warn you not to set out before the party of young men 
 which is now out shall have returned. Furthermore, they tell me they 
 are very sure they will fire upon you as soon as they meet you. They 
 are expected back in seven or eight days. Excuse me for making these 
 observations, but it seems my duty to warn you of danger. Moreover, 
 the chiefs who prohibit your setting out before the return of the war- 
 riors are the bearers of this note. 
 
 " ' I am your obedient servant, 
 
 " 'JOSEPH BISSONETTE. 
 
 " ' By L. B. Chartraest. 
 
 " ' Names of some of the Chiefs. — The Otter Hat, the Breaker of Ar- 
 rows, the Black Nighib, the Bull's Tail' 
 
 " After reading this, I mentioned its purport to my 
 companions ; and, seeing that all were fully possessed of 
 its contents, one of the Indians rose up, and, having first 
 shaken hands with me, spoke as follows : 
 
 " ' You have come among us at a bad time. Some of 
 ^our people have been killed, and our young men, who 
 "are gone to the mountains, are eager to avenge the blood 
 of their relations, which has been shed by the whites. 
 Our young men are bad, and, if they meet you, they 
 will believe that you are carrying goods and ammuni- 
 tion to their enemies, and will fire upon you. You 
 have told us that this will make war. We know that 
 our great father has many soldiers and big guns, and 
 we are anxious to have our lives. We love the whites, 
 and are desirous of peace. Thinking of all these things, 
 we have determined to keep you here until our warriors 
 return. We are glad to see you among us. Our father 
 is rich, and we expected that you would have brought 
 presents to us — horses, guns, and blankets. But we are 
 glad to see you. We look upon your coming as the 
 light which goes before the sun ; for you will tell our 
 great father that you have seen us, and that we are 
 naked and poor, and have nothing to eat ; and he will 
 send us all these things.' 
 
 " He was followed by the others, to the same effect. 
 
 " The observations of the savage appeared reason- 
 able ; but I was aware that they had in view only the 
 present object of detaining me, and were unwilling I 
 
38 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 should go farther into the country. In reply, I asked 
 them, through the interpretation of Mr. Boudeau, to se- 
 lect two or three of their number to accompany us until 
 we should meet their people — they should spread their 
 robes in my tent and eat at my table, and on our return 
 I would give them presents in reward of their services. 
 They declined, saying that there were no young men 
 left in the village, and that they were too old to travel 
 so many days on horseback, and preferred now to smoke 
 their pipes in the lodge, and let the warriors go on the 
 w^ar-path. Besides, they had no power over the young 
 men, and were afraid to interfere with them. In my 
 turn I addressed them : ' You say that you love the 
 whites ; why have you killed so many already this 
 spring ? You say that you love the whites, and are full 
 of many expressions of friendship to us ; but you are 
 not willing to undergo the fatigue of a few days' ride to 
 save our lives. We do not believe what you have said, 
 and will not listen to you. Whatever a chief among us 
 tells his soldiers to do, is done. We are the soldiers of 
 the great chief, your lather. He has told us to come 
 here and see this country, and all the Indians, his chil- 
 dren. Why should we not go ? Before we came, we 
 heard that you had killed his people, and ceased to be 
 his children ; but we came among you peaceably, hold- 
 ing out our hands. Now we find that the stories we 
 heard are not lies, and that you are no longer his friends 
 and children. We have thrown away our bodies, and 
 will not turn back. When you told us that your yoimg 
 men would kill us, you did not know that our hearts 
 were strong, and you did not see the rifles which my 
 young men carry in their hands. We are few, and you 
 are many, and may kill us all ; but there will be much 
 crying in your villages, for many of your young men 
 will stay behind, and forget to return with your war- 
 riors from the mountains. Do you think that our great 
 chief will let his soldiers die, and forget to cover their 
 graves? Before the snows melt again, his warriors will 
 sweep away your villages as the fire does the prairie in 
 the autumn. See ! I have pulled down my white 
 houses^ and my people are ready ; when the sun is ten 
 paces higher, we shall be on the march. If you have 
 
FIEST EPXLORATION. 39 
 
 any thing to tell us, yon will say it soon.' I broke np 
 the conference, as I could do nothing with these people ; 
 and, being resolved to proceed, nothing was to be gained 
 by delay. Accompanied by our hospitable friends, we 
 returned to the camp. We had mounted our horses, 
 and our parting salutations had been exchanged, when 
 one of the chiefs (the Bull's Tail) arrived to tell me that 
 they had determined to send a young man with us ; and 
 if I would point out the place of our evening camp, he 
 should join us there. ' The young man is poor,' said 
 he ; ' he has no horse, and expects you to give him one.' 
 I described to him the place where I intended to en- 
 camp, and, shaking hands, in a few minutes we were 
 among the hills, and this last habitation of whites shut 
 out from our view." 
 
 It was during this expedition that he succeeded in as- 
 cending the Wind Eiver peak of the Rocky Mountains 
 — the highest portion of that vast chain, to the summit 
 of which civilized foot had never reached before. His 
 companions in the ascent were Mr. Preuss, Basil Lajeu- 
 nesse, Clement Lambert, Janisse, and Descoteaux. We 
 extract from his narrative again, a brief account of this 
 ascent ; 
 
 " Our mules had been refreshed by the fine grass in 
 the little ravine at the Island camp, and we intended to 
 ride up the defile as far as possible, in order to husband 
 our strength for the main ascent. Though this was a 
 fine passage, still it was a defile of the most rugged 
 mountains known, and we had many a rough and steep 
 slippery place to cross before reaching the end. In this 
 place the sun rarely shone ; snow lay along the border 
 of the small stream which flowed through it, and occa- 
 sional icy passages made the footing of the mules very 
 insecure, and the rocks and ground were moist with the 
 trickling waters in this spring of mighty rivers. We 
 soon had fhe satisfaction to find ourselves riding along 
 the huge wall which forms the central summits of the 
 chain. There at last it rose by our sides, a nearly per- 
 pendicular wall of granite, terminating 2,000 to 3,000 
 
4:0 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 feet above onr heads, in a serrated line of broken, jao;- 
 ged cones. We rode on until we came almost immedi- 
 ately below the main peak, which I denominated the 
 Snow Peak, as it exhibited more snow to the eye than 
 any of the neighboring summits. Here were three small 
 lakes of a green color, each of perhaps a thousand yards 
 in diameter, and apparently very deep. These lay in a 
 kind of chasm ; and, according to the barometer, we 
 had attained but a few hundred feet above the Island 
 lake. The barometer here stood at 20.450, attached 
 thermometer 70°. 
 
 " We managed to get our mules up to a little bench 
 about a hundred feet above the lake, and turned them 
 loose to graze. During our rough ride to this place, 
 they had exhibited a wonderful surefootedness. Parts 
 of the defile were filled with angular, sharp fragments of 
 rock, three or four and eight or ten feet cube ; and 
 among these they had worked their way, leaping from 
 one narrow point to another, rarely making a false step, 
 and giving us no occasion to dismount. Having divest- 
 ed ourselves of every unnecessary encumbrance, we 
 commenced the ascent. This time, like experienced 
 travellers, we did not press ourselves, but climbed lei- 
 surely, sitting down so soon as we found breath begin- 
 ning to fail. At intervals we reached places where a 
 number of springs gushed from the rocks, and about 
 1,800 feet above the lakes came to the snow-line. From 
 this point our progress was uninterrupted climbing. 
 Hitherto I had worn a pair of thick moccasins, with 
 soles of parfleche / but here I put on a light thin pair, 
 which I had brought for the purpose, as now the use of 
 our toes became necessary to a further advance. I 
 availed myself of a sort of comb of the mountain, which 
 stood against the wall like a buttress, and. which the 
 wind and the solar radiation, joined to the steepness of 
 the smooth rock, had kept almost entirely free from 
 snow. Up this I made my way rapidly. Our cautious 
 method of advancing in the outset had spared my 
 strength ; and, with the exception of a slight disposition 
 to headache, I felt no remains of yesterday's illness. 
 In a few minutes we reached a point where the buttress 
 was overhanging, and there was no other way of sur- 
 
FIRST EXPLORATION. 41 
 
 moimting the clifBculty than by passing around one side 
 of it, which was the face of a vertical j^recipice of sev- 
 eral hundred feet. 
 
 " Putting hands and feet in the crevices between the 
 blocks, I succeeded in getting over it, and, when I 
 reached the top, found my companions in a small valley 
 below. Descending to them, we continued climbing and 
 in a short time reached the crest. I sjprang ujpon the 
 suTYiTpAt^ and another step would have precijoitated meinio 
 an immense snow-field five hundred feet helow. To the 
 edge of this field was a sheer icy precipice; and then, 
 with a gradual fall, the field sloped ofif for about a mile, 
 until it struck the foot of another lower ridge. I stood 
 on a narrow crest, about three feet in width, with an in- 
 clination of about 20° N. 51° E. As soon as I had gra- 
 tified the first feelings of curiosity, I descended, and each 
 man ascended in his turn ; for I would only allow one 
 at a time to mount the unstable and precarious slab, 
 which it seemed a breath would hurl into the abyss be- 
 low. We mounted the barometer in the snow of the 
 summit^ and^ fixing a ramrod in a (yrevice^ unfurled the 
 7iational fiag to wave in the hreeze where never flag 
 waved before. During our morning's ascent, we had 
 met no sign of animal life, except a small sparrow-like 
 bird already mentioned. A stillness the most profound 
 and a terrible solitude forced themselves constantly on 
 the mind as the great features of the place. Here, on 
 the summit, where the stillness was absolute, unbroken 
 by any sound, and the solitude complete, we thought 
 ourselves beyond the region of animated life ; but while 
 we were sitting on the rock, a solitary bee {bromus, the 
 humblebee) came winging his flight from the eastern 
 valley, and lit on the knee of one of the men. 
 
 " It was a strange place, the icy rock and the highest 
 peak of the Rocky Mountains, for a lover of warm sun- 
 shine and flowers ; and we pleased ourselves with the 
 idea that he was the first of his species to cross the 
 mountain barrier — a solitary pioneer to foretell the ad- 
 vance of civilization. I believe that a moment's thought 
 would have made us let him continue his way un- 
 harmed ; but we carried out the law of this country, 
 where all animated nature seems at war ; and, seizing 
 
4:2 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 him immediately, put him in at least a fit place — in the 
 leaves of a large book, among the flowers we had col- 
 lected on our way. The barometer stood at 18.293, the 
 attached thermometer at 44° ; giving for the elevation of 
 this summit 13,570 feet above the Gulf of Mexico, which 
 may be called the highest flight of the bee. It is cer- 
 tainly the highest known flight of that insect 
 
 On one side we overlooked innumerable lakes and 
 streams, the spring of the Colorado of the Gulf of Cali- 
 fornia ; and on the other was the Wind Eiver valley, 
 where were the heads of the Yellowstone branch of the 
 Missouri ; far to the north, we just could discover the 
 snowy heads of the Trois Tetons^ where were the source 
 of the Missouri and Columbia rivers ; and at the southern 
 extremity of the ridge, the peaks were plainly visible, 
 among which were some of the springs of the Nebraska 
 or Platte river. Around us, the whole scene had one 
 main striking feature, which was that of terrible convul- 
 sion. Parallel to its length the ridge was split into 
 chasms and fissures ; between which rose the thin lofty 
 walls, terminated with slender minarets and columns. 
 According to the barometer, the little crest of the wall 
 on which we stood was three thousand five hundred and 
 seventy feet above that place, and two thousand seven 
 hundred and eighty above the little lakes at the bottom, 
 immediately at our feet. Our camp at the Two Hills 
 (an astronomical station) bore south 3 deg. east, which, 
 with a bearing afterwards obtained from a fixed position, 
 enabled us to locate the peak. The bearing of the 
 Trois Tetons was north 50 deg. west, and the direction 
 of the central ridge of the Wind River mountains south 
 39 deg. east Having now made what obser- 
 vations our means afforded, we proceeded to descend. 
 We had accomjDlished an object of laudable ambition, 
 and beyond the strict order of our instructions. We had 
 climbed the loftiest peak of the Rocky Mountains, and 
 looked down upon the snow a thousand feet below, and, 
 standing where never human foot had stood before, felt 
 the exultation of first explorers. It was about two o'clock 
 when we left the summit; and when we reached the 
 bottom, the sun had already sunk behind the wall and 
 the day was drawing to a close. It would have been 
 
SECOND EXPEDITION. 43 
 
 pleasant to have lingered here and on the summit longer ; 
 but we hurried away as rapidly as the ground would 
 jDermit, for it was an object to regain our party as soon 
 as possible, not knowing what accident the next hour 
 might bring forth. 
 
 " We reached our deposit of provisions at nightfall. 
 Here was not the inn which awaits the tired traveller on 
 his return from Mont Blanc, or the orange groves of 
 South America, with their refreshing juices and soft 
 fragrant air ; but we found our little cache of dried meat 
 and coffee undisturbed. Though the moon was bright, 
 the road was full of precipices, and the fatigue of the 
 day had been great. We, therefore, abandoned the idea 
 of rejoining our friends, and lay down on the rock, and 
 in spite of the cold, slept soundly." 
 
 The main object of the expedition was now accom- 
 plished. On the 17th of August, they turned their faces 
 homeward ; and on the 17th of October, they were at 
 St. Louis. Of Colonel Fremont's attempted visit to Goat 
 Island, we cannot give even a condensed account ; and 
 can only add that it was as full of perils and hair- breadth 
 escapes as any similar undertaking upon record ! 
 
 CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 SECOND EXPEDITION. 
 
 In our last chapter, we followed Mr. Fremont to the 
 summit of the Rocky Mountains, and there we beheld 
 him open to the breeze the flag of his native country. 
 We accompanied him in his descent to St. Louis, and, 
 finally, to Washington, where he placed his report in the 
 hands of the War Department. What his feelings of joy 
 were, when, standing upon that icy pinnacle, his imagi- 
 nation penetrated into the future, and surveyed the 
 streams of civilization passing and repassing down the 
 slopes and flowery valleys that lead to the Pacific Ocean, 
 and away, away over the vast space that divided him 
 
4:4- LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 from the ship-dotted bays of the Atlantic cities; all uiiit- 
 ing beneath, and deriving protection and freedom from 
 that flag under whose folds he stood ! — we are not told. 
 But let the reader consider himself, for a moment, in the 
 position of that young and gallant explorer, who was the 
 first to sever the gordian knot of supposed overland im- 
 possibilities, that had hitherto divided both seas, and say 
 what would have been his own emotions under such cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 A portion of the great work, however, was only accom- 
 plished. The report of his first expedition was dated 
 March 1st, 1843. On the 17th day of May, in the same 
 year, he departed upon the second. What the object of 
 this expedition was, and the nature of the instructions 
 which he had received, may be gleaned from the report 
 made by him in 1845, to Col. Abert : 
 
 " Sir : — In pursuance of your instructions to connect 
 the reconnaissance of 1842, which I had the honor to con- 
 duct, with the surveys of Commander Wilkes on the coast 
 of the Pacific Ocean, so as to give a connected survey of 
 the interior of our continent, I proceeded to the Great 
 West early in the spring of 1843, and arrived on the 17th 
 of May, at the little town of Kansas, on the Missouri fron- 
 tier, near the junction of the Kansas river, with the Mis- 
 souri river, where I was detained near two weeks in 
 completing the necessary preparations for the extended 
 explorations which my instructions contemplated. 
 
 " My party consisted principally of Creole and Cana- 
 dian French, and Americans, amounting in all to thirty- 
 nine men, among whom you will recognize several of 
 those who were with me in my first expedition, and who 
 have been favorably brought to your notice in a former 
 report. Mr. Thomas Fitzpatrick, whom many yeai's of 
 hardship and exposure, in the western territories, had 
 rendered familiar with a portion of -the country it was 
 designed to explore, had been selected as our guide ; and 
 Mr. Charles Preuss, who had been my assistant in a pre- 
 vious journey, was again associated with me in the same 
 capacity, on the present expedition." 
 
SECOND EXPEDITION. 45 
 
 Having tlien set forth the respective names of the men 
 composing his party, and reconnting the scientific instru- 
 ments with which he was provided, he proceeds : 
 
 " To make the exploration as useful as possible, I de- 
 termined, in conformity to your general instructions, to 
 vary the route to the Eocky Mountains from that fol- 
 lowed in the year 1842. The route was then up the 
 valley of the Great Platte river to the South Pass, in 
 north lat. 42 deg. ; the route now determined on was np 
 the valley of the Kansas river, and to the head of the 
 Arkansas river, and to some pass in the mountains, if any 
 could be found, at the sources of that river. 
 
 " By making this deviation from the former route, the 
 problem of a new road to Oregon and California, in a 
 climate more genial, might be solved ; and a better know- 
 ledge obtained of an important river, and the country it 
 drained, while the great object of the expedition would 
 find its point of commencement at the termination of the 
 former, which was at that great gate in the ridge of the 
 Pocky Mountains called the South Pass, and on the 
 lofty peak of the mountain which overlooks it, deemed 
 the highest peak in the ridge, and from the opposite 
 sides of which four great rivers take their rise, and flow 
 to the Pacific or the Mississippi." 
 
 It is an historical fact but recently developed, that, 
 although it availed itself of the honors accruing from this 
 expedition of Col. Fremont, the government not only 
 denied him all encouragement, but threw every imagi- 
 nable obstacle in his way, calculated to dampen his ar- 
 dor and thwart his purposes. Indeed — as will appear 
 from the following forcible and graphic passage, which 
 we give from Benton's Thirty Years' View in the United 
 States Senate — it is only to the address, singular boldness, 
 and accomplishments, of Mrs. Fremont, that the nation 
 is indebted for the glorious results of her husband's 
 second expedition. 
 
 "The government," says Mr. Benton, "deserves credit 
 for the zeal with ' which it has pursued geographical 
 discovery.' Such is a remark which a leading paper 
 
4r6 LIFE OF FEEMOKT. 
 
 made upon the discoveries of Fremont, on his retum 
 from his second expedition to the Great West ; and such 
 is the remark which writers will make upon all his dis- 
 coveries who write history from public documents and 
 outside views. With all such writers, the expeditions of 
 Fremont will be credited to the zeal of the government 
 for the promotion of science ; as if the government under 
 which he acted had conceived and planned these expe- 
 ditions, as Mr. Jefferson did that of Lewis and Clark, 
 and then selected thisyoimgoflicerto carry into effect the 
 instructions delivered to him. How far such history 
 would be true in relation to the first expedition, which 
 terminated in the Rocky Mountains, ha§ been seen in 
 the account which has been given of the origin of that 
 undertaking, and which leaves the government innocent 
 of its conception ; and, therefore, not entitled to the credit 
 of its authorship, but only to the merit of permitting it. 
 In the second and greater expedition, from which great 
 j)olitical as w^ell as scientific results have flowed, their 
 merit is still less ; for, while equally innocent of its con- 
 ception, they were not equally passive to its performance 
 — countermanding the expedition after it had begun ; 
 and lavishing censure upon the adventurous young ex- 
 plorer for his manner of undertaking it. The fact was, 
 that his first expedition barely finished, Mr. Fremont 
 sought and obtained orders for a second one, and was on 
 the frontier of Missouri with his command, when orders 
 arrived at St. Louis, to stop him, on the ground that he 
 had made a military equipment, which the peaceful na- 
 ture of his geographical pursuit did not require ! as if 
 Indians did not kill and rob scientific men as well as 
 others if not in a condition to defend themselves. The 
 particular point of complaint was, that he had taken a 
 small mountain howitzer, in addition to his rifles ; and 
 which, he was informed, was charged to him, although it 
 had been furnished upon a regular requisition on the 
 commandant of the arsenal at St. Louis, approved by the 
 commander of the military department (Colonel, after- 
 wards General Kearney). Mr. Fremont had left St. 
 Louis^ and was at the frontier^ Mrs. Fremont heing 
 requested to examine the letters that came after him^ 
 cmd forward those which he oicght to receive. She 
 
SECOND EXPEDITION. 47 
 
 read the countermanding orders^ and detained them! 
 and Fremont hnew nothing of their existence until after 
 he had returned from one of the most marve'Uous and 
 eventful expeditions of modern times — one to which 
 the tlnited States are indebted {among other things) for 
 the present ownership of California^ instead of seeing 
 it a British possession. The writer of this Yiew, who 
 was then in St. Louis, approved of the course which 
 his daughter had taken — (for she had stopped the orders 
 before he knew of it) ; and he wrote a letter to the De- 
 partment condemning the recall, repulsing the repri- 
 mand which had been lavished upon Fremont, and de- 
 manding a court-martial for him when he should return. 
 The Secretary at War then was Mr. James Madison Porter, 
 of Pennsylvania ; the chief of the Topographical Corps 
 the same as now (Colonel Abert), himself an office man, 
 surrounded by West Point officers, to whose pursuit of 
 easy service Fremont's adventurous expeditions was a 
 reproach ; and in conformity to whose opinions the 
 secretary seemed to have acted. On Fremont's return, 
 upwards of a year afterwards, Mr. William Wilkins, of 
 Pennsylvania, was Secretary at War, and received the 
 young explorer with all honor and friendship, and ob- 
 tained for him the brevet of Captain from President Ty- 
 ler. And such is the inside view of this piece of history 
 — very different from what documentary evidence would 
 make it. 
 
 " To complete his survey across the continent, on the 
 line of travel between the State of Missouri and the 
 tide-water region of the Columbia, was Fremont's object 
 in this expedition ; and it was all that he had obtained 
 orders for doing ; but only a small part, and to his mind 
 an insignificant part, of what he proposed doing. People 
 had been to the mouth of the Columbia before, and his 
 ambition was not limited to making tracks where others 
 had made them before him. There was a vast region 
 beyond the Pocky Mountains — the whole western slope 
 of our continent — of which but little was known ; and of 
 that little, nothing with the accuracy of science. All 
 that vast region, more than seven hundred miles square 
 — equal to a great kingdom in Europe — was an unknown 
 land — a sealed book, which he longed to open, and to 
 
43 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 read. Leaving the frontier of Missouri in May, 1843, 
 and often diverging from his route for the sake of ex- 
 panding his field of observation, he had arrived in the 
 tide- water region of Columbia in the month of Novem- 
 ber, and had then completed the whole service which 
 his orders embraced. He might then have returned 
 upon his tracks, or been brought home by sea, or hunted 
 the most pleasant path for getting back ; and if he had 
 been a routine officer, satisfied with fulfilling an order, 
 he would have done so. Not so the young explorer 
 who held his diploma from Nature, and not from the 
 United States' Military Academy. He was at Fort 
 Vancouver, guest of the hospitable Dr. McLaughlin, 
 Governor of the British Hudson Bay Fur Company; 
 and obtained from him all possible information upon his 
 intended line of return — faithfully given, but which 
 proved to be disastrously erroneous in its leading and 
 governing feature. A southeast route to cross the great 
 unknown region diagonally through its heart (making a 
 line from the Lower Columbia to the Upper Colorado of 
 the Gulf of California), was his line of return ; twenty- 
 five men (the same wlio had come with him from the 
 United States) and a hundred horses, were his equip- 
 ment; and the commencement of winter the time of 
 starting — all without a guide, relying upon their guns 
 for support ; and, in the last resort, upon their horses — 
 such as should give out ! for one that could carry a man, 
 or a pack, could not be spared for food. 
 
 " All the maps up to that time had shown this region 
 traversed from east to west — from the base of the Rocky 
 Mountains to the Bay of San Francisco — by a great 
 river called the Buena Yentura^ which may be ti-ans- 
 lated, the Oood Chance. Governor McLaughlin believed 
 in the existence of this river, and made out a conjectural' 
 manuscript map to show its place and course. Fremont 
 believed in it, and his plan was to reach it before the 
 dead of winter, and then hybernate upon it. As a great 
 river, he knew that it must have some rich bottoms; 
 covered with wood and grass, where the wild animals 
 would collect and shelter, when the snows and freezing 
 ^mds drove them from the plains : and with these ani- 
 iiwils to live on, and grass for the horses, and wood for 
 
SECOND EXt'EDITION. 49 
 
 fires, he expected to avoid suffering, if not to enjoy com- 
 fort, during his solitary sojourn in that remote and pro- 
 found wilderness. He proceeded — soon encountered 
 deep snows which impeded progress upon the high lands 
 — descended into a low country to the left (afterward 
 known to be the Great Basin, from which no water issues 
 to any sea) — skirted an enormous chain of mountain on 
 the right, luminous with glittering white snow — saw 
 strange Indians, who mostly fled — found a desert — no 
 Buena Ventura, and death from cold and famine staring 
 him in the face. The failure to find the river, or tidings 
 of it, and the possibility of its existence seeming to be 
 forbid by the structure of the country, and hybernation 
 in the inhospitable desert being impossible, and the 
 question being that of life and death, some new plan of 
 conduct became indispensable. His celestial observa- 
 tions told him that he was in the latitude of the Bay of 
 San Francisco, and only seventy miles from it. But 
 what miles ! up and down that snowy mountain which 
 the Indians told him no men could cross in the winter — 
 which would have snow upon it as deep as the trees, and 
 places where people would slip ofi*, and fall half a mile 
 at a time — a fate which actually befell a mule, packed 
 with the precious burden of botanical specimens, col- 
 lected along a travel of two thousand miles. No reward 
 could induce an Indian to become a guide in the perilous 
 adventure of crossing this mountain. All recoiled and 
 fied from the adventure. It was attempted without a 
 guide — in the dead of winter — accomplished in forty 
 days — the men and surviving horses, a woeful proces- 
 sion, crawling along one by one ; skeleton men leading 
 skeleton horses — and arriving at Suter's Settlement in 
 the beautiful valley of the Sacramento, and where a 
 genial warmth, and budding flowers, and flowing streams, 
 and comfortable food, made a fairy contrast with the 
 famine and freezing they had encountered, and the lofty 
 Sierra Nevada which they had climbed. Here he rested 
 and recruited ; and from this point, and by way of Mon- 
 terey, the first tidings were heard of the party since 
 leaving Fort Vancouver. 
 
 "Another long progress to the south, skirting the 
 western base of the Sierra Nevada, made him acquainted 
 
 'i 
 
50 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 with the noble valley of tlie San Joaquin, counterpart to 
 that of the Sacramento ; when crossino; through a gap, 
 and turning to the left, he skirted the Great Basin; and, 
 by "many deviations from the right line home, levied 
 incessant contributions to science from expanded lands, 
 not described before. In this eventful exploration all 
 the great features of the western slope of our continent 
 were brought to light — the Great Salt Lake, the Utah 
 Lake, the Little Salt Lake; at all which places, then 
 desert, the Mormons now are. The Sierra Nevada, then 
 solitary in the snow, now crowded with Americans dig- 
 ging gold from its flanks ; the beautiful valleys of the 
 Sacramento and San Joaquin, then alive with wild 
 horses, elk, deer, and wild fowls, now smiling with 
 American cultivation ; the Great Basin itself, and its 
 contents; the Three Parks; the approximation of the 
 great rivers, which, rising together in the central region 
 of the Eocky Mountains, go off east and west, towards 
 the rising and the setting sun: — all these, and other 
 strange features of a new region, more Asiatic than 
 American, were brought to light and revealed to public 
 view in the results of this exploration. Eleven months 
 he was never out of sight of snow ; and sometimes, freez- 
 ing with cold, would look down upon a sunny valley, 
 warm with genial heat — sometimes panting with the 
 summer's heat, would look up at the eternal snows which 
 crowned the neighboring mountain. But it was not then 
 that California was secured to the Union — to the greatest 
 power of the New World — to which it of right belonged ; 
 but it was the first step towards the acquisition, and the 
 one that led to it. That second expedition led to a third, 
 just in time to snatch the golden California from the 
 hands of the British, ready to clutch it. But of this 
 hereafter. Fremont's second expedition was now over. 
 He had left the United States a fugitive from his Gov- 
 ernment, and returned with a name that went over 
 Enrope and America, and with discoveries bearing fruit 
 w^hich the civilized world is now enjoying." 
 
 This excellent chapter, albeit characteristically elo- 
 quent, clear, succinct, and comprehensive, is, neverthe- 
 less, too general in its tone to convey to the reader a 
 
SECOND EXPEDITION. 51 
 
 sufficiently clear idea of the terrible privations, long and 
 protracted fatigue, hunger and cold, sufferings and ad- 
 ventures, encountered during months of before unheard- 
 of toil, by this hardy and brave band of volunteers ! 
 Therefore, in order to give a more vivid impression of 
 their dangers and services, we will make a few brief ex- 
 tracts from the journal of Mr. Fremont : 
 
 " January 29. — Several Indians appeared on the hill- 
 side, reconnoitering the camp, and were induced to come 
 in ; others came in during the afternoon ; and in the 
 evening we held a council. The Indians immediately 
 made it clear that the waters on which we were, also 
 belong to the great Basin, in the edge of which we had 
 been since the 17th of December ; and it became evi- 
 dent that we had still the great ridge on the left to cross 
 before we could reach the Pacific waters. 
 
 " We explained to the Indians that we were endeavor- 
 ing to find a passage across the mountains into the coun- 
 try of the whites, whom we were going to see ; and told 
 them that we wished them to bring us a guide, to whom 
 we would give presents of scarlet cloth, and other arti- 
 cles, which were shown to them. They looked at the 
 reward we ofi:ered, and conferred with each other, but 
 pointed to the snow on the mountain, and drew their 
 hands across their neck and raised them above their 
 heads, to show the depth ; and signified that it was im- 
 possible for us to get through. They made signs that 
 we must go to the southward, over a pass through a 
 lower range, which they pointed out ; there, they said, 
 at the end of one day's travel, we would find people who 
 lived near a pass in the great mountain ; and to that 
 point they engaged to furnish us a guide. They ap- 
 peared to have a confused idea, from report, of whites 
 who lived on the other side of the mountain ; and once, 
 they told us, about two years ago, a party of twelve men 
 like ourselves, had ascended their river, and crossed to 
 the other waters. They pointed out to us where they 
 had crossed ; but, then, they said, it was summer time ; 
 but now it would be impossible 
 
 " January 31. — We took our way over a gently rising 
 
62 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 ground, the dividing ridge being tolerably low ; and 
 travelling easily along a Ibroad trail, in twelve or four- 
 teen miles reached the upper part of the pass ; when it 
 began to snow thickly, with very cold w^eather. The 
 Indians had only the usual scanty covering, and ap- 
 peared to suffer greatly from the cold. All left us, ex- 
 cept our guide. Half hidden by the storm, the moun- 
 tains looked dreary ; and, as night began to approach, 
 the guide showed great rehictance to go forward. I 
 placed him between two rifles, for the way began to be 
 difficult. Travelling a little further, we struck a ravine, 
 which the Indian said w^ould conduct us to the river ; 
 and as the poor fellow suffered greatly, shivering in the 
 snow which fell upon his naked skin, I would not detain 
 him any longer ; and he ran off to the mountain, wdiere 
 he said there was a hut near by. He had kept the blue 
 and scarlet cloth I had given him tightly rolled up, pre- 
 ferring ratlier to endure the cukl than to get them wet. 
 In the course of the afternoon, one of the men had his 
 foot frost-bitten ; and about dark we had the satisfaction 
 to reach the bottoms of a stream timbered with large 
 trees, among which we found a sheltered camp, with an 
 abundance of such grass as the season afforded for the 
 
 animals 
 
 " From the descriptions of the Indians, we were enabled 
 to judge that we had encamped on the upper water of the 
 Salmon Trout Kiver. It is hardly necessary to say that 
 our communication was only by signs, as we understood 
 nothing of their language ; but they spoke, notwith- 
 standing, rapidly and vehemently, explaining what they 
 considered the folly of our intentions, and urging us to 
 go down to the lake. Tahm^ a word signifying snow^, 
 we very soon learned to know, from its frequent repeti- 
 tion. I told him that the men and the horses were 
 strong, and that we would break a road through the 
 snow ; and spreading before him our bales of scarlet 
 cloth, and trinkets, showed him what we would give for 
 a guide. It was necessary to obtain one, if possible ; 
 for I had determined here to attempt the passage of the 
 mountain. Pulling a bunch of grass from the ground, 
 after a short discussion among themselves, the old man 
 made us comprehend, that if we could break through the 
 
SECOND EXPEDITION. 53 
 
 snow, at the end of three days we would come down 
 npon grass, which he showed iis wT)nld be about six 
 inches high, and wher6 the ground was entirely free. 
 So fai', he said, he had been in hunting for elk ; but be- 
 yond that (and he closed his eyes) he had seen nothing ; 
 but there was one among them who had been to the 
 whites, and, going out of the lodge, he returned with a 
 young man of very intelligent appearance. Here, said 
 he, is a young man who has seen the whites with his 
 own eyes ; and he swore, first by the sky, and then by 
 the ground, that what he said was true. With a large 
 present of goods, we prevailed upon this young man to 
 be our guide, and he acquired among us the name Melo 
 — a word signifying friend, w^hich they used very fre- 
 quently. He was thinly clad, and nearly barefoot ; his 
 moccasins being about worn out. We gave him skins 
 to make a new pair, and to enable him to perform his 
 nndei'taking to us. The Indians remained in the camp 
 during the night, and we kept the guide and two others 
 to sleep in the lodge with us — Carson lying across the 
 door, and having made them comprehend the use of our 
 firearms. The snow, which had intermitted in the even- 
 ing, commenced falling again in the course of the night, 
 and it snowed steadily all day. In the morning I ac- 
 quainted the men w^ith my decision, and explained to 
 them that necessity required us to make a great effort 
 to clear the mountains. I reminded them of the beauti- 
 ful valley of the Sacramento, with which they were fa- 
 miliar from the descriptions of Carson, who had been 
 there some fifteen years ago, and who, in our late j^riva- 
 tions, had delighted us in speaking of its rich pastures 
 and abounding game, and drew a vivid contrast between 
 its snramer climate, less than a hundred miles distant, 
 and the falling snow around ns. I informed them (and 
 long experience had given them confidence in my obser- 
 vations and good instruments) that almost directly west, 
 and only about seventy miles distant, was the great farm- 
 ing establishment of Captain Sutter — a gentleman who 
 had formerly lived in Missouri, and, emigrating to this 
 country, liad become the possessor of a principality. I 
 assured them that, from the heights of the mountains 
 before us, we should doubtless see the valley of the Sa- 
 
54: LIFE OF FEEMONT. 
 
 cramento Eiver, and with one effort place ourselves 
 again in the midst of plenty. The people received this 
 decision with the cheerful obedience which had always 
 characterized them ; and the day was immediately de- 
 voted to the preparations necessary to enable ns to carry 
 it into effect. Leggins, moccasins, clothing — all were 
 put into the best state to resist the cold. Our guide was 
 not neglected. Extremity of suffering might make him 
 desert ; we therefore did the best we could for him. 
 Leggins, moccasins, some articles of clothing, and a large 
 green blanket, in addition to the blue and scarlet cloth, 
 were lavished upon him, and to his great and evident 
 contentment. He arrayed himself in all his colors ; 
 and, clad in green, blue, and scarlet, he made a gay- 
 looking Indian ; and, with his various presents, was 
 probably richer and better clothed than any of his tribe 
 had ever been before. 
 
 " I have already said that our provisions were very 
 low ; we had neither tallow nor grease of any kind re- 
 maining, and the want of salt became one of our greatest 
 privations. The poor dog which had been found in the 
 Bear River valley, and which had been a compagnon de 
 voyage ever since, had now become fat, and the mess to 
 which it belonged requested permission to kill it. Leave 
 was granted. Spread out on the snow, the meat looked 
 very good ; and it made a strengthening meal for the 
 greater j^art of the camp. Lidians brought in two or 
 three rabbits during the day, which were purchased 
 from them 
 
 " Two Lidians joined our party here ; and one of 
 them, an old man, immediately began to harangue us, 
 saying that ourselves and animals would perish in the 
 snow ; and that if we would go back, he would show us 
 another and a better way across the mountain. He 
 spoke in a very loud voice, and there was a singular 
 repetition of phrases and arrangement of words, which 
 rendered his speech striking, and not unmusical. 
 
 " We had now begun to understand some words, and, 
 with the aid of signs, easily comprehended the old man's 
 simple idea. ' Rock upon rock — rock upon rock — snow 
 upon snow — snow upon snow,' said he ; ' even if you 
 get over the snow, you will not be able to get down from 
 
SECOND EXPEDITION. 55 
 
 the mountains.' He made ns the sign of precipices, and 
 showed lis how the feet of the horses would slip, and 
 throw them off from the narrow trails which led along 
 their sides. Our Chinook, who comprehended even 
 more readily than ourselves, and believed our situation 
 hopeless, covered his head with his blanket, and began 
 to weep and lament. ' I wanted to see the whites,' said 
 he ; 'I came away from my own people to see the 
 whites, and I wouldn't care to die among them ; but 
 here' — and he looked around into the cold night and 
 gloomy forest, and, drawing his blanket over his head, 
 began again to lament. 
 
 " Seated around the tree, the fire illuminating the 
 rocks and the tall bolls of the pines round about, and the 
 old Indian haranguing, we presented a group of very 
 serious faces. 
 
 " February 5. — The night had been too cold to sleep, 
 and we were up very early. Our guide was standing 
 by the fire with all his finery on ; and seeing him shiver 
 in the cold I threw on his shoulders one of my blankets. 
 We missed him a few minutes afterwards, and never 
 saw him again. He had deserted. His bad faith and 
 treachery were in perfect keeping with the estimate of 
 Indian character, which a long intercourse with this peo- 
 ple had gradually forced upon my mind 
 
 " February 24.- — We rose at three in the morning, for 
 an astronomical observation, and obtained for the place 
 a latitude of 38 deg. 46 min. 58 sec, longitude 120 deg. 
 34 min. 20 sec. The sky was clear and pure, with a • 
 sharp wind from the northeast, and the thermometer two 
 deg. below the freezing point 
 
 '' Another horse was killed to-night for food 
 
 " February 29. — We lay shut up in the narrow ravine, 
 and gave the animals a necessary day ; and men were 
 sent back after the others. Derosier volunteered to bring 
 up Proveau, to whom he knew I was greatly attached, as 
 he had been my favorite horse on both expeditions. Car- 
 son and I climbed one of the nearest mountains ; the for- 
 est land still extended ahead, and the valley appeared as 
 far as ever. The pack-horse was found near the camp, 
 but Derosier did not get in 
 
 " We began to be uneasy at Derosier's absence, fearing 
 
56 LIFE OF FREMONT 
 
 he might have iDeen bewildered in the woods. Charles 
 Towns, who had not yet recovered his mind, went to 
 swim in the river, as if it were summer, and the stream 
 placid, when it was a cold mountain-torrent foaming 
 among the rocks. We were happy to see Derosier ap- 
 pear m the evening. He came in, and, sitting down by 
 the fire, began to tell us where he had been. He imagined 
 he had been gone several days, and thought we were 
 still at the camp where he had left us ; and we were 
 pained to see that his mind was deranged. It appeared 
 that he had been lost in the mountain, and hunger and 
 fatigue, joined to weakness of body, and fear of perishing 
 in the mountains, had crazed him. The times were 
 severe when stout men lost their minds from extremity 
 of suffering — when horses died — and when mules and 
 horses, ready to die of starvation, were killed for food. 
 Yet there was no murmuring or hesitation 
 
 " March 3. — We followed Mr. Preuss's trail for a con- 
 siderable distance along the river, until we reached a 
 place where he had descended to the stream below and 
 encamped. Here we shouted and fired guns, but receiv- 
 ed no answer; and we concluded that he had pushed on 
 down the stream. I determined to keep out from the 
 river, along which it was neai'ly impracticable to travel 
 with animals, until it should form a valley 
 
 " We repeated our shouts for Mr. Preuss ; and this 
 time we were gratified with an answer. The voice grew 
 rapidly nearer, ascending from the river ; but when we 
 expected to see him emerge, it ceased entirely. We had 
 called up some straggling Indian — the first we had met, 
 although for two days back we had seen tracks — who, 
 mistaking us for his fellows, had been only undeceived 
 on getting close up. Ignorant of the character of these 
 people, we had now an additional cause of uneasiness in 
 regard to Mr. Preuss ; he had no arms with him, and we 
 began to think his chance doubtful. 
 
 *' We had among our few animals a horse which was 
 so much reduced, that, with travelling, even the good 
 grass could not save him ; and, having nothing to eat, 
 he was killed this afternoon. He was a good animal, 
 and had made a journey round from Fort Hall 
 
 " The absence of Mr. Preuss gave me great concern ; 
 
SECOND EXPEDITION. 57 
 
 and, for a large reward, Derosier volnnteered to go back 
 on tlie trail. I directed him to search along the river, 
 travelling npv^^ard for the space of a day and a half, at 
 w^iiich time I expected he would meet Mr. Fitzpatrick, 
 whom I requested to aid in the search ; at all events he 
 was to go no further, but to return to this camp, where a 
 cache of provisions was made for him. 
 
 " Towards evening we heard a weak shout among the 
 hills behind, and had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Preuss 
 descending towards the camp. Like ourselves, he had 
 travelled to-day twenty-five miles, but had seen nothing 
 of Derosier. Knowing, on the day he was lost, that I 
 was determined to keep the river as much as possible, he 
 had not thought it necessary to follow the trail very 
 closely, but walked on, right and left, certain to find it 
 somewhere along the river, searching places to obtain 
 good views of the country. Towards sunset he climbed 
 clown towards the river to look for the camp ; but, find- 
 ing no trail, concluded that we were behind, and walked 
 back until night came on, when, being very much fa- 
 tigued, he collected drift-wood and made a large fire 
 among the rocks. The next day it become more serious, 
 and he encamped again alone, thinking that we must 
 have taken some other course. To go back would have 
 been madness in his weak and starved condition, and 
 onward towards the valley was his only hope, always in 
 expectation of reaching it soon. His principal means of 
 subsistence were a few roots, which the hunters call sweet 
 onions, having very little taste, but a good deal of nutri- 
 ment, growing generally in rocky ground, and requiring 
 a good deal of labor to get, as he had only a pocket- 
 knife. Searching for these, he found a nest of big ants, 
 which he let run on his hand, and stripped them ofi" into 
 his mouth ; these had an agreeable acid taste. One of 
 his greatest privations was the want of tobacco ; and a 
 pleasant smoke at evening would have been a relief which 
 only a voyageur could appreciate. He tried the dried 
 leaves of the live-oak, knowing that those of other oaks 
 were sometimes used as a substitute; but these were too 
 thick and would not do. On the 4th he made seven or 
 eight miles, walking slowly along the river. Avoiding 
 as much as possible to climb the hills. In little pools h© 
 
 ,3* 
 
58 LIFE OF FEEMONT, 
 
 caught some of tlie smallest kind of frogs, which he swal- 
 lowed, not so much in the gratification of hunger, as in 
 the hope of obtaining some strength. Scattered along the 
 river were old fire-places, where the Indians had i-oasted 
 muscles and acorns ; but though he searched diligently, 
 he did not there succeed in finding either. He had col- 
 lected fire- wood for the night, when he heard at some 
 distance from the river the barking of what he thought 
 were two dogs, and walked in that direction as quickly 
 as he was able, hoping to find there some Indian hut, but 
 met only two wolves ; and, in his disappointment, the 
 gloom of the forest was doubled. 
 
 " Travelling the next day feebly down the river, he 
 found &ve or six Indians at the huts, of which we have 
 spoken ; some were painting themselves black, and oth- 
 ers i^oasting acorns. Being only one man they did not 
 run oflf, but received him kindly, and gave him a welcome 
 supply of roasted acorns. He gave them his pocket-knife 
 in return, and stretched out his hand to one of the Indians, 
 who did not appear to comprehend the motion, but jump- 
 ed back as if he thought he was about to lay hold of him. 
 They seemed afraid of him, not certain as to what he was. 
 
 " Travelling on, he came to the place where we had 
 found the squaws. Here he found our fire still burning, 
 and the tracks of the horses. The sight gave him sud- 
 den hope and courage ; and, following as fast as he could, 
 joined us at evening. 
 
 " March 6. — We continued on our road, through the 
 same surpassingly beautiful country, entirely unequalled 
 for the pasturage of stock by any thing we had ever 
 seen. In a few nours we reached a large fork, the north- 
 ern branch of the river, and equal in size to that which 
 we had descended. Together they formed a beautiful 
 stream, sixty to one hundred yards wide ; which at first, 
 ignorant of the nature of the country through which that 
 river ran, we took to be the Sacramento 
 
 " We made an acorn meal at noon, and hurried on ; 
 the valley being gay with flowers, and some of the 
 banks being absolutely golden with the California poppy 
 {eschscholtzia crocea). Here the grass was smooth and 
 green, and the groves very open ; the large oaks throw- 
 ing a broad shade among sunny spots. Shortly after- 
 
SECOND EXPEDITION. 59 
 
 wards we gave a shout at the appearance on a little bhiJBP 
 of a neatly built adobe house with glass windows. We 
 rode uj), but, to our disappointment, found only Indians. 
 There was no appearance of cultivation, and we could 
 see no cattle, and we supposed the place had been aban- 
 doned. We now pressed on more eagerly than ever ; 
 the river swept round in a large bend to the right ; the 
 hills lowered down entirely ; and, gradually entering a 
 broad valley, we came unexpectedly into a large Indian 
 village, where the peoj^le looked clean, and wore cotton 
 shirts and various other articles of dress. They imme- 
 diately crowded around us, and we had the inexpressible 
 delight to find one who spoke a little indifferent Spanish, 
 but who at first confounded us by saying there were hd 
 whites in the country ; but just then a well-dressed Indian 
 came up, and made his salutations in very well-spoken 
 Spanish. In answer to our inquiries, he informed us 
 that we were upon the Rio de los Americanos (the river 
 of the Americans), and that it joined the Sacramento 
 river about ten miles below! Never did a name sound 
 more sweetly! We felt ourselves among our country- 
 men ; for the name of American, in these distant parts, 
 is applied to the citizens of the United States. To our 
 eager inquiries he answered, ' I am a vaquero (cow-herd) 
 in the service of Capt. Sutter, and the people of this 
 rancheria work for him.' Our evident satisfaction made 
 him communicative ; and he went on to say that Capt. 
 Sutter was a very rich man, and always glad to see his 
 country people. We asked for his house. He answered 
 that it was just over the hill before us ; and offered, if 
 we would wait a moment, to take his horse and conduct 
 us to it. We readily accepted his civil offer. In a 
 short distance we came in sight of the fort ; and, passing 
 on the way the house of a settler on the opposite side (a 
 Mr. Sinclair), we forded the river ; and in a few miles 
 w^ere met a short distance from the fort by Capt. Sutter 
 himself. He gave us a most frank and cordial reception 
 ■ — conducted us immediately to his residence — and under 
 his hospitable roof we had a night of rest, enjoyment, 
 and refreshment, which none but ourselves could appre- 
 ciate 
 
 " Mr. Fitzpatrick and his party, travelling more slowly, 
 
60 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 had been able to make some little exertion at hunting, 
 and had killed a few deer. The scanty supply was "a 
 great relief to them ; for several had been made sick by 
 the strange and unwholesome food which the preserva- 
 tion of lite compelled them to use. We stopped and 
 encamped as soon as we met ; and a repast of good beef, 
 excellent bread, and delicious salmon, which I had 
 brought along, were their first relief from the sufferings 
 of the Sierra, and their first introduction to the luxuries 
 of the Sacramento. It required all our philosophy and 
 forbearance to prevent j^lenty from becoming as hurtful 
 to us now, as scarcity had been before." 
 
 •On the 22d day of March, after a repose long needed, 
 and their preparations being completed, the party com- 
 menced its homeward journey. Fremont, at their own 
 request, discharged five of his men. Derosier, one of 
 his best men, had previously wandered away from the 
 camp, probably through a return of the mental derange- 
 ments brought on by his recent sufferings. All attempts 
 to find him were fruitless, and he was never heard of 
 more, until after the lapse of about two years, he found 
 his way into St. Louis. The homeward journey was 
 fraught with adventure ; but space will not permit us to 
 follow the report. The expedition having reached its 
 place of destination, there we must leave it; assuring 
 the reader, at the same time, that if he has the leisure 
 and inclination to peruse Col. Fremont's narrative in 
 full, he will be more than remunerated for his labor. 
 
SECOND EXPEDITION. 61 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 THIRD EXPEDITION, AND ACQUISITION OF CALIFOENIA. 
 
 The Government awoke at length from its Rip Yan 
 Winkle sleep. It really discovered the important ser- 
 vices rendered to the country, and to the world, by the 
 exploring discoveries of Fi-emont. It assumed a grace- 
 ful and patronizing air; silently, and as if it w^ere by 
 right, assumed to itself the credit of having sanctioned, 
 aided, and encouraged the venturesome toils of the great 
 explorer ; and, finally, by the advice of the United 
 States Senate (John Tyler being then President), con- 
 ferred upon Lieutenant Fremont a commission of Brevet 
 Captain, in the corps of Topographical Engineers. This 
 happened on the 29th day of January, 1845 ; before 
 returning from his expedition, he was appointed Lieut. 
 Col. of U. S. Rifles. 
 
 In the month of iVEay following, he set out upon his 
 ever-memorable thij-d expedition. It w^as, we believe, 
 the only expedition performed under the regular sanc- 
 tion and authority of the Government. The next two 
 expeditions were undertaken and performed wholly at 
 his own expense. Of these three last expeditions, no 
 official report has yet appeared ; but it is well under- 
 stood, that he devotes all of his leisure moments to the 
 arrangement of the materials necessary to a full, com- 
 plete, and thorough report of all three, and that when so 
 prepared, it will be placed in the hands of the printer 
 without delay. 
 
 The ostensible purpose of the third expedition was a 
 
62 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 geographical and scientific exploration in the great 
 West. In January, 1846, Fremont and his party arrived 
 upon the frontiers of California. Hostilities had not 
 broken out between the United States and Mexico ; but 
 Texas had been incorporated ; the preservation of peace 
 was precarious, and Mr. Fremont was determined, by no 
 act of his, to increase the difficulties, or to give any just 
 cause of complaint to tlie Mexican government. His 
 line of observation would lead him to the Pacific Ocean, 
 through a Mexican province — through the desert parts 
 first, and the settled part afterwards of the Alta Cali- 
 fornia. Knowing that the relations between the United 
 States and Mexico were in a delicate position, and that 
 the authorities of the latter were very jealous of Ameri- 
 cans, he took the precaution to leave his party, and go 
 alone to Monterey ; where, wdth the United States' con- 
 sul. Mi. Larkin, he called upon the commanding general, 
 Castro, and made known to him his peaceful commis- 
 sion ; receiving express permission to winter in the valley 
 of San Joachim, where was plenty of game, and no in- 
 habitants to be disturbed. After recruiting his party, 
 he proceeded onward, and, on the 3d of March, encamped 
 within fifty miles of Monterey, where, to his surprise, he 
 received a peremptory order from Castro to leave the 
 country at once. But the interview with Castro, and 
 the other high officers at headquarters, was so recent, 
 and had been so friendly and cordial, that he could 
 hardly believe that the appearances that had attracted 
 his attention were meant against him. At length, how- 
 ever, on the 3d of March, when within about twenty-five 
 miles of Monterey, he was met by an officer, who had a 
 detachment of eighty dragoons in his rear to enforce his 
 message, with a letter from Castro, ordering him, with- 
 out any explanation, peremptorily, out of the country. 
 
 Fremont was in no mood to comply. He marched 
 directly to the summit of a high hill, called Hawks 
 Peak. From this position, by the aid of his spy-glass, 
 
THIRD EXPEDITION.^ 63 
 
 he could see the movements and preparations in camp 
 of the enemy ; his scaling of guns, and recruiting of 
 Indians and Californians left no doubt of his aggressive 
 intentions. On the 9th he received a letter from Consul 
 Larkin, informing him of the preparations going on for 
 his attack, to which he replied as follows : 
 
 " My Dear Sir : — I this moment received your letters, 
 and, without waiting to read them, acknowledge the re- 
 • ceipt, which the courier requires immediately. I am 
 making myself as strong as possible, in the intention that 
 if we are unjustly attacked, we will .fight to extremity 
 and refuse quarter, trusting to our country to avenge our 
 death. No one has reached our camp, and, from the 
 heights, we are able to see troops (with the glass) muster- 
 ing at St. John's, and preparing cannon. I thank you 
 for your kindness and good wishes, and would write more 
 at length as to my intentions did I not fear that my let- 
 ter would be intercepted. We have, in nowise, done 
 wrong to the people or the authorities of the country ; 
 and, if we are hemmed in and assaulted here, we will 
 die, every man of us, under the flag of our country. 
 
 " Yery truly yours, 
 
 ''J. C. Fremont. 
 
 " P. S. I am encamped on the top of the Sierra, at the 
 head waters of a stream which strikes the road to Mon- 
 terey at the house of Don Joaquin Gomes. 
 
 ** Thomas 0. Larkin, Esq., 
 
 " Consul for the United States at Monterey." 
 
 His resolution once taken, Fremont hoisted the flag 
 of the United States, and determined, with his sixty 
 brave men, to defend himself to the last extremity — 
 never surrendering ; and dying, if need be, to the last 
 man. The messenger who carried back Fremont's an- 
 swer to Larkin (which was that he and his party should 
 defend themselves to the last man) added, from his own 
 suggestion, that " two thousand men would not be able 
 to drive Captain Fremont from his position.'' A similar 
 impression seems to have taken possession of Castro him- 
 
64: "^JFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 self, for he did not venture to attack him ; and, after 
 three day's waiting, Captain Fremont left his little fort, 
 and proceeded on his exploring expedition to Oregon. 
 Castro followed afar off, but evidently did not dare to 
 come up with him ; and having picked up a few cast- 
 away tilings left in the deserted log-fort, he returned to 
 California, making a proclamation, full of falsehoods, 
 declaring that he had driven away to Oregon this band 
 of highway robbers ! 
 
 " Turning his back on the Mexican possessions," says 
 Col. Benton, " and looking to Oregon as the field of his 
 future labors, Mr. Fi^mont determined to explore a new 
 route to the Wah-lah-math settlements and the tide water 
 region of the Columbia, through the wild and elevated 
 region of the Tlamath lakes. A romantic interest at- 
 tached to this region from the grandeur of its features, 
 its lofty mountains, and snow-clad peaks, and from the 
 formidable character of its warlike inhabitants. In the 
 first week of May, he was at the north end of the Great 
 Tlamath lake, and in Oregon — the lake being cut near 
 its south end by the parallel of 42 degrees north latitude. 
 On the 8th day of that month, a strange sight presented 
 itself — almost a startling apparition — two men riding up, 
 and penetrating a region which few ever approached 
 without paying toll of life or blood. They pi'oved to be 
 two of Mr. Fremont's old voyageurs^ and quickly told 
 their story. They were part of a guard of six men con- 
 ducting a United States officer, who was on his trail with 
 dispatches from Washington, and whom they had left 
 two days back, while they came on to give notice of his 
 approach, and to ask that assistance might be sent him. 
 They themselves had only escaped the Indians by the 
 swiftness of their horses. It was a case in which no 
 time was to be lost, or a mistake made. Mr. Fremont 
 determined to go himself; and taking ten picked men, 
 four of them Delaware Indians, he took down tha west- 
 ern shore of the lake on the morning of the 9th (the 
 direction the officer was to come), and made a ride of 
 sixty miles without a halt. But to meet men, and not 
 to miss them, was the difficult point in this trackless 
 
THIRD EXPEDITION. 65 
 
 region. It was not the case of a high road, where all 
 travellers must meet in passing each other : at intervals 
 tliere were j^laces — defiles, or camping grounds' — where 
 Loth parties must pass ; and watching for these, he came 
 to one in the afternoon, and decided that, if the party 
 was not killed, it must be there that night. He halted 
 and encamped ; and, as the sun was going down, had 
 the inexpressible satisfaction to see the four men ap- 
 proaching. The officer proved to be a lieutenant of the 
 United States marines, who had been dispatched from 
 Washington the November previous, to make his way 
 by Vera Cruz, the city of Mexico, and Mazatlan to Mon- 
 terey, in Upper California, deliver dispatches to the 
 United States consul there ; and then find Mr. Fremont, 
 wherever he should be. His dispatches for Mr. Fre- 
 mont were only a letter of introduction from the Secre- 
 tary of State (Mr. Buchanan), and some letters and slips 
 of newspapers from Senator Benton and his family, and 
 som^e verbal communications from the Secretary of State. 
 The verbal communications were, that Mr. Fremont 
 should watch and counteract any foi-eign scheme on 
 California, and conciliate the good will of the inhabit- 
 ants towards the United States. Upon this intimation 
 of the government's wishes, Mr. Fremont turned back 
 from Oregon, in the edge of which he then was, and re- 
 turned to California. The letter of introduction was in 
 the common form, that it might tell nothing if it fell in- 
 to the hands of foes, and signified nothing of itself; but 
 it accredited the bearer, and gave the stamp of authori- 
 ty to what he communicated ; and upon this Mr. Fre- 
 mont acted : for it was not to be supposed that Lieuten- 
 ant Gillespie had been sent so far, and through so many 
 dangers, merely to deliver a common letter of introduc- 
 tion on the shores of the Tlamath lake. 
 
 '^The events of some days on the shores of this wild 
 lake, sketched with the brevity which the occasion re- 
 quires, may give a glimpse of the hardships and dangers 
 through which Mr. Fremont pursued science, and en- 
 countered and conquered perils and toils. The night he 
 met Mr. Gillespie presented one of those scenes to which 
 he was so often exposed, and which nothing but the 
 highest degree of vigilance and courage could prevent 
 
m LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 from being fatal. The camping ground was on the 
 western side of the lake, the horses picketed with long 
 halters on the shore, to feed on the grass ; and the men 
 (fourteen in number) sleeping by threes at different fires, 
 disposed in a square — for danger required them so to 
 sleep as to be ready for an attack ; and, though in the 
 month of May, the elevation of the place, and the prox- 
 imity of snow-clad mountains, made the night intensely 
 cold. His feelings joyfully excited by hearing from 
 home (the first word of intelligence he had received since 
 leaving the United States a year before), Mr. Fremont 
 sat up by a large fire, reading his letters and papers, 
 and watching himself over the safety of the camp, while 
 the men slept. Towards midnight, he heard a move- 
 ment among the horses, indicative of alarm and danger. 
 Horses, and especially mules, become sensitive to danger 
 under long travelling and cam]3ing in the wilderness, 
 and manifest their alarm at the approach of any thing 
 strange. Taking a six-barrelled 23istol in his hand, first 
 making sure of their ready fire, and, without waking the 
 camp, he went down among the disturbed animals. The 
 moon shone brightly : he could see well, but could dis- 
 cover nothing. Encouraged by his presence, the horses 
 became quiet — poor dumb creatures that could see the 
 danger, but not tell what they had seen ; and he return- 
 ed to the camp, supposing it was only some beast of the 
 forest — a bear or wolf — prowling for food, that had dis- 
 turbed them. He returned to the camp fire. Lieuten- 
 ant Gillespie woke up, and talked with him awhile, and 
 then lay down again. Finally nature had her course 
 with Mr. Fremont himself. Excited spirits gave way to 
 exhausted strength. The day's ride, and the night's ex- 
 citement demanded the reparation of repose. He lay 
 down to sleep, and without waking up a man to watch 
 — relying on the loneliness of the place, and the long 
 ride of the day, as a security against the proximity of 
 danger. It was the second time in his twenty thousand 
 miles of wilderness explorations that his camp had slept 
 without a guard : the first was in his second expedition, 
 and on an island in the Great Salt Lake, and when the 
 surrounding water of the lake itself constituted a guard. 
 The whole camp was then asleep. A cry from Carson 
 
THIRD EXPEDITION. 67 
 
 roused it. In his sleep he heard a groan : it was tlie 
 groan of a man receiving the tomahawk in his brains. 
 AH sprnng to their feet. The savages w^ere in the 
 camp : the hatchet and the winged arrow were at work. 
 Basil Lajeunesse, a brave and faithful yonng French- 
 man, the follower of Fremont, in all his expeditions, was 
 dead ; an Iowa was dead ; a brave Delaware Indian, 
 one of those who had accompanied Fremont from Mis- 
 souri, was dying ; it was his groan that awoke Carson. 
 Another of the Delawares was a target for arrows, from 
 which no rifle could save him — only avenge him. The 
 savages had waited till the moon was in the trees, cast- 
 ing long shadows over the sleeping camp : then ap- 
 proaching from the dark side with their objects between 
 themselves and the fading light, they used only the 
 hatchet and the formidable bow, whose arrow went to 
 its mark, without a flash or a sound to show whence it 
 came. All advantages were on the side of the savages ; 
 but the camp was saved ! the wounded protected from 
 massacre, and the dead from mutilation. The men, 
 springing to their feet, with their arms in their hands, 
 fought with skill and courage. In the morning, Lieu- 
 tenant Gillespie recognized, in the person of one of the 
 slain assailants, the Tlamath chief who the morning be- 
 fore had given him a salmon, in token of friendship, 
 and who had followed him all day to kill and rob his 
 party at night' — a design in which he would certainly 
 have been successful had it not been from the prompti- 
 tude and precision of Mr. Fremont's movement. Mr. 
 Fremont himself would have been killed, when he went 
 to the horses, had it not been that the savages counted 
 upon the destruction of the whole camp, and feared to 
 alarm it by killing one, before the general massacre. 
 
 " It was on the 9th of May — a day immortalized by 
 American arms at Kesaca de la Palma — that this fierce 
 and bloody work was done in the far distant region of 
 the Tlamath lakes. 
 
 " The morning of the 10th of May was one of gloom in 
 the camp. The evening sun of the 9th had set upon it 
 full of life and joy at a happy meeting: the same sun 
 rose upon it the next morning, stained with blood, 
 ghastly with the dead and wounded, and imposing 
 
68 LIFE OF FEEMONT. 
 
 mournful duties on the survivors. The wounded were 
 to be carried — the dead to be buried ; and so buried 
 as to be hid and secured from discovery and violation. 
 They were carried ten miles, and every precaution taken 
 to secure the remains from the wolf and the savage ; for 
 men, in these remote and solitary dangers, become 
 brothers, and defend each other living and dead. The 
 return route lay along the shore of the lake, and during 
 the day the distant canoes of the savages could be seen 
 upon it, evidently watching the progress of the party, 
 and meditating a night attack upon it. All precautions, 
 at the night encampment, were taken for security — ■ 
 horses and men inclosed in a breastwork of great trees, 
 cut down for the purpose, and half the men constantly 
 on the watch. At leaving in the morning, an ambus- 
 cade was planted — and two of the Tlamaths were killed 
 by the men in ambush — a successful return of their own 
 mode of warfare. At night the main camp, at the north 
 end of the lake, was reached. It was strongly inti-ench- 
 ed, and could not be attacked ; but the whole neighbor- 
 hood was infested, and scouts and patrols were necessary 
 to protect every movement. In one of these excursions 
 the Californian horse, so noted for spirit and docility, 
 showed what he would do at the bid of his master. 
 Carson's rifle had missed fire, at ten feet distance. The 
 Tlamath long bow, arrow on the string, was bending to 
 the pull. All the rifles in the party could not have 
 saved him. A horse and his rider did it. Mr. Fremont 
 touched his horse ; he sprang upon the savage ! and the 
 hatchet of a Delaware completed the deliverance of Car- 
 son. It was a noble horse, an iron gray, with a most 
 formidable name — el Toro del Sacramento ; and which 
 vindicated his title to the name in all the trials of travel, 
 courage, and performance to which he was subjected. 
 It was in the midst of such dangers as these, that science 
 was pursued by Mr. Fremont ; that the telescope was 
 carried to read the heavens ; the barometer to measure 
 the elevations of the earth ; the thermometer to gauge 
 the temperature of the air ; the pencil to sketch the 
 grandeur of mountains, and to paint the beauty of 
 flowers ; the pen to write down whatever was new, or 
 strange, or useful in the works of nature. It was in the 
 
THIRD EXPEDITION. 69 
 
 midst of sncli dangers, and such occupations as these, 
 and in the wildest regions of the Farthest West, that 
 Mr. Fremont was pnrsiiing science and shunning war, 
 when the arrival of Lieutenant Gillespie, and his com- 
 munications from Washington, suddenly changed all his 
 plans, turned him back from Oregon, and opened a new 
 and splendid field of operations in California itself He 
 arrived in the valley of the Sacramento in the month of 
 May, 1816, and found the country alarmingly and criti- 
 cally situated. Three great operations, fatal to Ameri- 
 can interests, w^ere then going on, and without remedy, 
 if not arrested at once. These were : 1. The massacre 
 of the Americans, and the destruction of their settle- 
 ments, in the valley of the Sacramento. 2. The subjec- 
 tion of California to British protection. 3. The transfer 
 of the public domain to British subjects. And all this 
 with a view to anticipate the events of a Mexican war, 
 and to shelter California from the arms of the United 
 States. 
 
 *" The American settlers sent a deputation to the camp 
 of Mr. Fremont, in the valley of the Sacramento, laid all 
 these dangers before him, and implored him to place 
 himself at their head and save them from destruction. 
 General Castro was then in march upon them : the In- 
 dians were incited to attack their families, and burn 
 their wheat-fields, and were only waiting for the diy 
 season to apply the torch. Juntas were in session to 
 transfer the country to Gi eat Britain : the public domain 
 was passing away in large grants to British subjects : a 
 British fleet was expected on the coast : the British vice- 
 consul, Foi-bes, and the emis-ary priest, Macnamara,* 
 ruling and conducting every thing ; and all their plans 
 so far advanced as to render the least delay fatal. It 
 was then the beginning of June. War had broken out 
 
 * Engenio Macnamara, a Roman Catholic priest, memorialized the 
 Mexican President, in the followm:^ words : 
 
 " I propose, with the aid and approbation of your Excellency, to 
 place in Upper Calit'oruia a colony of Irish Catholics. I have a triple 
 object in making this proposition, I with, in the first place, to advance 
 the cause oi Catliolicisni. In the second, to contribute to the happiness 
 of my countrymen. Thirdly, I desire to put an obstacle in tlie way oj- 
 ftirtker usurpations on the part of an irreligious and anti-Catholic na- 
 tion," 
 
70 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 between the United States and Mexico, but tliat was un- 
 known in California. Mr. Fremont had left the two 
 countries at peace when he set out upon his expedition, 
 and was determined to do nothing to distm-b their rela- 
 tions : he had even left California to avoid giving of- 
 fence ; and to return and take up arms in so short a time 
 was apparently to discredit his own previous conduct as 
 well as to implicate his government. He felt all the re- 
 sponsibilities of his position ; but the actual approach of 
 Castro, and the immediate danger of the settlers, left 
 him no alternative. He determined to ipiit himself at 
 the head of the people, and to save the country. To re- 
 pulse Castro was not sufficient ; to overturn the Mexican 
 government in California and to establish Californian 
 Independence, was the bold resolve, and the only mea- 
 sure adequate to the emergency. That resolve was 
 taken, and executed with a celerity that gave it a ro- 
 mantic success. The American settlers rushed to his 
 camp — brought their arms, horses, and ammunition — 
 were formed into a battalion ; and obeyed with zeal and 
 alacrity the orders they received. In thirty days all the 
 northern part of California was freed from Mexican au- 
 thority — Independence proclaimed — the flag of Inde- 
 pendence raised — ^Castro flying to the south — the Ameri 
 can settlers saved frum destruction ; and the British par- 
 ty in California counteracted and broken up in all their 
 schemes. 
 
 " This movement for Independence was the salvation of 
 California, and snatched it out of the hands of the British 
 at the moment they were ready to clutch it. For two 
 hundi-ed years — from the time of the navigator Drake, 
 who almost claimed it as a discovery, and placed the 
 English name of New Albion upon it — the eye of Eng- 
 land has been upon California ; and the magnificent 
 bay of San Francisco, the great seaport of the North 
 Pacific Ocean, has been surveyed as her own. The ap- 
 proaching war between Mexico and the United States 
 was the crisis in which she expected to realize the long- 
 deferred wish for its acquisition ; and carefully she took 
 her measures accordingly. She sent two squadrons to 
 the Pacific as soon as Texas was incorporated — well see- 
 ing the actual war which was to grow out of that event 
 
THIRD EXPEDITION. 71 
 
 — a small one into the month of the Colnmbia, an im- 
 posing one to Mazatlan, on the Mexican coast, to watch 
 the United States sqnadron there, and to anticipate its 
 movements upon California. Commodore Sloat com- 
 manding the sqnadron at Mazatlan, saw that he was 
 watched, and pursued, by Admiral Seymour, who lay 
 alongside of him, and he determined to deceive him. 
 He stood out to sea, and was followed by the British 
 Admiral. During the day he bore west, across the 
 ocean, as if going to the Sandwich Islands : Admiral 
 Seymour followed. In the night the American commo- 
 dore tacked, and ran up the coast towards California ; 
 the British Admiral, not seeing the tack, continued on 
 his course, and went entirely to the Sandwich Islands 
 before he was undeceived. Commodore Sloat arrived 
 before Monterey on the second of July, entering the port 
 amicably, and offering to salute the town, which the au- 
 thorities declined on the pretext that they had no pow- 
 der to return it — in reality because they momentarily 
 expected the British fleet. Commodore Sloat remained 
 five days before the town, and until he heard of Fre- 
 mont's operations : then believing that Fremont had or- 
 ders from his government to take California, he having 
 none himself, he determined to act himself. He received 
 the news of Fremont's successes on the 6th day of Jnly : 
 on the 7th he took the town of Monterey, and sent a dis- 
 spatch to Fremont. The latter came to him in all speed, 
 at the head of his mounted force. Going immediately 
 on board the commodore's vessel, an explanation took 
 place. The commodore learnt with astonishment that 
 Fremont had no orders from his government to com- 
 mence hostilities — that he had acted entirely on his own 
 resj)onsibility. This left the commodore without au- 
 thority for having taken Monterey ; for still at this time 
 the commencement of the war wdth Mexico was un- 
 known. Uneasiness came upon the commodore. He 
 remembered the fate of Captain Jones in making the 
 mistake of seizing the town once before in time of peace. 
 He resolved to return to the United States, which he did 
 — turning over the command of the squadron to Com- 
 modore Stockton, who had arrived on the 15th. The 
 next day (16th) Admiral Seymour arrived ; his flag-ship 
 
Y3 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 the Collingwood, of 80 guns, and his squadron the largest 
 British fleet ever seen in the Pacitic. To his astonish- 
 ment he beheld the American flag flying over Monte- 
 rey, the American squadron in its harbor, and Fremont's 
 mounted riflemen encamped over the town. His mission 
 was at an end. The prize had escaped him. He at- 
 tempted nothing further, and Fremont and Stockton 
 rapidly pressed the conquest of California to its conclu- 
 sion. The subsequent military events can be traced by 
 any history : they were the natural sequence of the great 
 measure conceived and executed by Fremont before 
 any squadron had arrived upon the coast, before he 
 knew of any war with Mexico, and without any authori- 
 ty from his government, except the equivocal and enig- 
 matical visit of Mr. Gillespie. Before the junction of 
 Mr, Fremont with Commodore SI oat and Stockton, his 
 operations had been carried on under the flag of Inde- 
 pendence — the Bear Flag,"^ as it was called — the device 
 of the bear being adopted on account of the courageous 
 qualities of that animal (the white bear), w^hich never 
 gives the road to men^ — 'which attacks any number — and 
 tights to the last with increasing ferocity, with amazing 
 strength of muscle, and with an incredible tenacity of 
 the vital principle — never more formidable and dan^ 
 gerous than when mortally wounded. The Independents 
 took the device of this bear for their flag, and established 
 the independence of California under it ; and in joining 
 the United States forces, hauled down this flag, and 
 hoisted the flag of the United States. And the fate of 
 California would have been the same whether the United 
 States squadrons had arrived, or not ; and whether the 
 Mexican war had happened, or not. California was in 
 a revolutionary state, already divided from Mexico po- 
 litically as it had always been geographically. The last 
 governor-general from Mexico, Don Michel Toreno, had 
 been resiste<l — fought — captured — and shipped back to 
 Mexico, with, his 300 cut-throat soldiers. An insurgent 
 government was in operation, determined to be free of 
 
 * " Capt. Fremont advised the Americans to raise the Bear Flag at So* 
 noma (for the}"- had no right to that of the United States), and under 
 it the great battle of Sacramento was fought, and all the country north 
 of the Bay oi San Francisco was conquer exi." — Miss Peabody. 
 
THIRD EXPEDITION. T3 
 
 Mexico, sensible of inability to stand alone, and looking, 
 part to the United States, part to Great Britain, for the 
 support which they needed. All the American settlers 
 were for the United States protection, and joined Fre- 
 mont. The leading Californians were also joining him. 
 His conciliatory course drew them rapidly to him. The 
 Picos, who were the leading men of the revolt (Don Pico, 
 Don Andres, and Don Jesus), became his friends. Cali- 
 fornia, become independent of Mexico by the revolt of 
 the Picos, and independent of them by the revolt of the 
 American settlers, had its destiny to fulfil — which was, 
 to be handed over to the United States. So that its in- 
 corporation with the American Republic was equally 
 sure in any and every event." 
 
 By way of supplement to the foregoing eloquent ex- 
 position, we will quote a short extract from Miss Eliza- 
 beth P. Peabody's valuable " Chronological History of 
 the United States." We make the quotation because it 
 fills a chasm hardly touclied above, and because it will 
 serve as an introduction to the next chapter : 
 
 " But all was not done yet. An insurrection broke 
 out in the south of California, soon after Major Fremont 
 left Los Angelos, the enemy all at once realizing that, 
 in point of numbers, ' a little one had chased a multi- 
 tude !' Lieutenant Gillespie, with his very small garri- 
 son, was then obliged to retire to Monterey; and Major 
 Fremont, instead of being able to go to San Francisco 
 on the 24th of October, as Commodore Stockton ordered 
 him to do, to be installed governor, went into the valley 
 of the Sacramento to enlist an army to suppress the in- 
 surrection. At this moment General Kearney arrived. 
 This officer, on the breaking out of the Mexican war, 
 had been ordered by the government to leave Fort 
 Leavenworth, where he was stationed, and go and con- 
 quer New Mexico ; then to proceed to California, con- 
 quer it, organize a government for it, and himself take 
 the office of governor. He had bravely executed the 
 first part of these instructions, and was proceeding to 
 California, when he met the celebrated trapper, Kit Car- 
 son, with the dispatches from Commodore Stockton to 
 
74 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 government, announcing the conquest of California. He 
 sent on his dispatches by another pei'son, and retained 
 Carson as guide, on account of his experience in the In- 
 dian country. It was not until after the insurrection had 
 broken out that he arrived in California, when he en- 
 coinitered the enemy, flushed with their first success of 
 driving Lieutenant Gilles]3ie from Los Angelos to Mon- 
 terey. Lie had a battle with them at San Pasqual, in 
 which eighteen of his men fell, and as many more were 
 wounded. He then wrote to Commodore Stockton, that 
 he was intrenched on a rocky eminence near San Pas- 
 qual, surrounded by the enemy. Stockton sent Lieu- 
 tenant Gray, with two hundred and fifty men, to his 
 relief; and, on their approach, the besiegers abandoned 
 the field, and left the relief party to return, unmolested, 
 with General Kearney and his dragoons. General 
 Kearney then communicated to Commodore Stockton 
 his instructions from the government; but Commodore 
 Stockton did not feel himself compelled to give up the 
 chief command, especially as the spirit of the instruc- 
 tions seemed to be, that the conqueror of California 
 should be its governor. General Kearney did not insist, 
 but placed himself under Stockton's command, and his 
 dragoons helped to make up his force of six hundred 
 men, who joined Fremont and entered Los Angelos, after 
 the victory of San Gabriel, and a still more remarkable 
 one, on the plains of Meza, where the Americans, drawn 
 up in a small square, phalanx-like, conquered the Span- 
 ish Californians, whose onset, however, with the finest 
 cavalry in the world, was very brilliant. 
 
 "With a small body of men, Major Fremont after- 
 w^ards embarked, according to Commodore Stockton's 
 orders, for Santa Barbara ; but on his way, hearing that 
 in all South California only San Diego was left in the 
 hands of the Americans, and that no horses could be 
 procured there, he returned to Monterey, to mount his 
 men and march overland. He arrived October 27th, 
 and was agreeably surprised to learn that the President 
 had appointed him Lieutenant-colonel in the United 
 States Army. It was unsolicited by him, or by any of 
 his friends ; and it sanctioned all that he had done from 
 the first. (He had done it with so little assurance of be- 
 
THIRD EXPEDITION. ' 75 
 
 ing approved by goyernment — though he hoped that his 
 country would bear him out — that he had sent to CoL 
 Benton, with the account of what he had done, a resigna- 
 tion of his commission to be given in, if the government 
 had disapproved.) 
 
 "In December, Coh Fremont, at the head of four 
 hundred mounted men, commenced his march south- 
 wards, and on his way surprised and took j)ossession of 
 San Louis Obispo, where he found Don Jesus Pico, who 
 had been made prisoner on the plains of Salinas, but 
 had broken his parole, and was at the head of the insur- 
 rection ! He was tried by a court-martial, and con- 
 demned to death ; but was pardoned by Col. Fremont 
 — a wise act, by which he was attached to the latter for- 
 ever after, in faithful service ; and the hearts of his 
 friends, among whom was the governor, Pico, were won. 
 Col. Fremont ' being satisfied,' as he wrote to Senator 
 Benton, in another private letter, ' that it was a great 
 national measure to unite California to the Union, as a 
 sister state^ by a voluntary expression of the popular 
 will,' proceeded with great wisdom and forbearance, 
 and marched all the way to Los Angelos, four liundred 
 miles, without spilling a drop of blood, but ' conquering 
 a peace,' by clemency and justice. At Couenga he 
 found the enemy in large force, and sent word to them 
 to lay down their arms. They demanded a conference. 
 In company with his new friend, Don Jesus Pico, he 
 went to their camp alone, and found them ready to capit- 
 ulate. Terms were agreed upon, that were subsequent- 
 ly sanctioned by Commodore Stockton ; and later, by the 
 IJnited States. Ample testimony proves \kiQ popularity 
 of Col. Fremont among the native, as well as American 
 Californians from this moment. 
 
 " But the dispute concei-ning the chief command, be- 
 tween General Kearney and Commodore Stockton, pro- 
 duced difficulties. The day after Colonel Fremont was 
 installed Governor, General Kearney and Commodore 
 Stockton gave to him exactly contradictory orders re- 
 specting the organization of California corps. It was an 
 attempt on the part of General Kearney, to try the ques- 
 tion of relative power with Commodore Stockton, and 
 does not seem to have originated in any ill-will to Col. 
 
76 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 Fremont ; General Kearney expressing to Col. Knssell, 
 at the same date, that he should make Col. Fremont 
 governor, if he had the chief command. 
 
 " Colonel Fremont replied to his order in writing, that 
 if he and Commodore Stockton would agree between 
 themselves which was the commander-in-chief, he would 
 obey the superior officer ; but until that matter was set- 
 tled, which he had no power to decide, he felt himself 
 obliged to continue to obey the commander under whom 
 the whole war had been conducted. 
 
 " Failing to obtain from Colonel Fremont aid in his 
 plan of putting Commodore Stockton in the wrong, 
 Kearney transferred his resentment to Colonel Fremont. 
 But this did not clearly appear until after Colonel Fre- 
 mont had returned, in company with him, to Fort 
 Leavenworth, when he ordered him to be arrested, and 
 charged him with mutiny, disobedience to orders, and 
 irregular conduct !" 
 
 CHAPTEE YII. 
 
 FREMONT TRIED BY COURT-MARTIAL. 
 
 "Columbus, the discoverer of the ISTew World, was 
 carried home in chains from the theatre of his discov- 
 eries, to expiate the crime of his glory: Fremont, the 
 explorer of California, and its preserver to the United 
 States, was brought home a prisoner to be tried for an 
 offence, of which the penalty was death, to exjpiate the 
 offence of licumng entered the army without ^passing 
 through the gate of the Military Academy P The syllo- 
 gism, as well as the scorching sarcasm with which he closes 
 it, are in every respect worthy the genius of the venera- 
 ble author of The Thirty Years' Vieiv. Fremont, when 
 Gen. Kearney was upon his death-bed, pardoned him for 
 the injuries which he had received at his hands ; and it 
 
TRIED BY COURT-MARTIAL. 7T 
 
 is not our intention to lacerate anew the wound tlius 
 generously healed. Yet, regard for historical truth com- 
 pels us to record as our opinion, that Kearney acted, in 
 this instance, with a more studied cunning and malig- 
 nity, than was conformable with the former history of 
 his life. Having resolved to be revenged upon Fremont 
 — one can hardly see for what — he returned home, and 
 the latter accompanied him, but was ordered to follow in 
 his rear ; but upon reaching Missouri he was placed un- 
 der arrest, and soon after tried by court-martial, assem- 
 bled at the Washington Arsenal, in the District of Co- 
 lumbia. The remainder of the narrative we will leave 
 with the happy and facile pen of Mr. Benton : 
 
 " The governor of the State of Missouri, Austin A. King, 
 Esq., sitting at the end of a long gallery at Fort Leaven- 
 worth, in the summer of 1816, where lie had gone to see a 
 son depart as volunteer in Gen. Kearney's Expedition to 
 New Mexico, heard a person at the other end of the gallery 
 speaking of Fremont in a way that atti*acted his attention. 
 The speaker was in the uniform of a United States offi- 
 cer, and his remarks were highly injurious to Fremont. 
 He inquired the name of the speaker, and was told it 
 was Lieut. Emory, of the Topographical Corps ; and he 
 afterwards wrote to a friend in Washington that Fre- 
 mont was to have trouble when he got among the officers 
 of the regular army. And trouble he did have ; for he 
 had committed the offence for which, in the eyes of many 
 of these officers, there was no expiation except in igno- 
 minious expulsion from the army. He had not only en- 
 tered the ai'my intrusively, according to their ideas, that 
 is to say, without passing through West Point, but he had 
 done worse — he had become distinguished. Listead of 
 seeking easy service about towns and villages, he had 
 gone otf into the depths of the wilderness, to extend the 
 boundaries of science in the midst of perils and sufier- 
 ings, and to gain for himself a name which became 
 known throuo-hout the v*'orld. He was brouscht home to 
 be tried for the crime of mutiny, expanded into many 
 specilications, of which one is enough to show the mon- 
 strosity of the whole. At page 11 of the printed record 
 
78 LIFE OF FEEMONT. 
 
 of the trial, under the head of ' Mutiny,' stands this speci- 
 fication, numbered 6 : 
 
 " ' In this, that he. Lieutenant-colonel John C. Fre- 
 mont, of the regiment of mounted riflemen. United States- 
 army, did, at Ciudad de los Angeles, on the second of 
 March, 1847, in contempt of the lawful authority of his 
 superior officer. Brigadier-general Kearney, assume to be 
 and act as governor of California, in executing a deed or 
 . instrument of writing in the following words, to wit : " In 
 consideration of Francis Temple having conveyed to the 
 United States a certain island^ commonly called White^ 
 or Bird Island^ situated near the mouth of San Fran- 
 cisco Bay, /, John C. Fremont^ Governor of California^ 
 and in virtue of my office as aforesaid^ hereby oblige 
 myself as the legal representative of the United States^ 
 and my successors in office, to pay the said Francis Tem- 
 ple^ his heirs or assigns^ the sum of $5,000, to he paid 
 at as early a day as possihle after the receipt of Amds 
 from the United States. In loitness whereof 1 have 
 hereunto set my hand.^ and caused the seal of the Terri- 
 tory of California to he affixed.^ at Ciudad. de los An- 
 geles^ the capital of California, this 2d day of March. 
 A. D. 1847.— J'o/m C Fremont?' ' 
 
 " And of this specification, as w^ell as of all the rest, 
 two dozen in number, Fremont w^as duly found guilty by 
 a majority of the court. I^ow this case of mutiny con- 
 sisted in this : That there being an island of solid rock, 
 of some hundred acres extent, in the mouth of the San 
 Francisco bay, formed by nature to command the bay, 
 and on which the United States are now constructing 
 forts and a lighthouse to cost millions, which island had 
 been granted to a British subject, and was about to be 
 sold to a French subject. Colonel Fremont bought it for 
 the United States, subject to their ratification in paying 
 the purchase money ; all which appears upon the face 
 of the papers. Upon this ti*ansaction (as upon all the 
 other specifications) the majority of the court found the 
 accused guilty of ' mutiny,' the appropriate punishment 
 for which is death ; but the sentence was moderated 
 down to dismission from the service. The President dis- 
 approved the absurd findings (seven of them) under the 
 mutiny charge, but approved the finding and sentence 
 
TRIED BY COURT-MARTIAL. Y9 
 
 on inferior charges ; and offered a pardon to Fremont, 
 which he scornfully refused. Since then the government 
 has taken possession of that island by military force, 
 without paying any thing for it ; Fremont having taken 
 the purchase on his own account since his conviction for 
 ' mutiny' in having purchased it for the government — a 
 conviction about equal to what it would have been on a 
 specification for witchcraft, heresy, or 'flat burglary.' 
 And now annual appropriations are made for forts and 
 the lighthouse upon it, under the name of Alcatraz, or 
 Los Alcatrazes — that is to say, Pelican Island ; so called 
 from being the resort of those sea birds. 
 
 " Justice to the dead requires it to be told that these 
 charges so preposterously wicked, were not the work of 
 General Kearney, but had been altered from his. At 
 page 64 of the printed record, and not in answer to any 
 question on that point, but simply to place himself right 
 before the court and the country. General Kearney 
 swore in these words, and signed them : ' The charges 
 ujpon which Col. Fremont is now arraigned^ are not my 
 charges. I. jpreferred a single charge against Lieutenant- 
 colonel Fremont. These charges^ ujpon which he is now 
 arraigned.^ have heen changed from mine? The change 
 was from one charge to three, and from one or a few spe- 
 cifications to two dozen — whereof this island purchase is 
 a characteristic specimen. E^o person has ever acknow- 
 ledged the authorship of the change, bnt the caption to 
 the charges (page 4 of the record) declares them to have 
 been preferred by order of the War Department. The 
 caption runs thus: '' Charges against Lieutenant-colonel 
 Fremont.^ of the regiment of mounted riflemen^ United 
 States army., preferred against him hy order of the War 
 Department^ on information of Brigadier-general Kear- 
 ney.^ The War Department, at that time, was William 
 L. Marcy, Esq. ; in consequence of which Senator Ben- 
 ton, chairman for twenty years of the Senate's committee 
 on Military Affairs, refused to remain any longer at the 
 head of that committee, because he would not hold a 
 place which would put him in communication with that 
 Department. 
 
 " The gravamen of the charge was, that Fremont had 
 mutinied because Kearney would not appoint him gov- 
 
80 LIFE OF FEEMONT. 
 
 enior of California ; and tlie answer to that was, that 
 Commodore Stockton, acting under full authority from 
 the President, had already appointed him to that place 
 before Kearney left Santa Fe for New Mexico : and the 
 proof was ample, clear, and pointed to that eifect: but 
 more has since been found, and of a kind to be noticed 
 by a court of West Point officers, as it comes from grad- 
 uates of the institution. It so happens that two of Gene- 
 ral Kearney's officers (Captain Johnston, of the First 
 Dragoons, and Lieutenant Emory, of the Topographical 
 Corps) both kept journals of the expedition, which have 
 since been published, and that both these journals con- 
 tain the same proof — one by a plain and natural state- 
 ment — the other by an unnatural suppression which 
 betrays the same knowledge. The journal of Captain 
 Johnston, of the first dragoons, under the date of Octo- 
 ber 6th, 1846, contains this entry : 
 
 " ' Marched at 9, after having great trouble in getting 
 some ox-carts from the Mexicans : after marching about 
 three miles we met Kit Carson, direct on express from 
 California, with a mail of public letters for Washington. 
 He informs us that Colonel Fremont is probably civil 
 and military governor of California, and that about forty 
 days since, Commodore Stockton with the naval forces, 
 and Colonel Fremont, acting in concert, commenced to 
 revolutionize that country, and place it under the Ameri- 
 can flag : that in about ten days this was done, and Car- 
 son having received the rank of lieutenant, was dis- 
 patched across the country by the Gila, with a party to 
 carry the mail. The general told him that he had just 
 passed over the country which we were to traverse, and 
 he wanted him to go back with him as a guide : he 
 replied that he had pledged himself to go to Washington, 
 and he could not think of not fulfilling his promise. The 
 general told him he would relieve him of all responsi- 
 bility, and place the mail in the hands of a safe person 
 to carry it on. lie finally consented, and turned his 
 face towards the West again, just as he was on the eve 
 of entering the settlements, after his arduous trip, and 
 when he had set his hopes on seeing his family. It 
 requires a brave man to give up his private feelings thus 
 
TRIED BY COURT-MARTIAL. 81 
 
 for the public good ; but Carson is one : mucli honor to 
 his name for it.' 
 
 " This is a natural and straightforward account of this 
 meeting with Carson, and of the information he gave, 
 that California was conquered by Stockton and Fremont, 
 and the latter governor of it ; and the journal goes on to 
 show that, in consequence of this information, General 
 Kearney turned back the body of his command, and 
 went on with an escort only of one hundred dragoons. 
 Lieutenant Emory's journal of the same date opens in 
 the same way, with the same account of the difficulty of 
 getting some teams from the Mexicans, and then branches 
 off into a dissertation upon peonage, and winds up the 
 day with saying, ' Came into camp late^ and found Car- 
 son with an express from California^ hearing intelli- 
 gence that the country had surrendered without a hlow^ 
 and that the American flag floated in every part^ This 
 is a lame account, not telling to whom the country had 
 surrendered, eschewing all mention of Stockton and Fre- 
 mont, and that governorship which afterwards became 
 the point in the court-martial trial. The next day's 
 journal opens with Carson's news, equally lame at the 
 same point, and redundant in telling something in New 
 Mexico, under date of October 7th, 1846, which took 
 place the next year in old Mexico, thus : '' Yesterday'' s 
 news caused some changes i7i our camp : one hundred 
 dragoons^ officered^ <&c.^ formed the party for California. 
 Major Sumner^ with the dragoons^ was ordered to retrace 
 his steps.^ Here the news brought by Carson is again 
 referred to, and the consequence of receiving it is stated ; 
 but still no mention of Fremont and Stockton, and that 
 governorship, the question of which became the whole 
 point in the next year's trial for mutiny. But the lack 
 of knowledge of what took place in his presence is more 
 than balanced by a foresight into what took place after- 
 wards and far from him — exhibited thus in the journal : 
 ^ Many friends here parted that loere never to meet again : 
 some fell in California^ some in New Mexico., and some 
 at Cerro Gordo? Now, no United States troops fell in 
 New Mexico until after Lieutenant Emory left there, 
 nor in California until he got there, nor at Cerro Gordo 
 
82 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 until April of the next year, when he was in California, 
 and could not know it until after Fremont was fixed upon 
 to be arrested for that mutiny of which the governorship 
 was the point. It stands to reason, then, that this part 
 .of the journal was altered nearly a year after it purports 
 to have been written, and after the arrest of Fremont 
 had been resolved upon ; and so, while absolutely prov- 
 ing an alteration of the journal, explains the omission of 
 all mention, of all reference to the governorship, the 
 ignoring of which was absolutely essential to the insti- 
 tution of the charge of mutiny. Long afterwards, and 
 without knowing a word of what Captain Johnston had 
 written, or Lieutenant Emory had suppressed, Carson 
 gave his own statement of that meeting with General 
 Kearney, the identity of which, with the statement of 
 Captain Johnston, is the identity of truth with itself. 
 Thus: 
 
 " ' I met General Kearney, with his troops, on the 6th 
 
 of October, about miles below Santa Fe. I had 
 
 heard of their coming, and when I met them, the first 
 thing I told them w^as that they were " too late" — that 
 California was conquered, and the United States flag 
 raised in all parts of the country. But General Kearney 
 said he would go on, and said somediing about going to 
 establish a civil government. I told him a civil govern- 
 ment w^as already established, and Colonel Fremont ap- 
 pointed governor, to commence as soon as he returned 
 from the north, some time in that very month (October). 
 General Kearney said that made no difference — that he 
 was a friend of Colonel Fremont, and he w^ould make 
 him governor himself He began from the first to insist 
 on my turning back to guide him into California. I 
 told him I could not turn back — that I had pledged 
 myself to Commodore Stockton and Colonel Fremont to 
 take their dispatches through to "Washington City, and 
 to retiu'n with dispatches as far as ISTew Mexico, where 
 my family lived, and to carry them all the way back if 
 I did not find some one at Santa Fe that I could trust as 
 well as I could myself — that I had promised them I 
 would reach Washington in sixty days, and that they 
 should have return dispatches from the government in 
 120 days. I had performed so much of the journey in 
 
TRIED BY COURT-MARTIAL. 83 
 
 the appointed time, and in doing so had already worn 
 out and killed thirty- four mules — that Stockton and Fre- 
 mont had given me letters of credit to persons on the 
 way to furnish me with all the animals I needed, and all 
 the supplies to make the trij) to Washington and back 
 in 120 days ; and that I was pledged to them, and could 
 not disappoint them ; and besides, that I was under more 
 obligations to Colonel Fremont than to any other man 
 alive. General Kearney would not hear of any such 
 thing as my going on. He told me he was a friend to 
 Colonel Fremont and Colonel Benton, and all the family, 
 and would send on the dispatches by Mr. Fitzpatrick, 
 who had been with Colonel Fremont in his exploring 
 party, and was a good friend to him, and would take 
 the dispatches through, and bring back dispatches as 
 quick as I could. IVhen he could not persuade me to 
 turn back, he then told me that he had a right to make 
 me go with him, and insisted on his right ; and I did not 
 consent to turn back till he had made me believe that 
 he had a right to order me ; and then, as Mr. Fitzpatrick 
 was going on with the dispatches, and General Kearney 
 seemed to be such a good friend of the colonel's, I let 
 him take me back ; and I guided him through, but went 
 with great hesitation, and had prepared every thing to 
 escape the night before they started, and made known 
 my intention to Maxwell, who urged me not to do so. 
 More than twenty times on the road. General Kearney 
 told me about his being a friend of Colonel Benton and 
 Colonel Fremont, and all their family, and that he in- 
 tended to make Colonel Fremont the governor of Cali- 
 fornia ; and all this of his own accoa'd, as we were trav- 
 elling along, or in camp, and without my saying a word 
 to him about it. I say, more than twenty times, for I 
 cannot remember how many times, it was such a com- 
 mon thing for him to talk about it.' 
 
 " Such was the statement of Mr. Carson, made to 
 Senator Benton ; and who, although rejected for a lieu- 
 tenancy in the United States army because he did not 
 enter it through the gate of the military academy, is a 
 man whose word will stand v^^herever he is known, and 
 who is at the head, as a guiao, (^f the principal military 
 successes in New Mexico. Bui why back his word ? 
 
84 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 The very dispatches he was carrving conveyed to the 
 government the same information that he gave to Gene- 
 ral Kearney, to wit, that California was conquered and 
 Fremont to be governor. That information was commu- 
 nicated to Congress by the President, and also sworn 
 to by Commodore Stockton before the court-martial ; 
 but without any effect upon the majority of the mem- 
 bei's. 
 
 " Colonel Fremont was found guilty of all the charges, 
 and all the specifications ; and in the secrecy which 
 hides the proceedings of courts-martial, it cannot be 
 told how, or whether the members divided in their 
 opinions ; but circumstances always leak out to authorize 
 the formation of an opinion, and according to these leak- 
 ings, on this occasion four members of the court were 
 against the conviction : to wit, Brigadier-general Brooke, 
 President; Lieutenant-colonel Hunt; Lieutenant-colonel 
 Taylor, brother of the afterwards President ; and Major 
 Baker, of the Ordnance. The proceedings required to 
 be approved, or disapproved, by the President ; and he, 
 although no military man, was a rational man, and com- 
 mon reason told him there was no mutiny in the case. 
 He therefore disapproved that finding, and approved the 
 rest, saying: 
 
 " ' Lfpon an inspection of the record, I am not satisfied 
 that the facts proved in this case constitute the military 
 crime of ' mutiny.' I am of opinion that the second 
 and third chai'ges are sustained by the proof, and that 
 the conviction upon these charges warrants the sentence 
 of the court. The sentence of the court is therefore ap- 
 proved ; but, in consideration of the peculiar circum- 
 stances of the case, of the previous meritorious and valu- 
 able services of Lieutenant-colonel Fremont, and of the 
 foregoing recommendations of a majority of the members 
 of the court, the penalty of dismissal from, the service is 
 remitted. 
 
 " ' Lieutenant-colonel Fremont will accordingly be re- 
 leased from arrest, will resume his sword, and report for 
 duty. 
 
 " ' James K. Polk.' 
 
 " Upon receiving notice of the result of the trial, Cqlon^ 
 
TRIED BY COURT-MARTIAL. 86 
 
 Fremont addressed the following letter to the Adjutant- 
 general : 
 
 " ' Washington City, C Street, ) 
 '"Fehruaryl9,lS4:S. j 
 
 " ' Sir : — I have this moment received the General 
 Order, No. Y (dated the 17th instant), making known to 
 me the final decision in the proceedings of the general 
 court-martial, before which I have been tried ; and here- 
 by send in my resignation of lieutenant- colonel in the 
 army of the United States. 
 
 " ' In doing this, I take occasion to say that my reason 
 for resigning is, that I do not feel conscious of having 
 done any thing to merit the finding of the court ; and, 
 this being the case, I cannot, by accepting the clemency 
 of the President, admit the justice of the decision 
 against me. 
 
 " ' Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 '' ' J. C. Fremont.' 
 
 " General Kearney had two misfortunes in this court- 
 martial affair : he had to appear as a prosecutor of 
 charges which he swore before the court were not his ; 
 and he had been attended by West Point officers, envi- 
 ous and jealous of Fremont, and the clandestine sources 
 of poisonous publications against him, which inflamed 
 animosities, and left the heats which they engendered 
 upon the head of General Kearney. Major Cooke and 
 Lientenant Emory were the chief springs of these publi- 
 cations, and as such were questioned before the court, 
 but shielded from open detection by the secret decisions 
 of the majority of the members. 
 
 '' The secret proceedings of courts-martial are out of har- 
 mony with the progress of the age. Such proceedings 
 should be as open and public as any other, and all par- 
 ties left to the responsibility which publicity involves." 
 
86 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 CHAPTEE YIII. 
 
 FOURTH EXPEDITION. 
 
 Mr. Fremont had passed tlirongh. one of those ordeals 
 which try patriotic souls. In a Republican nation, to be 
 arraigned upon a charge that involves life, and honor 
 (far dearer to Fremont than life), because he had not 
 passed through an aristocratic military school, was one 
 of those ciiiel persecutions, which authority places, al- 
 most, beyond endurance. But courts-martial, in the 
 United States, do not constitute the public ; and in favor 
 of Fremont, public sentiment was strong, decided, and 
 universal. Yet he had suffered. No sooner did his aged 
 and respected mother — and she was nearly related to 
 General Washington — hear of the dangers that beset her 
 son, than she became hopelessly ill. Fremont, hearing 
 of this, hastened to her side, and arrived only in time to 
 pay her remains the last tribute of filial love, honor, and 
 respect ; for she expired one day previously to his arri- 
 val. The people of his native city of Charleston, among 
 whom he now was, not concurring in the verdict of the 
 court-martial that so basely condemned him, honored 
 him by a public ovation ; passed resolutions expressive of 
 their appreciation of his great public services ; and pre- 
 sented him with a beautifully and richly gold and silver 
 mounted sword, bearing various devices, illustrating the 
 arms of the Palmetto State, and of his own many glo- 
 rious achievements ; to all of which was added the fol- 
 lowing inscription : 
 
FOURTH EXPEDITION". 87 
 
 Presented 
 
 By the Citizens of Charleston 
 
 To Lteutenant-colonel 
 
 JOHN CHARLES FREMONT. 
 
 A memorial of their high appreciation 
 
 Of the gallantry and science 
 
 He has displayed in his 
 
 Services in Oregon and California. 
 
 To this sword was appropriately appended an elegant 
 and costly gold-mounted belt, having the present arms 
 of the State on its clasp, presented by the Ladies of 
 Chakleston. 
 
 It was to Fremont a source of great joy to find him- 
 self, after having passed through the ordeal of persecu- 
 tion, thus enthroned in the hearts of the people ; and it 
 may readily be conceived that such demonstrations of 
 profound esteem, coming spontaneously and unsolicited 
 from an enlightened and intelligent public, was ex- 
 tremely confounding to his enemies. But this was not 
 all. On the 1st of February, and next day after the 
 conclusion of the court-martial, the Military Committee 
 of the Senate commenced an investigation relative to 
 California claims on the General Government. ^This 
 body was composed of Messrs. Cass, Benton, Crittenden, 
 Dix, Rusk, and Davis. In every stage of its proceed- 
 ings, the highest and most unqualified appreciation of 
 Fremont's important national services was displayed. 
 Thousands of extra copies of his maps and reports were 
 ordered to be printed for public distribution ; and James 
 Buchanan, then Secretary of State, stated in his official 
 capacity that Fremont " was entitled to the highest con- 
 sideration, from his well-hnown ability and superior 
 'means of information.'^'^ 
 
 On the 19th of October, 184:8, he started upon his 
 fourth expedition. This enterprise was mainly underta- 
 ken at his own private cost. Several, indeed, of the 
 
88 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 liberal citizens of St. Lonis — where lie has always been 
 held in the most deferential esteem, and where, upon 
 more than one occasion, in his absence, public deputa- 
 tions waited upon his lady to assure her of their solici- 
 tude for his welfare, and of their deep interest in his 
 success — among whom may be named Colonel Robert 
 Campbell, Thornton Grimsley, O. D. Filley, and Dr. 
 George Engleman — presented him with a considerable 
 part of his camp equipage. 
 
 Of this expedition there is no full report yet in print. 
 Many of his letters to his w^ife, and to her father. Col. 
 Benton, written during that long, arduous, and perilous 
 exploration, might be here quoted ; but we believe that 
 the following chapter, relative to it, wdiich we will take 
 the libert}^ of extracting from 27ie Thirty Years'^ Yiew^ 
 presents the fullest account of it ever before published : 
 
 " JSTo sooner freed from the army, than Fremont set 
 out upon a fourth expedition to the western slope of our 
 continent, now entirely at his own expense, and to be 
 conducted during the winter, and upon a new line of ex- 
 ploration. His views were practical as well as scientitic, 
 and tending to the establishment of a railroad to the Pa- 
 cific, as well as the enlargement of geographical know- 
 ledge. He took the winter for his time, as that was the 
 season in which to see all the disadvantages of his route; 
 and the head of the Rio Grande del Norte for his line, as it 
 was the line of the centre, and one not yet explored, and 
 always embraced in his plan of discovery. The mountain 
 men had informed him that there was a good pass at the 
 head of the Del JSTorte. Besides other dangers and hard- 
 ships, he had the war ground of the Utahs, Apaches, 
 Navahoes, and oiher formidable tribes to pass through, 
 then all engaged in hostilities with the United States, and 
 ready to pi ey upon any party of whites ; but 33 of his 
 old companions, 120 picked mules, tine rifies — experi- 
 ence, vigiUmce, and courage — were his reliance ; and a 
 trusted security against all evil. Arrived at the Paehlos 
 on the Upper Arkansas, the last of I^oveinber, at the 
 base of the first sierra to be crossed, luminous with snow 
 
FOURTH EXPEDITION. 89 
 
 and stern in their dominating look, he dismounted his 
 whole company, took to their feet, and wading waist- 
 deep in the vast unbroken snow-field, arrived on the 
 other side in the beautiful valley of San Luis; but still 
 on the eastern side of the great mountain chain wich di- 
 vided the waters wliich ran east and west to the rising 
 and the setting sun. At the head of that valley was the 
 pass, described to him by the old hunters. With his 
 glasses he could see the depression in the mountain 
 which marked its place. He had taken a local guide 
 from the Pueblo San Carlos to lead him to that pass. 
 But this precaution for safety was the passport to disas- 
 ter. He was behind, with his faithful draughtsman, 
 Preuss, when he saw his guide leading off the company 
 towards a mass of mountains to the left : he rode up and 
 stopped them, remonstrated widi the guide for two hours ; 
 and then yielded to his positive assertion that the pass 
 was there. The company entered a tortuous gorge, fol- 
 lowing a valley through which ran a head stream of the 
 great river Del Norte. Finally they came to where the 
 ascent was to begin, and the summit range crossed. The 
 snow was deep, the cold intense, the acclivity steep, and the 
 huge rocks projecting. The ascent was commenced in the 
 morning, struggled with during the day, an elevation 
 reached at which vegetation (wood) ceased, and the sum- 
 mit in view, when, buried in snow, exhausted with fa- 
 tigue, freezing with cold, and incapable of further exer- 
 tion, the order was given to fall back to the line of veg- 
 etation where wood would afford tire and shelter for the 
 night. With great care the animals were saved from 
 freezing, and at the first dawn of day, the camp, after a 
 daybreak breakfast, were in motion for the ascent. Pre- 
 cautions had been taken to make it more practicable. 
 Mauls, prepared during the night, were carried by tlie 
 foi'emost division to beat dow^n a road in the snow. Men 
 went forward by relieves. Mules and baggage folluwed 
 in long single tile in the track made in the snow. The 
 mountain w^as scaled : the regi(^n of perpetual congela- 
 tion was entered. It was the winter solstice, and at a 
 place where the sunnner solstice brought no life to vege- 
 tation — no thaw to congelation. The summit of the 
 eierra was bare of every thing but snow, ice, and rocks. 
 
90 LIEE OF FREMONT. 
 
 It was no place to halt. Pusliing down the side of the 
 mountain to reach the woods three miles distant, a new 
 and awful danger presented itself; a snow-storm raging, 
 the freezing winds beating upon the exposed caravan, 
 the snow become too deep for the mules to move in, and 
 the cold beyond the endurance of animal life. The one 
 hundred and twenty mules, huddling together from an 
 instinct of self-preservation from each other's heat and 
 shelter, froze stitf as they stood, and fell over like blocks, 
 to become hillocks of snow. Leaving all behind, and 
 the men's lives only to be saved, the discomfited and 
 freezing party scrambled back, recrossing the summit, 
 and finding under the lee of the mountain some shelter 
 from the driving storm, and in the wood that was reach- 
 ed the means of making fires. 
 
 " The men's lives were now saved, but destitute of every 
 thing, only a remnant of provisions, and not even the 
 resource of the dead mules which were on the other side 
 of the summit ; and the distance computed at ten days 
 of their travel to the nearest JN'ew Mexican settlement. 
 The guide, and three picked men, were dispatched thither 
 for some supplies, and twenty days fixed for their return. 
 When they had been gone sixteen days, Fremont, preyed 
 upon by anxiety and misgiving, set off after them, on 
 foot, snow to the waist, blankets, and some morsels of 
 food on the back ; the brave Godey, his draughtsman 
 Preuss, and a faithful servant, his only company. When 
 out six days, he came upon the camp of his guide, sta- 
 tionary and apparently without plan or object, and the 
 men haggard, wild, and emaciated. E"ot seeing King, 
 the principal one of the company, and on whom he reli- 
 ed, he asked for him. They pointed to an older camp, a 
 little way off. Going there he found the man dead, and 
 partly devoured. He had died of exhaustion, of fatigue, 
 and his comrades fed upon him. Gathering up these 
 three survivors, Fremont resumed his journey, and had 
 not gone far before he fell on signs of Indians — two lodges, 
 imj)lying fifteen or twenty men, and some forty or tifty 
 horses — all recently passed along. At another time this 
 would have been an alarm, one of his fears being that of 
 falling in with a war party. He knew not what Indians 
 they were, but all were hostile in that quarter, and eva- 
 
FOURTH EXPEDITION. 91 
 
 sion the only security against them. To avoid their 
 course was his obvious resource ; on the contrary, he fol- 
 lowed it !■ for such was the desperation of his situation 
 that even a change of danger had an attraction. Pursu- 
 ing the trail down the Del jN^orte, then frozen solid over, 
 and near the place where Pike encam23ed in the winter 
 of 1807-'8, they saw an Indian behind his party, stopped 
 to get water from an air-hole. He was cautiously ap- 
 proached, circumvented, and taken. Fremont told his 
 name ; the young man, for he was quite young, started, 
 and asked him if he was the Fremont that had exchang- 
 ed presents with the chief of the Utahs at Las Yegas de 
 Santa Clara three years before ? He was answered, yes. 
 Then, said the young man, we are friends : that chief was 
 my father, and I remember you. The incident was ro- 
 mantic, but it did not stop there. Though on a war in- 
 road upon the frontiers of 'New Mexico, the young chief 
 became his guide, let him have four horses, conducted 
 him to the neighborhood of the settlements, and then 
 took his leave, to resume his scheme of depredation upon 
 the frontier. 
 
 " Fremont's party reached Taos, was sheltered in the 
 house of his old friend Carson — obtained the supplies 
 needed — sent them back by the brave Godey, who was 
 in time to save two-thirds of the party, finding the other 
 third dead along the road, scattered at intervals as each 
 had sunk exhausted and frozen, or half burnt in the fire 
 which had beeu kindled for them to die by. The survivors 
 were brought in by Godey, some crippled with frozen 
 feet. Fremont found himself in a situation which tries 
 the soul — which makes the issue between despair and 
 heroism — and leaves no alternative but to sink under 
 fate, or to rise above it. His whole outfit was gone : 
 his valiant mountain men were one-third dead, many 
 crippled : he was penniless and in a strange place. He 
 resolved to go forward — nulla vestigia retrorsuin: to 
 raise another outfit, and turn the mountains by the Gila. 
 In a few days it was all done — men, horses, arms, pro- 
 visions — all acquired; and the expedition resumed. But 
 it was no longer the tried band of mountain men on 
 whose vigilance, skill, and* courage he could rely to make 
 their way through hostile tribes. They were new men, 
 
92 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 and to avoid danger, not to overcome it, was his resource. 
 The Navahoes and Apaches had to be passed, and eluded 
 — a thing difficult to be done, as his party of thirty men 
 and double as many horses would make a trail, easy to 
 be followed in the snow, though not deep. He took an 
 unfrequented course, and relied upon the secrecy and 
 celerity of his movements. The fourth night on the dan- 
 gerous ground, the horses, picketed without the camp, 
 gave signs of alarm : they were brought within the square 
 of fires, and the men put on the alert. Daybreak came 
 without visible danger. The camp moved off: a man 
 lagged a little behind, contrary to injunctions : the crack 
 of some rifles sent him running up. It was then clear 
 that they were discovered, and a party hovering round 
 them. Two Indians were seen ahead ; they might be a 
 decoy, or a watch, to keep the party in view until the 
 neighboring warriors could come in. Evasion was no 
 longer possible ; fighting was out of the question, for the 
 whole hostile country was ahead, and narrow defiles to 
 be passed in the mountains. All depended upon the ad- 
 dress of the commander. Kelying upon his ascendant 
 over the savage mind, Fremont took his interpreter, and 
 went to the two Indians. Godey said he should not go 
 alone, and followed. Approaching them, a deep ravine 
 was seen between. The Indians beckoned him to go 
 round by the head of the ravine, evidently to place that 
 obstacle between him and his men. Symptoms of fear 
 or distrust would mar his scheme : so he went boldly 
 round, accosted them confidently, and told his name. 
 They had never heard it. He told them they ought to 
 be ashamed, not to know their best friend ; inquired for 
 their tribe, which he wished to see : and took the whole 
 air of confidence and friendship. He saw they were 
 staggered. He then invited them to go to his camp 
 where the men had halted, and take breakfast with him. 
 They said that might be dangerous — that they had shot 
 at one of his men that morning, and might have killed 
 him, and now be punished for it. He ridiculed the idea 
 of their hurting his men, charmed them into the camp, 
 where they ate, and smoked, and told their secret, and 
 became messengers to lead their tribe in one direction, 
 while Fi-emont and his men escaped by another j and 
 
SENATORIAL LIFE. 93 
 
 the whole expedition went through without loss, and 
 without molestation. A subsequent winter expedition 
 completed the design of this one, so disastrously frus- 
 trated by the mistake of a guide. Fremont went out 
 again upon his own expense — went to the spot where the 
 guide had gone astray — followed the course described by 
 the mC'untain men — and found safe and easy passes all the 
 way to California, through a good country, and upon the 
 straight line of 38 and 39 degrees. It is the route for 
 the Central Pacific Kailroad, which the structure of the 
 country invites, and every national consideration de- 
 mands." 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 SENATORIAL LIFE FIFTH EXPEDITION NOMINATION FOR 
 
 THE PRESIDENCY. 
 
 Castro was defeated, British machinations circum- 
 vented, California conquered, and our national flag float- 
 ing in supreme peace and power over the new El Dorado 
 of the Pacific Ocean, when, on the 9th day of Septem- 
 ber, 1850, that State was admitted into the Union. The 
 day following, the Senators elect, John C. Fremont and 
 William M. Gwin, took their seats in the United States 
 Senate. The former was introduced to that venerable 
 body by Mr. Barnwell of South Carolina. He was re- 
 garded with astonishment and surprise, not unmingled 
 with admiration and profound respect, by all present ; 
 for there before the representatives of the youngest, freest, 
 most powerful, and independent empire upon the globe, 
 stood a man, young indeed in years, but of large mental 
 capacities, great acquirements, and wonderful experience 
 — a man representing a State which he had himself, 
 
94: LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 almost, subdued — a man who had accomplished national 
 services that seemed to border on the fabulous, and 
 whose startling adventures, eminent perils, and unequal- 
 led sufferings, had an air of romance that would not 
 have been deemed unworthy the creative powers of 
 Arabian imagination : yet, in manners, modest, diffident, 
 unassuming, and retiring — but bearing legibly stamped 
 upon his brow, the attiibutes of an inflexible character, 
 of a firm mind under difficulties, and of a power of 
 endurance and self-reliance, that would have done honor 
 to any other hero, ancient or modern. He might, in- 
 deed, have been ignorant of much that individuals in 
 that assembly were well acquainted with ; but to this 
 ignorance he could readily confess, since he was endow- 
 ed by genius, external nature, and dearly acquired ex- 
 perience, with a fund of wisdom, knowledge, and infor- 
 mation, rarely united in any one man ! He was thor- 
 oughly acquainted with the laws of ancient Greece and 
 Rome — had partaken of their philosophic and poetic 
 banquets and refections — had made himself fully conver- 
 sant with the legal codes of France and Spain — had 
 mastered the various branches of the useful sciences — 
 had made observations in wild and uninhabited regions, 
 where civilized foot had never before penetrated, which 
 so enlarged and enriched scientific knowledge that his 
 name went over Europe and America, and won for him 
 the plaudits of Humboldt — and had ameliorated the con- 
 dition, and, in some sort, gratified the longings of a bar- 
 barous people, with w^hom he had no affinities of nation 
 or race, other than the common and universal ties of 
 humanity ! He was, indeed, a man to be honored and 
 respected ; but not contemned or despised. 
 
 In accordance with an old usage of the Senate, Fre- 
 mont and Gwin drev/ lots to decide relative to their 
 senatorial terms ; the term of one-third of the Senators 
 expiring on each alternate 4th of March. The short term 
 fell to the former, consequently expiring in 1851. Not 
 
SENATORIAL LIFE. 95 
 
 having attended the short term of that Congress, his 
 "senatorial service consisted of what remained of the 
 long session, which terminated September 30th — that is, 
 twenty-one days." In that short space of time, however, 
 he evinced a capacity to govern, and a genius for Legis- 
 lation, of which the most celebrated lawgivers might 
 well be proud. He had hardly taken his seat, ere he 
 submitted a resolution, setting forth the necessity, and 
 describing seventeen post-routes, that embraced the 
 whole territory of California. He gave notice of eigh- 
 teen bills, including provisions for the recording of land 
 titles in California ; for the survey of the public lands of 
 California ; for the settlement of private land claims in 
 that State ; and to provide for the erection of land- offices 
 there ; — a bill to grant donations of land to settlers be- 
 fore the cession of the country to the United States, and 
 preemption rights to all subsequent settlers; bills to 
 regulate the workings of mines in California — to extend 
 the laws and judicial system of the United States to the 
 State of California — to refund to said State duties collect- 
 ed at San Francisco and other ports, before the custom- 
 house laws were extended to it — to grant that State pub- 
 lic lands for purposes of education — to grant six town- 
 ships for a university — to grant land to aid in constructing 
 public buildings — to grant land for asylums for the deaf 
 and dumb, for the blind and insane — to grant California 
 twelve salt springs — -to grant the city of Monterey, the 
 old government-house and its grounds — to jjrovide for 
 opening a road across the continent — to grant land for 
 internal improvement — and to j^reserve peace among the 
 Indian tribes, by providing for the extinction of their 
 titles to the gold districts. Here was a complete code 
 of laws, providing for the extension of the functions of 
 the general government, over the various departments 
 of the State, with a foresight and comprehension not un- 
 worthy of the greatest legislators. Nor were his talents 
 .for debate inferior, although generally too diffident or 
 
96 " LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 sensible, to speak either with ostentation or elaboration ; 
 preferring to convey to the Senate what he had to say 
 in brief, plain, and cogent words. 
 
 Mr. Fremont, it is well known, is in favor of " the 
 Pacific railroad." It has been the dream of his life to 
 cement and consolidate the union of trade and inter- 
 course between the vast regions of our country which 
 stretch respectively along the Atlantic and Pacific 
 Oceans. On the 12th day of September he introduced 
 a bill providing for the building of a road across the 
 Sierra Nevada, on the line of the Kio de los Americanos 
 and Carson's Kiver ; which, he designed, should consti- 
 tute a common highway for the intercourse of the people 
 of our western territories and California. Like many 
 other excellent bills, this wise provision was defeated; 
 but the fact that the railroad which is now in process of 
 extension from San Francisco towards the mountains, 
 and which at last will, it is hoped, be continued across 
 the whole continent, more than justifies his sage fore- 
 sight. It is true that his original scheme was vast ; but 
 be it remembered that his conceptions have been always 
 magnificently grand ; and that this idea, of binding to- 
 gether the two oceans by an overland path of iron, is 
 among the most sublime ever before imagined by man ; 
 and that its results, if once accomplished, would be more 
 conducive and beneficial to the happiness and civiliza- 
 tion of the greater moiety of our race, than any other 
 enterprise of modern times. How deeply and sincerely 
 his feelings and convictions are enlisted in favor of his 
 darling scheme, let his own words attest : 
 
 " It seems," says he in the National Intelligencer^ " a 
 treason against mankind and the spirit of progress which 
 marks the age, to refuse to put this one completing link 
 to our national prosperity and the civilization of the 
 world. Europe still lies between Asia and America; 
 build this railroad, and things will have revolved about; 
 America will lie between Asia and Europe, — the golden 
 vein which runs through the history of the world, will 
 
SENATORIAL LIFE. * 97 
 
 follow the iron track to San Francisco, and the Asiatic 
 trade will finally fall into its last and permanent road, 
 when the ancient and the modern Chrjse throw open 
 their gates to the thoroughfare of the world." 
 
 In presenting his bill "to provide for the settlement of 
 private lands in California," Mr. Fremont introduced it 
 in the following manner : 
 
 "The bill conforms to the decisions of the supreme 
 court and to the usual form, with but two exceptions. 
 The first is the provision which makes a decision in favor 
 of the claimant by the commissioners, in the first place, 
 final against the United States. The other provision 
 makes a decision in the district court, in favor of the 
 claimant, also final against the United States. These 
 provisions were introduced for two reasons ; first, to quiet 
 the country, and to contribute to its general prosperity ; 
 but a further reason is, that a decision of their own law 
 officers, their own judges, the arbitrators of the United 
 States, ought to be final against the United States. The 
 people ought not to be kept waiting upon the law, for 
 years perhaps, for an adjudication. I state these reasons, 
 and leave the bill to the Senate, to stand upon its own 
 merits." 
 
 The bill failed. The wisdom in which it was con- 
 ceived, and the clear, brief, and forcible manner in 
 which it was presented, availed nothing. But experience 
 has since fully illustrated how correct the views of 
 Colonel Fremont were. When he appeared, however, 
 as candidate for re-election, his prejudiced and reckless 
 opponents charged him with having introduced this bill 
 w^ith a view to his own personal interest as the purchaser 
 of the Mariposa tract. During the next session of the 
 Senate, in the month of June, 1851, Colonel Fremont 
 being absent, Senator Benton spoke as follows in his 
 behalf : 
 
 " But now, and after what has happened, he no longer 
 feels any hesitation on that account ; and, in conformity 
 to his feelings, I now make an exception which will take 
 
98 ' LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 his case out of the general provisions of the bill, and 
 subject it to run the gauntlet of all the courts, from the 
 lowest to the highest, and from the shores of the Pacific 
 Ocean to the shores of the Atlantic, and against all the 
 counsel which the substitute bill authorizes to be em- 
 ployed. He is willing to run the gauntlet of all this, 
 according to his letter in relation to the Mariposa estate, 
 which was read yesterday; but he is not willing that 
 other claimants should be so subjected, or that his exer- 
 tions in their behalf should be weakened by the suppo- 
 sition of an interested motive." 
 
 In answer to an inquiry on the subject of his Indian 
 bill, Mr. Fremont said : 
 
 " The general policy of Spain, in her Indian relations, 
 was the same as that which was afterwards adopted by 
 all Europe, and recognized by the United States. The 
 Indian right of occupation was respected, but the ulti- 
 mate dominion remained in the Crown. Wherever the 
 policy of Spain differed from that of the other European 
 nations, it was alw^ays in favor of the Indians. Grants 
 of lands were always made subject to their rights of 
 occupancy, reserving to them the right to resume it even 
 in cases where it had been abandoned at the time of the 
 grant. Bat the Indian right to the lands in property, 
 under the Spanish laws, consisted not merely in posses- 
 sion, but extended even to that of alienation ; a right 
 recognized and affirmed in the decisions of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States. A claim to lands in East 
 Florida, under a title derived from grants by the Creek 
 and Seminole Indians, and ratified by the local authori- 
 ties of Spain before the cession of Florida to the United 
 States, was confirmed. 
 
 " I have here in my hand a volume of Spanish laws 
 published in the city of Mexico in 184:9, and purporting 
 to contain all the legislation on this subject which was 
 in force in Mexico up to that date. These laws extend 
 from 1533, some twelve years after the conquest of 
 Mexico by Cortez, to 1817. The policy of Spain in 
 regard to the Indians, difiered somewhat from that of 
 the United States, and particularly in this : that, instead 
 
SENATORIAL LIFE. 99 
 
 of removing the Indians from amidst the Spanish popu- 
 lation, it kept tliem there, and protected thein in the 
 possession of their lands among their civilized neighbors, 
 having always in view tlie leading object of converting 
 them to the Christian religion. To this end the power 
 of the government was always directed ; it was a national 
 object, and, in great part, was a governing principle in 
 the laws of which they were the subject. I will not 
 occupy the time of the Senate by reading at length the 
 several laws, but will merely make a few statements of 
 such particular parts as bear directly upon the rights in 
 question. 
 
 " A royal order of Charles Y., a supreme law in Spain, 
 of the year 1533, decreed that the woods, pasture lands, 
 and water contained in any grants of signiories, which 
 had been or should be made in the Indies, should be 
 common to Spaniards and Indians. Another royal order 
 of 1687 (confirming and extending an ordinance of the 
 viceroy. Count Saint Stephen, of the year 1567) com- 
 manded that in all the villages of Indians throughout all 
 ITew Spain, who needed land to live upon and sow, there 
 should be given to them a space of five hundred yards, 
 and as much more as they had any need of for cultiva- 
 tion around their village, measuring from the furthest 
 outside house, and if the village happened to be a large 
 one, an unlimited quantity should be allowed, and that 
 thereafter no grant of pasture ground or lands should be 
 given to any one within eleven hundred yards of the 
 most outside house of the population." 
 
 Mr. Fremont has ever been a zealous champion of 
 labor. He it was, who, during his brief senatorial term, 
 introduced a bill, w^hich became a law ; and which, in 
 spite of a studied and pertinacious opposition, prevented a 
 tax from being levied upon gold, and secured to the miner 
 the entire product of his labor. The bill came up for " dis- 
 cussion on the 24th of September : a strenuous eftbrt was 
 made to amend it by substituting a provision that all 
 gold extracted from the mines or placers of California, 
 should be and remain the property of the United States, 
 and delivered over accordingly, the miner to receive i1 
 
100 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 back at a certain rate, which would leaTe a percentage 
 in the hands of Government. The Senate, convinced by 
 the statements of the California Senator, rejected this 
 amendment." Mr. Fremont proceeded on the 25th of 
 September, to enter, at greater length than was his cus- 
 tom, upon the defence of his views. He introduced his 
 remarks as follows : 
 
 " The very advanced period of the session when we 
 obtained our seats, and were able to bring forw^ard the 
 California business, induced me to take a course in rela- 
 tion to our bills which I thought most agreeable to the 
 Senate and best suited to secure for them a favorable 
 consideration. This was not to use the indulgence of 
 the Senate for making speeches, but to confine myself to 
 a brief exposition of the nature and principles of a bill 
 when it should be called up, and then to answer, as well 
 as I could, the inquiries and objections of senators either 
 to principles or details. But I find such a course diffi- 
 cult on this bill, which introduces a new subject, and 
 one which, from its novelty and importance, excites, and 
 ought to excite, much interest, and requires close exami- 
 nation. The principles of this bill, as I have already 
 stated them, are, to exclude all idea of making a national 
 revenue out of these mines, to prevent the possibility of 
 monopolies by moneyed capitalists, and to give to natu- 
 ral CAPITAL, that is to say, to labok and industry, a fair 
 chance to w^ork, and the secure enjojanent of what they 
 find. To carry out these principles to their just results, 
 all the details of the bill are carefully directed." 
 
 After some remarks pointing out the evils that would 
 flow from the adoption of a difi'erent system, urged by 
 some senators, he proceeded to explain that provided for 
 in his bill, as follow^s : 
 
 "The quantity allowed to each person is ample, con- 
 sidering the privilege he has of changing his location as 
 often as he pleases, and selling his lot when he is ofier- 
 ed a good price. Thirty feet square is to be the size of 
 a lot, to be worked by manual labor, in a placer ; two 
 
SENATORIAL LIFE. 101 
 
 hundred and ten feet, or about one acre, is to be the size 
 of a lot in a mine, to be worked by machinery, in the 
 rock. 
 
 " A ph\cer lot, accordingly, contains nine hundred 
 superticial feet, with a depth to the centre of the earth. 
 A cube of these dimensions would be twenty-seven thou- 
 sand solid feet ; and if a place of tolerable richness is 
 found, an industrious man may say his fortune is made. 
 Sooner or later every industrious man may expect to 
 iind a good lot ; and whether he sells it or works it, his 
 reward will be ample. 
 
 " If he sells, he may take another permit, and work 
 on until he makes another good disco verj^, and either 
 sells this or exhausts it ; and so on, until he is satisfied, 
 or the mining exhausted. Wherever he may plant his 
 stake, exclusive possession is guaranteed to the miner, so 
 long as he works his mining lot, or to his assignee, if 
 sold, or to his legal representatives, in the event of his 
 death. All that he finds is to be his own — there is no 
 tax to be paid ; no per centum — no fifth, or tenth, or 
 twentieth to the government ; no officer to stand over 
 the miner and require him to give an account of all he 
 finds, and surrender up a part to the Federal govern- 
 ment, — all is his own that he has the industry to collect; 
 and for these multiplied advantages, with the protection 
 of law and the security of order, the citizen pays only 
 one dollar a month for as many months as he may choose, 
 not exceeding twelve, with a preemptive right to con- 
 tinue his own lot. This nominal sum of one dollar a 
 month is all that the bill proposes for him to pay ; and 
 while it will be sufficient to indemnify the government 
 for all expenses, and to yield a respectable sum besides, 
 it will be no burden on the miner; he will not feel it, 
 but will pay it cheerfully in return for the advantages 
 which the permit secures him. 
 
 " I am glad to find that the Senate evinces no disposi- 
 tion to create revenue by heavy taxes on the gold mines 
 of our State, and that the liberal principles of this bill, 
 from the votes already taken, are likely to prevail in 
 this Chamber. 
 
 " I think that this Government should look for increase 
 of revenues to the expanded commerce which the dis- 
 
102 LIFE OF FEEMONT. 
 
 covery of these gold mines has created in the Pacific 
 Ocean. 
 
 " Oppressive taxes on the precious metals are well 
 suited to a government like that of Spain, which derived 
 one of its chief supports from its mines in New Spain ; 
 which used the labor of the people only to create rev- 
 enue ; which demanded from them the first-fruits of the 
 earth, and taxed every thing which it did not monopo- 
 lize, and every thing in the same proportion — agricultu- 
 ral products as well as mines — a tenth of the whole, and 
 all to support the extravagant expenditures of its arbi- 
 trary monarchs. In consequence of these oppressive 
 exactions, ninety-nine were ruined out of a hundred who 
 engaged in gold- mining operations in her dependencies. 
 But we have adopted a wiser course. Reason and ex- 
 perience teach us the folly as well as the injustice of 
 attempting such exactions from the people. We have 
 seen their failure on a small scale in our own lead-mine 
 leasing, and we have before us the result of their opera- 
 tion under the elaborate system and arbitrary power of 
 Spain, which, with all their extravagant taxes, yielded, 
 in those years of which I have any account, and at a 
 flourishing period of the mines, a revenue of only 
 about $60,000 per annum from the gold-mines of 'New 
 Spain. 
 
 Mexico found out the folly of this course, and, imme- 
 diately after her independence in 1831, abolished these 
 multiplied taxes, and substituted for them alia simple duty 
 of three per cent. Heavy taxes had almost destroyed 
 this branch of her revenues, and liberal provisions were 
 made to resuscitate it. The quicksilver mines were given 
 to all who would work them, free of all tax and all kind 
 of duty. Rewards of $25,000 each were decreed to the 
 first four operators who should extract a certain quantity 
 of the metal— the miners were exempted from all per- 
 sonal contributions and all military service — and all to 
 restore what taxation had ruined. We cannot, certain- 
 ly, go back from what Mexico has done, and take np 
 the abandoned system of old Spain ; and I trust that, 
 while we repudiate taxation, we shall also avoid anarchy 
 and disorder, and give to the country some such brief 
 and simple code of regulations, as will secure to every 
 
SENATORIAL LIFE. . 103 
 
 man the peaceable exercise of his industry, and the pos- 
 session and enjoyment of what he gains." 
 
 Dm-ing his brief term in the Senate, the amount of 
 labor which he accomplished was extremely wonderful. 
 Many of the bills which he introduced were rejected ; 
 but time and events that have transpired since in Cali- 
 fornia, bear irrefutable testimony to the wisdom, justice, 
 and foresight with which they were conceived. 
 
 Soon after the close of the session of Congress, Mr. 
 Fremont returned by the Isthmus to California. He 
 was attacked by a severe fever at Panama, which so 
 paralyzed his left side with a neuralgic affection, that he 
 was compelled to keep within his apartments during a 
 long and protracted i^eriod. This dreadful affliction 
 prevented him from returning to Washington, and serv- 
 ing out the residue of his term. At the ensuing elec- 
 tion, he became candidate for reelection, and formed the 
 acquaintance of Governor Charles Robinson, then a 
 member of the California legislature. Both, shoulder to 
 shoulder, commenced their struggles against the aggres- 
 sions of slavery ; and both formed a lasting friendship, 
 while battling together, to save the new State from the 
 blighting slime of African bondage ! They succeeded : 
 but the encroachment of the slave power soon compel- 
 led them to direct their sympathies and attention to 
 poor suffering Kansas. At the election which we have 
 mentioned, Fremont received 140 ballots, every native 
 Californian having voted for him. There was no elec- 
 tion, however, the whole subject being postponed to the 
 next legislature. 
 
 His attention was next directed to cattle-raising, and 
 his knowledge of this business soon enabled him to add 
 another link to the long chain of services w4iich he had 
 already rendered to his country. An act of Congress 
 was passed in 1850, authorizing the President to appoint 
 commissioners to treat wdth the Indian tribes of Califor- 
 
104: LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 nia ; then in a condition tliat oscillated between starva- 
 tion and revolt. The great influx of gold-diggers in the 
 San Joaquin Yalley, compelled the poor savages to fly 
 to the mountains, where they were entirely destitute of 
 every means of subsistence, and subject to hunger 
 and disease. With twenty-one of these tribes, the com- 
 missioners entered into treaties ; stipulating to furnish 
 them with a sufficient allowance of beef, upon their sur- 
 rendering the gold regions, to enable them to locate 
 in other lands of less mineral value. Colonel Barbour 
 of Kentucky was one of the commissioners, and by au- 
 thority from his coadjutors, he entered into a contract 
 %oith the lowest hidder^ Colonel Fremont, who, upon his 
 part, engaged to execute it (as he did) with entire satis- 
 faction to all parties. With his usual energetic activity, 
 he proceeded to the southern part of the State, collected a 
 vast number of cattle, hired drivers, and accompanied 
 and superintended the drove himself throughout its march, 
 in the heat of summer. He lost over 400 head of cattle 
 on the route, delivered to the Government 1,225,500 
 pounds of beef on tlie hoof, and accepted as payment 
 the drafts drawn by the Commissioners on the Secretary 
 of the Interior. It is notorious that the beef thus fur- 
 nished was the means of securing peace to the miners, 
 and of saving the nation from the expenses of an Indian 
 war. Yet, notwithstanding all this, the Senate rejected 
 the contract ; and the drafts against the Secretary of the 
 Interior were dishonored. Mr. Fremont was compelled 
 to have recourse to a special act of Congress. For more 
 than three years he was kept out of his money. The 
 thirty-third Congress at last discharged this just debt. 
 A bill passed both Houses unanimously, paying him the 
 principal, and a reasonable rate of interest, the whole 
 amounting to about $240,000. 
 
 His difficulties were not all over yet. His undoubted 
 and honestly acquired rights were once more invaded. 
 The " Mariposa purchase," as it was called, was regard- 
 
SENATORIAL LIFE. 105 
 
 ed, when first heard of, as a sorry bargain ; indeed, as a 
 wretched speculation. So long as this continued to be 
 the prevalent opinion, Mr. Fremont w^as left in its undis- 
 turbed possession and enjoyment. But it happened to 
 be exceedingly rich in the precious metal ; and no sooner 
 did this fact become generally known, than his enemies, 
 in private life, questioned the legality of his title to it, 
 and, to its great shame be it related, the government fol- 
 lowed their example. He had employed an agent in 
 England, authorized with the usual powers ; and he had 
 executed, accordingly, leases to various parties. Find- 
 ing that his title was disputed, and well knowing the un- 
 certainty of litigation, Mr. Fremont, with that eminent 
 degree of rectitude which has ever marked his life, re- 
 paired at once to the Atlantic States ; and from thence, 
 accompanied by his family, proceeded to England, where 
 he ariived in the spring of 18o2. The object of this 
 journey was to discontinue the transactions of his agents ; 
 and to save purchasers from the possible embarrassments 
 that might grow out of their disputed titles. But all went 
 well, honesty had her triumph, and the enemies of Fre- 
 mont w^ere once more defeated and confounded. The 
 Mariposa property is of great value. To meet the various 
 expenses incident to a harassing and tedious litigation, it 
 was necessary to convey one-half of it to another party. 
 It contains seventy square miles, and already includes a 
 population of about 10,000. 
 
 While in England, Mr. Fremont was arrested and im- 
 prisoned ; the cause and circumstances attendant upon 
 which proceedings may be thus stated : It will be re- 
 membered that he was appointed Military Governor of 
 California by Commodore Stockton, soon after the con- 
 quest of that State. In the spring of 184T, he had drawn 
 several drafts upon Mr. Buchanan, then Secretaiy of 
 State, to enable him to obtain supplies for his troops. 
 But Congress made no appropriations to meet these de- 
 mands, and they were, consequently, dishonored at Wash- 
 
 6* 
 
106 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 ington. It was at the instance of the holder of some of 
 these drafts, that Mr. Fremont, while handing his lady 
 into a carriage, in front of the Clarendon Hotel, was ar- 
 rested by a solicitor's clerk and four brutal London con- 
 stables. He was engaged to dine that day with Mr. 
 Sturgis, and was, when arrested, departing for the resi- 
 dence of that gentleman. His good lady, with character- 
 istic promptitude and presence of mind, dispatched a 
 message to Mr. Sturgis, explaining the cause of their 
 absence, and then drove directly to the house of the 
 American Minister in London, the Hon. Abbott Law- 
 rence. But Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Bates, and Mr. Bancroft 
 Davis, were also invited to Mr. Sturgis's party ; and the 
 former happened to be, consequently, absent, when Mrs. 
 Fremont arrived at his residence. Mr. Davis was Secre- 
 tary of Legation, and upon hearing of this affair, he im- 
 mediately visted Mr. Fremont. E"ext day Mr. George 
 Peabody procured the release of the saviour of Cali- 
 fornia ! 
 
 During Mr. Fremont's sojourn in Europe, however, 
 he was received, wherever he went, with the most mark- 
 ed resjDect, deference, and distinction, by the most emi- 
 nent scholars, scientificists, and statesmen, of the old 
 world. He was elected honorary member of many of 
 the oldest and most learned societies known to modern 
 civilization. 
 
 Immediately upon his return, in August, 1853, he 
 started on his fifth and last expedition, determined upon 
 the problematic probability of a trans-continental rail- 
 road between the two Oceans. Col. Benton shared in 
 the expense of this expedition ; and it is to it that the 
 veteran statesman alludes, in the concluding sentence of 
 his chapter relative to the fourth exjDedition. 
 
 Months elapsed, but no intelligence was received from 
 the great explorer. The public anxiety relative to his 
 fate was serious. Rumors were circulated that he had 
 at length fallen a victim to his temerity. It was not 
 
FIFTH EXPEDITION 107 
 
 until April, 1854, that those sad forebodings and appre- 
 hensions were dispelled. Colonel Babbitt, Secretary of 
 Utah Territory, met Mr. Fremont on the 8th of Febru- 
 ary, and npon his arrival in California, published in the 
 public journals, an account of his interview with him. 
 The National Intelligencer of April, 1854, contained the 
 following remarks and communication which eifectually 
 quieted all apprehensions : 
 
 " It gives us great pleasure to insert the subjoined let- 
 ter from Colonel Fremont, not only because it contra- 
 dicts the exaggerated reports of deaths sustained by his 
 party, and assures us of the intrepid explorer's own safety, 
 after his two months' bold journey through the mountain 
 wilds in mid-winter, but because his success seems fully 
 to have established the favorable nature of the central 
 route for a railroad in winter as well as summer : 
 
 " ' Paraavan, Iron Co., Utah TERRrroEy, Feb. 9, 1854. 
 
 " ' My Dear Sir : I have had the good fortune to meet 
 here our friend Mr. Babbitt, the Secretary of the Terri- 
 tory, who is on his way to Washington, in charge of the 
 mail and other very interesting dispatches, the import- 
 tance of which is urging him forward with extreme ra- 
 pidity. He passes directly on this morning, and I have 
 barely a few moments to give you intelligence of our 
 safe arrival, and of our general good health and reasona- 
 ble success in the object of our expedition. 
 
 " ' This winter has hap]3ened to be one of extreme and 
 unusual cold. Here, the citizens inform me, it has been 
 altogether the severest since the settlement of this valley ; 
 consequently, so far as the snows are concerned, the main 
 condition of our exploration has been fulfilled. We en- 
 tered the mountain regions on the Huerfano Eiver on 
 the 3d of December, and issued from it here on the 7th of 
 this month, arriving here yesterday afternoon. We went 
 through the Coochatope Pass on the 14th of December, 
 with four inches, — not feet take notice, but inches — of 
 snow on the level, among the pines and in the shade on 
 the summit of the Pass. This decides what you consider 
 the great question, and fulfils the leading condition of 
 
108 LIFE OF FEEMONT. 
 
 my explorations ; and therefore I go no farther into de- 
 tails in this letter. 
 
 '' ' I congratulate you on this verification of your judg- 
 ment, and the good prospect it holds out of final success 
 in carrying the road by this central line. Nature has 
 been bountiful to this region in accumulating here, within 
 a iew miles of where I atn writing, vast deposits of iron 
 and coal and timber, all of the most excellent quality ; 
 and a great and powerful interior State will spring up 
 immediately in the steps of the Congressional action 
 which should decide to carry the road through this re- 
 gion. In making my expedition to this point, I save 
 nearly a parallel of* latitude, shortening the usual distance 
 from Green River to this point by over a hundred miles. 
 In crossing to the Sierra Nevada, I shall go direct by an 
 unexplored route, aiming to strike directly the Tejon 
 Passes, at the head of the San Joaquin valle)^, through 
 which, in 1850, I drove from two to three thousand head 
 of cattle that I delivered to the Indian Commissioners. 
 I shall make what speed I possibly can, going light, and 
 abandoning the more elaborated survey of my previous 
 line, to gain speed. 
 
 '' ' Until within about a hundred miles of this place, 
 we had daguerreotyped the country over wdiich we pass- 
 ed, but were forced to abandon all our heavy baggage 
 to save the men, and I shall not stop to send back for it. 
 The Delawares all came in sound, but the whites of my 
 party w^ere all exhausted and broken up, and more or 
 less frost bitten. I lost one, Mr. Fuller, of St. Louis, Mis- 
 souri, wdio died on entering this valley. He died like a 
 man, on horseback, in his saddle, and will be buried like 
 a soldier on the spot where he fell. 
 
 " ' I hope soon to see you in "Washington. Mr. Bab- 
 bitt expects to see you before the end of March. Among 
 other documents which he carries with him are the Maps 
 and Report of Captain Gunnison\^ party . 
 
 " ' Sincerely and affectionately, 
 
 '' ' John -C. Fkemont. 
 " ' Col. Benton, Washington. 
 
 " P. S. This is the Little Salt Lake settlement, and* 
 was commenced three years since. Population now four 
 
THE KANSAS QUESTION. 109 
 
 himdrecl, and one death by sickness since tlie settlement 
 was made. We have been most hospitably received. 
 Mr. Babbitt has been particularlj kind, and has render- 
 ed me Yerj vahiable assistance." ' 
 
 When he returned from his long and perilous explora- 
 tion in 1854, the manifestations of public joy throughout 
 the United States were certainly very great. The lead- 
 ing journals of the Union contained elaborate articles in 
 his praise, and explanatory of the services which he had 
 rendered to his country. From such sources it is unne- 
 cessary to cull any exti-acts here, since our space is lim- 
 ited ; and the events made public then, relative to the 
 great and dreadful hardships of " The Fifth Expedition," 
 are yet fresh in the memory of all. 
 
 From this time up to the Kansas depredations, the 
 life of Mr. Fremont presents no features in the relation 
 of which the public would take an interest; but the 
 strong I'aith which experience and observation taught 
 him to place in free labor, revolted at the idea of extend- 
 ing the crime of slavery upon American soil. On the 
 17th of last March, he addressed a letter to Governor 
 Robinson, from which we make the following extract : 
 
 " I had been waiting to see what shape the Kansas 
 question would take in Congress, that I might be enabled 
 to give you some views in relation to the probable result. 
 JSTothing yet has been accomplished ; but I am satisfied 
 that in the end Congress will take efficient measures to 
 lay before the American people the exact truth concei-n- 
 ing your affairs. Neither you nor I can have any doubt 
 what verdict the people will pronounce, upon a truthful 
 exposition. It is to be feared, from the proclamation of 
 the President, that he intends to recognize the usurpa- 
 tion in Kansas as the legitimate government, and that 
 its sedition law, the test oath, and the means to be taken 
 to expel its people as aliens, will all directly or indirectly 
 be supported by the army of the United States. Your 
 position will undoubtedly be difficult, but you know I 
 have great confidence in your firmness and prudence. 
 When the critical moment arrives, you must act for your- 
 
110 LIFE OP FREMONT. 
 
 self — no man can give 3-011 counsel. A true man will 
 always find his best counsel in that inspiration which a 
 good cause never fails to give him at the instant of trial. 
 All history teaches us that great results are ruled by a 
 wise Providence, and we are but units in the great plan. 
 Your action will be determined by events as they pre- 
 sent themselves, and at this distance I can only say that 
 I sympathize cordially with you ; and that as you stood 
 by me firmly and generously when we were defeated by 
 the 'I^ullifiers in California, I have every disposition to 
 to stand by you in the same way in your battle with 
 them in Kansas." 
 
 Such is the man, nominated on the 18th day of June, 
 at Philadelphia, b}^ the National Eepublican Conven- 
 tion, for President of the United States. We here 
 insert, as adopted by that Convention, 
 
 THE EEPUBLICAN PLATFORM. 
 
 Resolved, That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in tie 
 Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution 
 is essential to the preservation of our Republican institutions ; and that 
 the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the Union of the 
 States, shall be preserved. 
 
 Resolved, That with our Republican fathers we hold it to be a self- 
 evident truth that all men are endowed with the inalienable right to 
 life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary object 
 and ulterior design of our Federal Government wei-e to secure these 
 rights to all persons under its exclusive jurisdiction — that as our Repub- 
 lican fathers, when they had abolished (Slavery in all our National Ter- 
 ritory, ordained that no person should be deprived of life, hberty, or 
 property without due process of law, it becomes our duty to maintain 
 this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it for 
 the purpose of establishing Slavery in the Territtiries of the United 
 States by positive legislation, prohibiting its existence or extension 
 therein. That we deny the authority of Congress, of a Territorial Leg- 
 islature, of any individual, or association of individuals, to give legal 
 existence to Slavery in any Territory of the United States, while the 
 present Constitution shall be maintained. That the Constitution confers 
 upon Congress sovereign power over the Territories of the United States 
 for their government, and that in the exercise of this power it is both 
 the right and tbe imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the Terri- 
 tory those twin relics of barbarism — Polygams' and Slavery. 
 
 Resolved, That while the Constitution of the United States was or- 
 dained and established in order to form a more perfect Union, establish 
 justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, 
 promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty, and 
 contains ample provisions for the protection of the life, liberty, and 
 
REPUBLICi\N PLATFORM. Ill 
 
 property of every citizen, the dearest coustitutional rights of the people 
 of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently taken from them — their 
 Territory has been invaded by an armed force — spurious and pretended 
 legislative, judicial, and executive officers have been set over them, by 
 whose usurped authority, sustained by the military power of the Gov- 
 ernment, tyrannical and unconstitutional laws have been enacted and 
 enforced — the rights of the people to keep and bear arms have been 
 infringed — test oaths of an extraordinary and entangling nature have 
 been imposed, as a condition of exercising the right of suffrage and hold- 
 ing office — the right of an accused person to a speedy and public trial 
 by an impartial jury has been denied — the right of the people to be 
 secure in their houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search 
 and seizure has been violated — they have been deprived of life, liberty, 
 and property without process of law — that the freedom of speech and of 
 the press has been abridged — the right to choose their representatives 
 has been made of no effect — murders, robberies, and arsons have been 
 instigated or encouraged, and the offenders have been allov^ed to go 
 unpunished; that all these things have been done with the knowledge, 
 sanction, and procurement of the present National Administration, and 
 that for this high crime against the Constitution, the Union, and Hu- 
 manity, we arraign that Administration, the President, his advisers, 
 agents, supporters, apologists, and accomplices, — either before or after 
 the fact — before the country and before the world; and that it is our 
 fixed purpose to bring the actual perpetrators of these atrocious out- 
 rages, and their accomplices, to a sure and sudden punishment here- 
 after. 
 
 jResoIved, That Kansas should be immediately admitted as a State of 
 the Union with her present free Constitution, as at once the most effect- 
 ual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyment of the rights and priv- 
 ileges to which they are entitled, and of ending the civil strife now 
 raging in her Territory. 
 
 Resolved, That the highwayman's plea, that " might makes right," em- 
 bodied in the Ostend Circular, was in every respect unworthy of Ameri- 
 can Diplomacy, and would bring shame and dishonor upon any Govern- 
 ment or people tliat gave it their sanction. 
 
 Resolved, That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, by the most central and 
 practicable route, is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole 
 country, and that the Federal Government ought to render immediate 
 and efficient aid in its construction, and as an auxiliary thereto the im- 
 mediate construction of an emigrant route on the line of the railroad. 
 
 Resolved, That appropriations by Congress for the improvement of 
 Rivers and Harbors, and of a National character, required for the accom- 
 modation and security of an existing commerce, are authorized by the 
 Constitution, and justified by the obligation of Government, to protect 
 the lives and property of its citizens. 
 
 Resolved, That we invite tlie affiliation and co-operation of the men of 
 all parties, however differing from us in other respects, in support of the 
 principles herein declared ; and believing that the spirit of our institu- 
 tions, as well as the Constitution of our country, guarantees liberty of 
 conscience and equality of rights among citizens, we oppose all proscrip- 
 tive legislation affecting their security. 
 
 The following letter was then addressed to Colonel 
 Fremont, by the Committee of the Rejpublican Conven- 
 
112 LIFE OF FREMONT. 
 
 tion, apprising him of his nomination as candidate for 
 President : 
 
 " Phtladiclphia, June 19, 1856. 
 "Sir: A Convention of Delegates, assembled at Pliiladel])hia on ITth, 
 I8th, and 19th days of June, 1856, under a call addressed to the people 
 of tlie United States, without regard to past political differences or 
 divisions, who are opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, 
 to the policy of the present Administration, to the extension of Slavery 
 into Free Territory, in favor of the admission of Kansas as a Free State, 
 and of restoring the action of the Federal Government to the principles 
 of Washington and Jefferson, adopted a declaration of pi-inciples and 
 purposes lor which they are united in political action — a copy of which 
 we liave the honor to inclose — and unanimously nominated you as their 
 candidate for the office of President of the United States at the ap- 
 proaching election, as the chosen representative of those principles in 
 this important political contest, and with the assured conviction that 
 you would give them full practical operation, should the suffrages of 
 the people of the Union place you at the head of the National Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " The undersigned were directed by the Convention to communicate 
 to you the fact of your nomination, and to request you in their name, 
 and, as they believe, in the name of a large majority of the people of 
 the country, to accept it. 
 
 "Offering you the assurance of our high personal respect, we are, 
 your fellow-citizens, 
 
 "H. S. LANE, 
 
 " President of the Convention. 
 
 "JAMES M. ASHLEY. 
 
 "ANTHONY J. BLEECKER. 
 
 "JOSEPH C. HOKNBLOWER. 
 
 "E. R. HOAR. 
 
 "THADDEUS STEVENS. 
 
 "KINSLEY S. BINGHAM. 
 
 "JOHN A. WILLS. 
 
 "C. F. CLEVELAND. 
 
 "CYRUS ALDRICH. 
 "To John C. Fremont, of California." 
 
 To this letter, Mr. Fremont returned the subjoined 
 reply : 
 
 " New York, July 8, 1856. 
 "Gentlemen: You call me to a high responsibihty by placing me in 
 the van of a great movement of the People of the United States, who, 
 with<jut regard to past differences, are uniting in a common effort to 
 bring back the action of the Federal Government to the principles of 
 Washington and Jeffer^on. Comprehending the magnitu.le of the trust 
 whirh ihey have de<-lai ed themselves willing to place in mv hands, and 
 deejdy sensible of the honor which their unreserved coiifidt^nce, in this 
 tlireaieiiing position of the public affairs, implies, I feel that I cannot 
 better respond tlian \>y a sincere declaration that, in the event of mj 
 election to the Presidency, I should enter upon the execution of its 
 duties with a single-hearted determination to promote the good of the 
 
NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 113 
 
 whole country, and to direct solely to this end all the power of the 
 Government, irrespoctive of paity issues and regardless of sectional 
 strifes. The declaration of principles embodied in the resolves of your 
 Convention expresses the sentiments in which I have been educated, 
 and which have been ripened inio convictions by personal observation 
 and experience. With this declaration and avowal, I think it necessary 
 to revert to only two of the subjects embraced in those resolutions, and 
 to these only because events have surrounded them with grave and 
 critical circumstances, and given to them especial importance. 
 
 " I concur in the views of the Convention deprecating the Foreign 
 policy to which it adverts. The assumption that we have the right to 
 take from another nation its domains because we want them, is an 
 abandonment of the honest character which our country has acquired. 
 To provoke hostilities by unjust assumptions, would be to sacritice the 
 peace and character oi^ the country, when all its interests might be 
 more certainly secuied and its objects attained by just and healing 
 counsels involving no loss of reputation. International embarrassments 
 are maiidy the results of a secret diplomacy, which aims to keep from 
 the knowledge of the People the operations of the Government. This 
 system is inconsistent with the character of our institutions, and is itself 
 yielding gradually to a more enlightened public opinion, and to the 
 power of a free press, which, by its broad dissemination of political in- 
 teMierence, secures in advance to the side of justice the judgment of the 
 civilized world. An honest, firm, and open policy in our foreign rela- 
 tions, would command the united support of tlie nation, whose deliberate 
 opinions it would necessarily reflect. 
 
 " Nothing is clearer in the history of our institutions than the design 
 of the nation, in asserting its own independence and freedom, to a\oid 
 giving countenance to the Extension of Slavery. Tlie influence of the 
 small but compact and powerful class of men interested in Slavery, who 
 command one section of the country and wield a vast political control 
 as a consequence in the other, is now directed to turn back this impulse 
 of the Revolution and reverse its principles. The Extension of Slavery 
 across the Continent is the object of the power which now rules the 
 Government ; and from this spirit has sprung those kindred wrongs in 
 Kansas so truly portrayed in one of your resolutions, which prove that 
 the elements of the most arbitrary governments have not been van- 
 quished by the just theory of our own. 
 
 " It would be out of place here to pledge myself to any particular 
 policy that has been suggested to terminate the sectional controversy 
 engendered by political animosities, operating on a powerful class band' 
 ed together by a common interest. A practical remedy is the admis^ 
 sion of Kansas into the Union as a Free State. The South should, in 
 my judgment, earnestly desire such consummation. It would vindicate 
 its good faith. It would correct the mistake of the repeal; and the 
 North, having pract'cally the benefit of the agreement between the two 
 sections, would be satisfied and good feeling l)e restored. Tlie measure 
 is perfectly consi^tcnt with the honor of the §outh and yital to its in- 
 tere.-ts. That fatal act which gave birth to this purely sectional strife, 
 originating in the scheme to take from Free Labor the country secured 
 to it by a solenui covenant, cannot be too soon disarmed of its |)erniciou3 
 force. The only genial region of the middle latitudes left to the emi- 
 grants of the Northern States for homes cannot be conquei-ed from the 
 Free Laborers who have long considered it as set apart for them in ogr 
 
114 LIFE OF FREMOXT. 
 
 inheritance, without provokin^^ a desperate strnggle. Whatever may 
 be the persistence of the particular class which seems ready to hazard 
 every thing for the success of the unjust scheme it has partially effect- 
 ed, I firmly believe that the great heart of the nation, "which throbs 
 with the patriotism of the Freemen of both sections will have power to 
 overcome it. They will look to the rights secured to them by the Con- 
 stitution of the Union as the best safeguard from the oppression of the 
 class which, by a monopoly of the Soil and of Slave Labor to till it, 
 might in time reduce them to the extremity of laboring upon the same 
 terms with the slaves. The great body of JN'on-Slaveholding Freemen, 
 including those of the South, upon whose welfare Slavery is an oppres- 
 sion, will discover that the power of the General Government over the 
 Public Lands may be beneficially exerted to advance their interests and 
 secure their independence: knowing this, their suffrages will not be 
 wanting to maintain that authority in the Union which is absolutely es- 
 sential to the maintenance of their own liberties, and which has more 
 than once indicated the purpose of disposing of the Public Lands in 
 such a way as would make every settler upon them a freeholder. 
 
 "If the People intrust to me the administration of the Government, 
 the laws of Congress in relation to the Territories shall be faithfully 
 executed. All its authority shall be exerted in aid of the National will 
 to reestablish the peace of the country on the just principles which have 
 heretofore received the sanction of the Federal Government, of the 
 States, and of the People of both sections. Such a policy would leave 
 no aliment to that sectional party which seeks its aggrandizement by 
 appropriating the new Territories to capital in the form of Slavery, but 
 ■would inevitably result in the triumph of Free Labor — the natural 
 capital which constitutes the real wealth of this great country, and 
 creates that intelligent power in the masses alone to be relied on as the 
 bulwark of free institutions. 
 
 " Trusting that I have a heart capable of comprehending our whole 
 country, with its varied interests, and confident that patriotism exists 
 in all parts of the Union, I accept the nomination of your Convention, 
 in the hope that I may be enabled to serve usefully its cause, which 
 I consider the cause of Constitutional Freedom. 
 " Very respectfull}^ 
 
 "Your obedient servant, 
 
 "J. C. FREMONT. 
 
 "To Messrs. H. S. Lane, (President,) James C. Ashley, Anthony J. 
 Bleecker, Joseph C. Hornblower, E, R. Hoar, Thaddeus Stevens, 
 Kinsley S. Bingham, John A. Wills, 0. F. Cleveland, Cyrus 
 Aldrich, Committee, &c" 
 
 We have now completed our task. We have set forth 
 a brief sketch of " The Life, Explorations, Adventures, 
 and Public Services of John Charles Fremont," Repub- 
 lican Nominee for the Presidency — the hope, and chosen 
 representative of the Freemen of the most gigantic, 
 mighty, and prosperous Republic, that the world has 
 ever seen. We have, also, laid before the reader the 
 
A LIFE WORTHY OF IMITATION. 115 
 
 platform of political principles upon which rest the grand 
 ethics of the Republican party. And we have given 
 Colonel Fremont's letter, cordially accepting the nomi- 
 nation of this party, declaring his approval of, and adher- 
 ence to, the line of policy indicated in its platform, and 
 pledging himself to its support. 
 
 A few additional lines will now bring us to a close. 
 
 The life of Colonel Fremont presents an example singu- 
 larly worthy of emulation. He is not yet forty-four years 
 of age ; but there is no other man in either hemisphere, 
 at once so youthful in days and old in experience as he is. 
 His career has been crowned with more brilliant suc- 
 cesses, and greater and more lasting public services, than 
 that of any other living man born within the present 
 century. His schemes have been always vast, generous, 
 and perilous ; and the success with which he accom- 
 plished those grand designs, originated by himself, ro- 
 mantically marvellous. The affability of his manner, 
 and the generosity of his nature, were ever certain to 
 win for him the love and esteem of all with whom he 
 came in contact, whether savage or civilized ; and his 
 wisdom, self denial, and firmness, never failed to wring 
 obedience from obstinacy. Indeed, it would seem that 
 such a man was designed by J^ature to be the saviour 
 and regenerator of a great nation ! 
 
 With regard to the political ethics which he now 
 stands pledged to support, they require neither eulogy 
 nor illustration from us. Constitutional to the letter, 
 they are more ancient than the oldest written laws, were 
 coeval with history, and are to-day universal as civili- 
 zation. They had their primal roots in the intuitive 
 sense which God first planted in the mind of man, 
 whereby he enabled him to distinguish eight from wrong. 
 
A BOOK THAT WILL MAKE ITS MARK! 
 
 The undersigned have the satisfaction of announcing to the Public 
 and the Trade that they have just published an original work of 
 fiction of unusual interest and merit, by an American author, 
 entitled, 
 
 ASPENWOLD. 
 
 The claims of this work to a high place in the front rank of our na- 
 tional hterature will be admitted by every reader whose critical abilities 
 enable him to appreciate authorial excellence. 
 
 It is written in the form of an autobiography, like the works of Mab- 
 RTATT, and will favorably compare with the best of that popular writer's 
 productions. 
 
 It is free from the hackneyed mcidents which comprise the principal 
 stock in trade of most of our modern novelists, and ^ emphatically 
 
 in the ripest sense of that much-abused term. 
 
 For its strength and naturalness of description, tho reader will be 
 reminded of Coopee; in the flowing style of its narrative, of Mareyat; 
 in the earnestness of its thought and diction, of Currer Bell ; and in 
 the completeness of its characters, of Charles Dickens. 
 
 The power and originality of the work will ensure it a wide sale, and 
 secure a popularity for its author enjoyed by few. 
 
 Embellished with a beautiful Frontl«?pie30. 
 408 Pages, 12mo, Cloth, Pnce $i 25. 
 
 LIVERMORE & RUDD, Publishers, 
 
 310 BboadwaY, New York. 
 
>aiJJJ.^-~* r?ana 
 
 A "Work o£ Uiwisual Interest aivA MeYvtl 
 
 TO BE PUBLISHED EARLY IN SEPTEMBER, 
 
 THE FAWKBROKER. 
 
 OK, 
 
 THE WAOES OF AVARICE. 
 
 12mo , aoth. Price $1 25. 
 
 The Pubishers believe that "The Pawnbroker" is not inferior, either in power or 
 interest, to any other work of Fiction that has been yet issued from the American Press ; 
 while the local interest it possesses, in consequence of its truthful delineation of New 
 York life, forms one of its many attractiTe features. It is the production of an American 
 lady, who is endowed with a fine culture, a refined and polished idea of the requirements 
 of Virtue and Civilized Life ; together with a clear Insight of the human heart, whether 
 bowed down by its own dark depravity, or consoled and elevated by the noble instincts 
 of honor and truthfulness. But this is not all ; our authoress is an Artist, and her book 
 will do credit to Modern American Literature. 
 
 Her Hero and Heroine are taken from the humblest Walks of life ; but our interest 
 becomes almost at once, unconsciously enlisted in their welfare, and with intense excite- 
 ment, pain, and hope, the thread of the narrative which depicts their chequered, trying 
 and varied career, is perused. This effect is produced, without bombast or enervating 
 sentimentality ; simply because a story founded upon fact is narrated with becoming 
 dignity, modesty and consummate Literary Art. The characters introduced throughout 
 the work arc numerous ; but each possesses a peculiar, marked, and distinct individuality. 
 
 A writer in the Boston Literary Bulletin says of it : 
 
 " I have read the MS. of " The Pawnbroker." Its principal scenes al'e laid in New 
 York, shifting occasionally to New Orleans. It is written with great force, pathos, and 
 ingenuity ; and I have no hesitation in prophesying that it will be ranked with " The 
 Lamplighter " and "The Wide, Wide World." Throughout the work a moral lesson is 
 pointed ; and although prolific in pictures of the most exciting nature, probability is 
 never outraged by the introduction of mysterious impossibilities. It cannot fail of 
 meeting with a large sale, and enviable popularity." 
 
 LIVERMORE & RUDD, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 310 Broadway, N. Y. 
 
 W. H. Tiiison, Slereotyper, 2-1 Beekninu Street. 
 
PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS, 
 
 NEW YORK, 
 
 Having removed to their Large and Commodious Store, 
 
 3XO :B I=L 0-A.I> T7V"-A."5r, 
 
 Would announce to the Trade and Public, that they are prepared to 
 supply at Publiahers' Lowest Rates, all the Issues of the day, including 
 Standard, Mkdical, and Theological Works ; and having special 
 arrangements with the following Houses: — 
 
 PHILLIPS, JiAMPSON & CO, Boston. 
 
 TICKNOR & PIELDS, u 
 
 LITTLE BROWN & CO., « 
 
 CROSBY, NICHOLS & CO., " 
 
 BLANCHARD & LEA, PliiladclpMa. 
 
 PARRY & MCMILLAN, " 
 
 LINDSAY & BLAKISTONK, <* 
 
 T. B. PETERSON, « 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., « 
 
 H. C. BAIRD, *i 
 
 Keep constantly on hand all their Publications, and supply in quantities 
 at their Kates. 
 
 BOOK AGENTS WANTEB. 
 
 600 FOR EACH STATE IX THE UNIOX. 
 
 EFFICIENT AGENTS CAN MAKE FROM $4 TO $10 PER DAY. 
 
 Copies of any Publication sent by Mail to any part of the Union (post- 
 paid) on receipt of the price. 
 
 LIVERMORE & RUDD, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 310 Broadway, N. Y. 
 
 W. H. Tinson, Stereotj-per, 24 Beekman Street. 
 

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