I08 WINTER SKETCHES. 



to unfurl the national flag in California, and to 

 aid in founding a new empire in the West. 



There he gained wealth and the honor 

 which made him the Free-soil candidate for 

 the Presidency. In the war of the Rebel- 

 lion he was the pioneer of freedom, the first to 

 declare, before he was justified by the progress 

 of events, that the war was a struggle for the 

 liberty of the slave. Here on the Hudson, in 

 a paradise of forest and shrubbery, he estab- 

 lished his home. Here he and "our Jessie," 

 as the people delighted to call her, a woman 

 whose attractions and commanding presence 

 entitled her to the leadership of society in 

 Washington, made their happy and luxurious 

 dwelling-place, dispensing elegant hospitality, 

 and surroundincr themselves with the best and 

 the most cultured of the land. Then misfort- 

 une came upon them. The great Mariposa 

 grant of thousands of acres, exceeding duke- 

 doms of the Old World, was wrenched from 

 their hands, their lovely home was sacrificed 

 and became the property of others, and they 

 were almost throv/n upon the charities of the 

 world. 



But are republics ungrateful ? O, no, Fre- 

 mont was rewarded in his old age for all that 



