John C. Frémont
John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813 – July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, military officer, and politician. He was a United States senator from California and was the first Republican nominee for president of the U.S. in 1856 and founder of the California Republican Party when he was nominated. He lost the election to Democrat James Buchanan when the vote was split by Know Nothings.
"John Fremont" redirects here. Not to be confused with John Fremont Hill, John Fremont McCullough, or John Fremont Burnham.
John C. Frémont
Himself (Shadow Senator)
Seat established
Himself (U.S. Senator)
July 13, 1890 (aged 77)
New York City, U.S.
Democratic (before 1854)
Republican (1854–1890)
5
Thomas Hart Benton (father-in-law)
1838–1848
1861–1864
1890
Frémont was a native of Georgia and attended the College of Charleston for two years until he was expelled after irregular attendance. He opposed slavery. In the 1840s, he led five expeditions into the western states. During the Mexican–American War, he was a major in the U.S. Army and took control of California from the California Republic in 1846. During this time, he led the Sacramento River massacre, Klamath Lake massacre, and Sutter Buttes massacre against indigenous peoples. Frémont was court-martialed and convicted of mutiny and insubordination after a conflict over who was the rightful military governor of California. His sentence was commuted and he was reinstated by President James K. Polk, but Frémont resigned from the Army. Afterwards, he settled in California at Monterey while buying cheap land in the Sierra foothills. Gold was found on his Mariposa ranch, and Frémont became a wealthy man during the California Gold Rush. He became one of the first two U.S. senators elected from the new state of California in 1850.
At the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861, he was given command of the Department of the West by President Abraham Lincoln. Frémont had successes during his brief tenure there, though he ran his department autocratically and made hasty decisions without consulting President Lincoln or Army headquarters. He issued an unauthorized emancipation edict and was relieved of his command for insubordination by Lincoln. After a brief service tenure in the Mountain Department in 1862, Frémont resided in New York, retiring from the army in 1864. He was nominated for president in 1864 by the Radical Democracy Party, a breakaway faction of abolitionist Republicans, but he withdrew before the election. After the Civil War, he lost much of his wealth in the unsuccessful Pacific Railroad in 1866, and he lost more in the Panic of 1873. Frémont served as Governor of the Arizona Territory from 1878 to 1881. After his resignation as governor, he retired from politics and died destitute in New York City in 1890.
Historians portray Frémont as controversial, impetuous, and contradictory. Some scholars regard him as a military hero of significant accomplishment, while others view him as a failure who repeatedly defeated his own best interests. The keys to Frémont's character and personality, several historians argue, lie in his having been born "illegitimate" (to unwed parents) and in his drive for success, need for self-justification, and passive-aggressive behavior.[1][2] His biographer Allan Nevins wrote that Frémont lived a dramatic life of remarkable successes and dismal failures.[3][4]
Attacks against Native Americans in California and Oregon Country (1845–1846)[edit]
Taking 16 men, Frémont split his party again, arriving at Sutter's Fort in the Sacramento Valley on December 9.[29] Frémont promptly sought to stir up patriotic enthusiasm among the American settlers there. He promised that if war with Mexico started, his military force would protect the settlers.[31] Frémont went to Monterey, California, to talk with the American consul, Thomas O. Larkin, and Mexican commandant Jose Castro, under the pretext of gaining fuller supplies.[23] In February 1846, Frémont reunited with 45 men of his expedition party near Mission San José, giving the United States a relatively strong military presence in California.[32] Castro and Mexican officials were suspicious of Frémont and he was ordered to leave the country.[33][23] Frémont and his men withdrew and camped near the summit of what is now named Fremont Peak. Frémont raised the United States Flag in defiance of Mexican authority.[23]
After a four-day standoff and Castro having a superior number of Mexican troops, Frémont and his men went north to Oregon, bringing about the Sacramento River massacre along the way. Estimates of the casualties vary. Expedition members Thomas E. Breckenridge and Thomas S. Martin claim the number of Native Americans killed as "120–150"[34] and "over 175"[35] respectively, but the eyewitness Tustin claimed that at least 600–700 Native Americans were killed on land, with another 200 or more dying in the water.[36] There are no records of any expedition members being killed or even wounded in the massacre.[37] Kit Carson, one of the mounted attackers, later stated, "It was a perfect butchery."[38]
Fremont and his men eventually made their way to camp at Klamath Lake,[39][40][23] killing Native Americans on sight as they went.[41][42] On May 8, Frémont was overtaken by Lieutenant Archibald Gillespie from Washington, who gave him copies of dispatches he had previously given to Larkin.[23] Gillespie told Frémont secret instructions from Benton and Buchanan justifying aggressive action and that a declaration of war with Mexico was imminent.[23] On May 9, 1846, Native Americans ambushed his expedition party in retaliation for numerous killings of Native Americans that Frémont's men had engaged in along the trail, killing three members of Frémont's party in their sleep, including a Native American who was traveling with Frémont. Frémont retaliated by attacking a Klamath fishing village named Dokdokwas the following day in the Klamath Lake massacre, although the people living there might not have been involved in the first action.[43] The village was at the junction of the Williamson River and Klamath Lake. On May 12, 1846, the Frémont group completely destroyed it, killing at least fourteen people.[44] Frémont believed that the British were responsible for arming and encouraging the Native Americans to attack his party.[45] Afterward, Carson was nearly killed by a Klamath warrior. As Carson's gun misfired, the warrior drew to shoot a poison arrow; however, Frémont, seeing that Carson was in danger, trampled the warrior with his horse. Carson felt that he owed Frémont his life.[43] A few weeks later, Frémont and his armed militia returned to California.[46]
Fourth expedition (1848–1849)[edit]
Intent on restoring his honor and explorer reputation after his court martial, in 1848, Frémont and his father-in-law Sen. Benton developed a plan to advance their vision of Manifest Destiny. With a keen interest in the potential of railroads, Sen. Benton had sought support from the Senate for a railroad connecting St. Louis to San Francisco along the 38th parallel, the latitude which both cities approximately share. After Benton failed to secure federal funding, Frémont secured private funding. In October 1848 he embarked with 35 men up the Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas rivers to explore the terrain. The artists and brothers Edward Kern and Richard Kern, and their brother Benjamin Kern, were part of the expedition, but Frémont was unable to obtain the valued service of Kit Carson as guide as in his previous expeditions.[89]
On his party's reaching Bent's Fort, he was strongly advised by most of the trappers against continuing the journey. Already a foot of snow was on the ground at Bent's Fort, and the winter in the mountains promised to be especially snowy. Part of Frémont's purpose was to demonstrate that a 38th parallel railroad would be practical year-round. At Bent's Fort, he engaged "Uncle Dick" Wootton as guide, and at what is now Pueblo, Colorado, he hired the eccentric Old Bill Williams and moved on.
Had Frémont continued up the Arkansas, he might have succeeded. On November 25 at what is now Florence, Colorado, he turned sharply south. By the time his party crossed the Sangre de Cristo Range via Mosca Pass, they had already experienced days of bitter cold, blinding snow and difficult travel. Some of the party, including the guide Wootton, had already turned back, concluding that further travel would be impossible. Benjamin Kern and "Old Bill" Williams were killed by Ute warriors while retracing the expedition trail to look for gear and survivors.[90]
Although the passes through the Sangre de Cristo had proven too steep for a railroad, Frémont pressed on. From this point the party might still have succeeded had they gone up the Rio Grande to its source, or gone by a more northerly route, but the route they took brought them to the very top of Mesa Mountain.[91] By December 12, on Boot Mountain, it took ninety minutes to progress three hundred yards. Mules began dying and by December 20, only 59 animals remained alive.
It was not until December 22 that Frémont acknowledged that the party needed to regroup and be resupplied. They began to make their way to Taos in the New Mexico Territory. By the time the last surviving member of the expedition made it to Taos on February 12, 1849, 10 of the party had died and been eaten by the survivors.[92] Except for the efforts of member Alexis Godey,[93] another 15 would have been lost.[94] After recuperating in Taos, Frémont and only a few of the men left for California via an established southern trade route.
Edward and Richard Kern joined J.H. Simpson's military reconnaissance expedition to the Navajos in 1849, and gave the American public some of its earliest authentic graphic images of the people and landscape of Arizona, New Mexico, and southern Colorado; with views of Canyon de Chelly, Chaco Canyon, and El Morro (Inscription Rock).[95]
In 1850, Frémont was awarded the Patron's Medal by the Royal Geographical Society for his various exploratory efforts.[96]
U.S. Senator from California (1850–1851)[edit]
On November 13, 1849, General Bennet C. Riley, without Washington approval, called for a state election to ratify the new California State constitution.[103] On December 20, the California legislature voted to seat two senators to represent the state in the Senate.[104] The front-runner was Frémont, a Free Soil Democrat, known for being a western hero, and regarded by many as an innocent victim of an unjustified court-martial.[104] The other candidates were T. Butler King, a Whig, and William Gwin, a Democrat.[105] Frémont won the first Senate seat, easily having 29 out of 41 votes and Gwin, having Southern backing, was elected to the second Senate seat, having won 24 out of 41 votes.[104] By random draw of straws, Gwin won the longer Senate term while Frémont won the shorter Senate term.[104]
In Washington, Frémont, whose California ranch had been purchased from a Mexican land grantee, supported an unsuccessful law that would have rubber-stamped Mexican land grants, and another law that prevented foreign workers from owning gold claims (Fremont's ranch was in gold country), derisively called "Frémont's Gold Bill".[106] Frémont voted against harsh penalties for those who assisted runaway slaves and he was in favor of abolishing the slave trade in the District of Columbia.[107]
Democratic pro-slavery opponents of Frémont, called the Chivs, strongly opposed Frémont's re-election, and endorsed Solomon Heydenfeldt.[107] Rushing back to California hoping to thwart the Chivs, Frémont started his own election newspaper, the San Jose Daily Argus, however, to no avail, he was unable to get enough votes for re-election to the Senate.[107] Neither Heydenfeldt, nor Frémont's other second-time competitor King, were able to obtain a majority of votes, allowing Gwin to be California's lone senator.[107] Frémont's term lasted 175 days from September 10, 1850, to March 3, 1851, and he only served 21 working days in Washington in the Senate.[107] Pro-slavery John B. Weller, supported by the Chivs, was elected one year later to the empty Senate seat previously held by Frémont.[108]
Fifth expedition (1853–1854)[edit]
In the fall of 1853, Frémont embarked on another expedition to identify a viable route for a transcontinental railroad along the 38th parallel. The party journeyed between Missouri and San Francisco, California, over a combination of known trails and unexplored terrain. A primary objective was to pass through the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada Mountains during winter to document the amount of snow and the feasibility of winter rail passage along the route. His photographer (daguerreotypist) was Solomon Nunes Carvalho.
Frémont followed the Santa Fe Trail, passing Bent's Fort before heading west and entering the San Luis Valley of Colorado in December. The party then followed the North Branch of the Old Spanish Trail, crossing the Continental Divide at Cochetopa Pass and continuing west into central Utah. But following the trail was made difficult by snow cover. On occasion, they were able to detect evidence of Captain John Gunnison's expedition, which had followed the North Branch just months before.
Weeks of snow and bitter cold took its toll and slowed progress. Nonessential equipment was abandoned and one man died before the struggling party reached the Mormon settlement of Parowan in southwestern Utah on February 8, 1854. After spending two weeks in Parowan to regain strength, the party continued across the Great Basin and entered the Owens Valley near present-day Big Pine, California. Frémont then journeyed south and crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains and entered the Kern River drainage, which was followed west to the San Joaquin Valley.
Frémont arrived in San Francisco on April 16, 1854. Having completed a winter passage across the mountainous west, Frémont was optimistic that a railroad along the 38th Parallel was viable and that winter travel along the line would be possible through the Rocky Mountains.[109]
The Frémonts were the parents of five children:
