News article on Fremont
The Old Pathfinder Dead
Gen. John C. Fremont Expired at his home yesterday.
Incidents in the career of an American who was Famous in War and Politics.
Gen. John C. Fremont, known as the "Pathfinder of the Rocky Mountains," died at his residence, 49 West Twenty-fifth Street, yesterday after a short illness.
Gen. Fremont's death was entirely unexpected, his illness even not having been generally known.
He was affected by the great heat on Tuesday last and on the following day was taken with a chill which confined him to his rooms.
His symptoms developed into peritonitis and of this ailment he died last evening.
Gen. Fremont was born at Savannah, Ga., Jan. 21, 1813, was graduated from the Charleston College, South Carolina, and became Professor of Mathematics in the navy about 1835.
In 1838-9, he assisted Nicollet in the exploration of the upper portion of the Valley of the Mississippi.
He was appointed Second Lieutenant of the Topographical Engineers in 1838 and three years later explored and surveyed the Des Moines River.
In October, 1841, he married Miss Jessie, the daughter of Senator Benton of Missouri.
In May, 1842, he undertook to explore the Rocky Mountains and to open an overland route to the Pacific Ocean under authority of the Government.
He ascended the highest peak in the Wind River Mountains, which is now called Fremont's Peak, and in the Autumn of 1842 published an account of his discoveries.
In the Summer of 1843 he conducted another expedition up the Valley of the Platte, explored Great Salt Lake, and made several important geographical discoveries.
He arrived in November at Fort Vancouver, near the mouth of the Columbia River, and in the following Winter attempted to return by a more southerly route, but deep snow arrested his progress, and his party suffered severely from hunger and cold.
He reached the Sacramento River in March, 1844, and returning through the Great Basin and the South Pass, arrived in Kansas in July of that year.
Soon afterward Lieut. Fremont was promoted to the rank of Captain, and in the Spring of 1845 he conducted another expedition to explore the Sierra Nevadas in California.
He was attacked by Mexicans near Monterey in March, 1846, defended himself successfully, was raised to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and was appointed Governor of California by Commodore Stockton, whose authority was disputed by Gen. Kearney.
Fremont continued to recognize Stockton as his superior, was arrested by Gen. Kearney, tried by court-martial and found guilty of mutiny and disobedience, for which, however, he was pardoned by the President.
He declined the pardon and resigned his commission.
In 1849 Gen. Fremont settled in California, where he had purchased a large tract called the Mariposa Estate.
He exerted his influence to make California a free State and was one of the Senators chosen to represent her in the United States Senate in 1850, his term expiring in March, 1851.
For his services as an explorer he received in 1850 a gold medal from the King of Prussia, and another from the Royal Geographical Society of London.
In 1853 he conducted at his own expense an exploring party to the Pacific, and succeeded in finding a new route about latitude 38 north.
In the Spring of 1855 Fremont with his family, took up his residence in this city for the purpose of preparing for publication the narrative of his last expedition across the continent.
He now began to be mentioned as an anti-slavery candidate for the Presidency.
In the first National Republican Convention, which met in Philadelphia June 17, 1856, he received 359 votes to 196 for John McLean, and on the first formal ballot Fremont was nominated unanimously.
His letter of acceptance placed him strongly against extension of slavery and favoring free labor.
He was also nominated in New York a few days later as the candidate of the National American Party, whose support he accepted.
Gen. Fremont was defeated, the choice of the election falling upon Buchanan, Fremont receiving only 114, the total votes from eleven States, covering New England, the Middle, and Western States.
But going South, Maryland alone cast her choice for Fremont.
In 1858 Fremont went to California, residing there for some time, and visited Europe in 1860.
Soon after the beginning of the civil war he was made a Major General in the regular army and assigned to the command of the newly-created Western Department.
While in Europe he purchased arms for the United States Government, and when he returned he went to St. Louis, where he made his headquarters, fortifying the city and placing Cairo in Security by a demonstration of 4,000 troops.
After the battle of Wilson's Creek, Aug. 10, 1861, Fremont proclaimed martial law, arrested active secessionists, and suspended the publication of newspapers charged with disloyalty.
He issued a proclamation Aug 31, assuming the government of the State, and announcing that he would emancipate the slaves of those in arms against the United States.
President Lincoln approved of the proclamation except the emancipation clause, which e considered premature, and he asked Fremont to withdraw it, which the latter declined to do, and the President annulled it himself in a public order.
In the Autumn Fremont moved his army from the Missouri River in pursuit of the enemy, but as many complaints had been made of his administration, and this being alleged, among other things, that he was inefficient through arbitrary and extravagant, he was, after an investigation by the Secretary of War, Nov. 2, 1861, relieved from his command just as he had overtaken the Confederates at Springfield.
This it was claimed by Fremont's friends was the result of a political intrigue against him.
On leaving the army he was enthusiastically received in St. Louis.
In March, 1862, he was given the command of the newly created "mountain district" of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
In the early part of June his army engaged the superior force under Gen. Jackson for eight days, and the enemy was compelled to retreat.
Their pursuit was terminated with a severe engagement on the evening of June 6, and by the battle of Cross Keys June 8.
On July 26 by the order of the President the Army of Virginia was created, and Fremont asked to be relieved, for the reason that he could not serve under Gen. Pope, who was in command.
His request was granted.
May 31, 1864, he was again tendered the nomination by a convention of Republicans at Cleveland who were dissatisfied with Lincoln.
This he accepted, but he subsequently withdrew under pressure of his friends.Since 1864 Fremont has taken little part in public affairs, but has been active in railroad matters in the Southwest and California, being especially identified with the El Paso and Memphis Road.
In 1869 the Senate passed a bill giving this a right of way through the Territories, the attempt having been unsuccessful to fix upon him the onus of a misstatement to the Paris bondholders that the Government had officially guaranteed the land grant bonds.
In 1873 the French Government prosecuted him for fraud in connection with this misstatement, resulting in his being sentenced by default to a fine and imprisonment, no judgment having been given on the merits of the case.
From 1878 to 1881 Gen. Fremont was Governor of Arizona.
Gen. Fremont published "report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1842, and to Oregon and North California in 1843 and 1844;" also "Col. J. C. Fremont's Expeditions," an account of all his first expeditions, and "Memoirs of My Life," the latter appearing in 1880.
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Editorial on Fremont
The Days of Fremont
When in 1856, Gen. John C. Fremont was made the first candidate of the Republican Party for the Presidency, he represented more fully than it is easy for the men of to-day to realize the elements of political purpose and of popular sentiment that gave to the new party its rapidly growing strength.
He was in the first prime of manhood.
He was a soldier of the sort that most American soldiers then were--by love of adventure, by courage and personal energy, rather than by deliberate choice and professional training.
He was closely identified with the Nation in its vast hopes, its restless penetration into and through the wide regions that lay--inviting, yet forbidding--beyond what were then the narrow confines of actual occupation.
He had been a daring, hardy, successful explorer of those regions.
In his personal experience and in hers temperament and views the people felt the tonic air of the future blowing across the snow-topped mountain ranges from the El Dorado of the Pacific slope.
What to the American of to-day is the solid and almost commonplace fact--the unbroken sway of the Republic from ocean to ocean, the wealth and power of a continent multiplying over and again all that had been acquired, the American Nation, by all rational tests first among equals of the nations of the world-was in 1856 the entrancing vision to which the Pathfinder had opened all eyes and hearts.
Then he was a hater of slavery.
Born in Georgia, but of French parents, he had seen what slavery was without the prejudice of the Southern men who accepted it or the hopelessness of those who condemned it.
In the new State, to which he had explored the way across the continent and which his pluck and force had helped to win, he was the representative and leader of the free-State sentiment.
He had won political victory and suffered defeat in behalf of the half-defined but all-important cause.
Certainly, as a statesman or a politician, he had not the qualities to guide a new national party, or, if it were successful to perform the anxious and arduous work that must fall on the shoulders of the first anti-slavery President.
But to lead the first assault of the great struggle, which it was certain would fail, and yet which would be of immense service, welding the volunteer forces into an organized and efficient army, teaching them their own strength and compelling the respect and fear of the foe.
Fremont was fitted.
He was, half-consciously, and by force of circumstance, the embodiment of the vital principal of Republicanism in that period--the resistance to slavery extension. The banner on which his name was inscribed was borne high in a gallant fight, and when the fight for that campaign was over, so far from being lowered, it was the recognized standard of a national party. It floated proudly in every State where the hope and the need of freedom were felt. It was the rallying point of a new generation, to whom the old cries of Whig and Federalist were senseless and offensive, and whose heart beat strong and buoyant with the faith in a free nationality.
It is easy in contemplating the subsequent career of Gen. Fremont, his rash and undisciplined conduct during the war, his relative failure to justify the affectionate confidence of those in warm sympathy with his purposes, his enforced idleness during the later years of the war, his checkered career in speculative enterprise, and the obscurity of the last years of his life, to forget how great and substantial was his actual service to the country, how lasting must be the benefits that he was the instrument in conferring, and above all, how priceless was the impulse his name and character gave to that first glorious onset against the slave power.
Intrenched [sic] as that power was in every branch of the Government, dispensing honors and offices at will, seeming to hold the key to all political success, wielding immense influence in business and in social life, it was of the last importance that the first national anti-slavery leader should inspire the young men of the time, should appeal to those who scorned the rewards and defied the threats of the apparently all-powerful political managers, and who had that first supreme quality for winning, the readiness to lose and try again.
This is what Fremont did, and for that, if for nothing else, his name will not lose its charm while there yet live those who fought the first battle for freedom under that banner that bore it.
Special thanks to Ray Braca of New City, New York in providing photocopies of the New York Times articles on Fremont's Obituary and funeral.
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