FREMONT, JOHN CHARLES. 



349 



demanded. In the State election of 1851 Fre- 

 mont was one of the leaders of the anti-slavery 

 party, which suffered defeat, and he was therefore 

 not returned to the Senate. 



In 1852 he visited Europe. He had received, 

 for his explorations and discoveries, a gold medal 

 from the King of Prussia and the " founder's 

 medal " from the Royal Geographical Society of 

 London, and had been elected an honorary mem- 

 ber of the Geographical Society of Berlin. While 

 in Europe he learned that Congress had appro- 

 priated money for a survey of three routes from 

 the Mississippi valley to the Pacific, and he re- 

 turned at once and organized a private expedi- 

 tion to complete the survey of the route he had 

 followed in his fourth journey. In September, 

 1853, he set out and found two passes over the 

 mountains, near the thirty-eight and thirty-ninth 

 parallels of latitude, and reached California after 

 once more enduring the hardships of a winter on 

 the Sierras. The party was saved from starva- 

 tion only by resorting to horse meat, and often 

 had not even that for days together. 



In the spring of 1855 Fremont, with his family, 

 settled in New York for the purpose of preparing 

 an account of his last expedition for publica- 

 tion. The Republican party had just been formed, 

 and in June, 1856, it held, in Philadelphia, its first 

 convention. Fremont's name, whose title of 

 the " Pathfinder " expressed the idea of his serv- 

 ice in the mind of the people, became conspicu- 

 ous. On an informal ballot of the convention 

 he had 359 votes, and on the first formal ballot 

 he was unanimously nominated. The following 

 are the most . significant passages of his letter of 

 acceptance : 



I concur in the views of the convention deprecating 

 the foreign policy to which it adverts. The assump- 

 tion that we have the right to take from another na- 

 tion its domains because we want them is an abandon- 

 ment of the honest character which our country has 

 acquired. To provoke hostilities by unjust assump- 

 tions would be to sacrifice the peace and character of 

 the country, when all its interests might be more cer- 

 tainly secured and its objects attained by just and 

 healing counsels, involving no loss of reputation. In- 

 ternational embarassments are mainly the results of a 

 secret diplomacy which aims to keep from the knowl- 

 edge of the people the operations of the Government. 

 An honest, firm, and open policy in our foreign rela- 

 tions would command the united support of the na- 

 tion, 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 in- 

 dependence and freedom, to avoid giving countenance 

 to the extension of slavery. The influence of the 

 small but compact and powerful class of men inter- 

 ested in slavery who command one section of the 

 country and wield a vast political control as a conse- 

 quence 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 Govern- 

 ment ; and from this spirit have 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 vanquished 

 by the just theory of our own. 



A practical remedy is the admission of Kansas into 

 the Union as a free State. The South should, in nay 

 judgment, earnestly desire such consummation. It 

 would vindicate its good faith. It would correct the 

 mistake of the repeal [of the Missouri compromise] ; 

 and the North, having practically the benefit of the 



agreement between the two sections, would be satisfied, 

 and good feeling be restored. The measure is perfectly 

 consistent with the honor of the South, and vital to its 

 interests. That fatal act which gave birth to this 

 purely sectional strife, originating in the scheme to 

 take from 1'ree labor the country secured to it by a 

 solemn covenant can not be too soon disarmed of its 

 pernicious force. The only genial region of the 

 middle latitudes left to the emigrants of the Northern 

 States for homes can not be conquered from the free 

 laborers who have long considered it as set apart for 

 them in our inheritance without provoking a desper- 

 ate struggle. Whatever may be the persistence of 

 the particular class which seems ready to hazard 

 everything for the success of the unjust scheme it has 

 partially effected, 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 Constitution 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 labor- 

 ing upon the same terms with the slaves. 



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 au- 

 thority shall be exerted in aid of the national will, to 

 re-establish the peace of the country on the just prin- 

 ciples which have heretofore received the sanction of 

 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 ag- 

 grandizement by appropriating the new Territories to 

 capital in the form of slavery, but would inevitably 

 result in the triumph of free labor the natural capi- 

 tal 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. 



After an exciting contest, the canvass resulted 

 in the election of James Buchanan, 174 electoral 

 votes from -19 States being given for him, and 

 114 electoral votes from 11 States being given 

 for Fremont ; and the 8 votes of Maryland being 

 given to Millard Fillmore. Fremont's votes 

 included the 6 New England States, New York, 

 Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin, and his 

 popular vote was 1,341,000, against 1,838,000 for 

 Buchanan, and 874,000 for Fillmore. 



In 1858 Fremont went to reside in California, 

 and in 1860 he visited Europe. After the break- 

 ing out of the civil war, in April, 1861, he was 

 made major-general in the regular army, and 

 given command of the newly constituted De- 

 partment of the West. After purchasing arms 

 for the United States Government, he returned. 



In July, 1861, he established his headquarters 

 in St. Louis, fortified that city, and secured 

 Cairo by a demonstration with 4,000 troops. On 

 the death of Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, at the battle 

 of Wilson's creek, Aug. 10, Fremont proclaimed 

 martial law, arrested active secessionists, and 

 suspended the publication of newspapers that 

 were charged with upholding the secession cause. 

 Twenty-one days later he issued a proclamation 

 assuming the government of the State, and an- 

 nouncing that he would emancipate the slaves 

 of those in arms against the United States. 

 President Lincoln wrote to him that he approved 

 all his proclamations except the last clause, 

 which he looked upon as premature, and he 

 asked Fremont to withdraw it. Fremont re- 

 plied by asking the President for an open or- 

 der to do so, and the President responded by 



