CHAPTER IV 



COLONEL FREMONT'S FOURTH EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 







THE majority of the court which tried the charges 

 preferred against Colonel Fremont recommended 

 the defendant to the clemency of the President of 

 the United States, in consequence of the difficult 

 position in which he had been placed between two 

 rival officers in the United States service, and in 

 view, also, of the great and meritorious services 

 which he had previously rendered to the cause of 

 topographical and geographical science. President 

 Polk refused to confirm the finding of the court on 

 the first charge of mutiny, but sustained it in refer- 

 ence to the other two charges. At the same time, he 

 remitted the penalty of dismissal from the service, 

 ordered Fremont to be released from arrest, and to 

 report himself for duty. Upon the receipt of this 

 order from the President, Fremont immediately 

 sent in his resignation as lieutenant-colonel in the 

 army of the United States, and retired from the 

 service. His reason for so doing was, that by accept- 



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