318 Memorial of George Brozvii Goodc. 



iiaiit protests of the topographical engineers, who insisted that a gradu- 

 ate of West Point should be chosen.' 



The final establishment of the Naval Observatory took place also at 

 this time. The history of this enterprise from the scientific standpoint, 

 has alread}' been discussed, but it may be well to note that it derived its 

 chief political support from Mr. Upshur, then Secretary of the Nav}'." 



' The secret history of this appointment is told as follows by Doctor vSilas Reed, of 

 Boston, in Lyon G. Tyler's Letters and Times of the Tylers (II, p. 696): 



I called upon Mr. Tyler the next day, and found Him about as well pleased over 

 the result as I was, as it constituted a triumph that had never been achieved before 

 (nor since), as shown by the annals of the Senate. While in this pleasant mood, 

 the President asked me if I could not suggest some means by which he might soften 

 the asperities of Senator Benton towards him and his administration. In an instant 

 the thought flashed through my mind as to how he could best accomplish his wLsh. 

 I said, ' ' You have it in your power to touch his heart through his domestic affec- 

 tions. Six months ago his pride was humbled by the marriage of his highly edu- 

 cated daughter, Jessie, to a mere lieutenant of the United States engineer corps, 

 and he refused them his house. I have just learned that lately he invited them to 

 return to his home, and know they have done so. Now you have a chance to glad- 

 den the senator's pride, and by so doing serve both 5-ourself and the country, by 

 taking Lieutenant Fremont by the hand, and giving him a chance to rise in the 

 world by appointing him to head an expedition to explore the Rockj^ Mountains 

 and some part of the Pacific coast." 



Mr. Tyler thought it might stir an excitement with the higher grade officers of 

 the engineer corps (as it did), and that he might not be fully competent to execute 

 the high duties entrusted to him. I replied that these objections need not prevent 

 his appointment, for Lieutenant Fremont had spent the last two years aiding the 

 eminent French scientist, Nicolet in taking the hydrography of the valle}^ of the 

 Mississippi, and' must be familiar with all instruments and modes of using them in 

 such an expedition. And even if he should not prove judicious in selecting scientific 

 men suitable for that part of his corps, he would have the able assistance of Colonel 

 Benton and his talented wife to fall back upon ; and that Senator Benton, on the 

 return of Mr. Fremont, would receive, examine, and present his report to the Senate, 

 and take great pride in making an eloquent speech of it (as he did), and thus cause 

 the American reader to examine and well consider its instructive contents— all of- 

 which events took place, and the report of his first, if not his second, expedition 

 gained sufficient notoriety to insiure its republication in Germany. 



At the close of our interview, the President, in his most earnest manner, said : "I 

 will at once appoint Lieutenant Fremont to the head of such an expedition, and 

 start him off this spring, so that the country ma}'' know as soon as po.s.sible what to 

 say and believe of that vast and unknown region, and I shall learn how nuicli effort 

 to expend in striving to acquire it by purchase from Mexico by the time that Texas 

 can be annexed." 



Fremont made ready to .start from St. Louis with his expedition as soon as there 

 was green grass to subsist his animals upon, with an outfit of fifty to sixty men, 

 after leaving Independence, Missouri, he moved up the Platte river and its north 

 branches to the old "South Pass," and thence to the head waters of Snake (or Lewis) 

 river, and down it and the Columbia river to Astoria, thus avoiding Mexican 

 Territor}', but kept close along its northern border until after he entered Oregon 

 Territory. 



- Letters and Times of the Tylers, by Lyon Gardner Tyler, \\, \). 387. 



