Chapter XI: Part 11

"We have it proposed to reopen the African slave trade and bring
in hordes of slaves from that prolific region to restore the
balance. I once entertained that idea myself; but, on further
investigation, I abandoned it. I will not now go into the
discussion of it further than to say that the South is itself
divided on that policy, and, from appearances, opposed to it by a
vast majority, while the North is unanimously against it. It would
be impossible to get Congress to reopen the trade. If it could be
done, then it would be unnecessary, for that result could only be
brought about by such an entire abandonment by the North and the
world of all opposition to our slave system that we might safely
cease to erect any defences for it. But if we could introduce
slaves, where could we find suitable territory for new slave
States? The Indian Reserve, west of Arkansas, might make one; but
we have solemnly guaranteed that to the remnants of the red race.
Everywhere else, I believe, the borders of our States have reached
the great desert which separates the Atlantic from the Pacific
States of this Confederacy. Nowhere is African slavery likely to
flourish in the little oasis of that Sahara of America. It is much
more likely, I think, to get the Pacific slope and to the north in
the great valley than anywhere else outside of its present limits.
Shall we, as some suggest, take Mexico and Central America to make
slave States? African slavery appears to have failed there.
Perhaps, and most probably, it will never succeed in those
regions. If it might, what are we to do with the seven or eight
millions of hardly semi-civilized Indians and the two or three
millions of Creole Spaniards and Mongrels who now hold those
countries? We would not enslave the Indians! Experience has proved
that they are incapable of steady labor, and are therefore unfit
for slavery. We would not exterminate them, even if that inhuman
achievement would not cost ages of murder and incalculable sums of
money. We could hardly think of attempting to plant the black race
there, superior for labor, though inferior, perhaps, in intellect,
and expect to maintain a permanent and peaceful industry, such as
slave labor must be to be profitable, amid those idle, restless,
demoralized children of Montezuma, scarcely more civilized,
perhaps more sunk in superstition, than in his age, and now
trained to civil war by half a century of incessant revolution.
What, I say, could we do with these people or these countries to
add to southern strength? Nothing. Could we degrade ourselves so
far as to annex them on equal terms, they would be sure to come
into this Union free States all. To touch them in any way is to be
contaminated. England and France, I have no doubt, would gladly
see us take this burden on our back if we would secure for them
their debts and a neutral route across the Isthmus. Such a route
we must have for ourselves, and that is all we have to do with
them. If we can not get it by negotiation or by purchase, we must
seize and hold it by force of arms. The law of nations would
justify it, and it is absolutely necessary for our Pacific
relations. The present condition of those unhappy States is
certainly deplorable, but the good God holds them in the hollow of
his hand and will work out their proper destinies."

Upon the Cuban question:

"We might expand the area of slavery by acquiring Cuba, where
African slavery is already established. Mr. Calhoun, from whose
matured opinions, whether on constitutional principles or southern
policy, it will rarely be found safe to depart, said that Cuba was
'forbidden fruit' to us unless plucked in an exigency of war.
There is no reasonable grounds to suppose that we can acquire it
in any other way; and the war that will open to us such an
occasion will be great and general, and bring about results that
the keenest intellect cannot now anticipate. But if we had Cuba,
we could not make more than two or three slave States there, which
would not restore the equilibrium of the North and South; while,
with the African slave trade closed, and her only resort for
slaves to this continent, she would, besides crushing our whole
sugar culture by her competition, afford in a few years a market
for all the slaves in Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland. She is,
notwithstanding the exorbitant taxes imposed on her, capable now
of absorbing the annual increase of all the slaves on this
continent, and consumes, it is said, twenty to thirty thousand a
year by her system of labor. Slaves decrease there largely. In
time, under the system practised, every slave in America might be
exterminated in Cuba as were the Indians. However the idle African
may procreate in the tropics, it yet remains to be proven, and the
facts are against the conclusion, that he can in those regions
work and thrive. It is said Cuba is to be 'Africanized' rather
than that the United States should take her. That threat, which at
one time was somewhat alarming, is no longer any cause of
disquietude to the South, after our experience of the Africanizing
of St. Domingo and Jamaica. What have we lost by that?"

And finally upon his own position as a National Democrat:

"And this leads me to say that having never been a mere party
politician, intriguing and wire-pulling to advance myself or
others, I am not learned in the rubric of the thousand slang,
unmeaning and usually false party names to which our age gives
birth. But I have been given to understand that there are two
parties in the South, called 'National' and 'State Rights'
Democrats. The word 'national' having been carefully excluded from
the Constitution by those who framed it, I never supposed it
applicable to any principle of our government; and having been
surrendered to the almost exclusive use in this country of the
federal consolidationists, I have myself repudiated it. But if a
southern 'National Democrat' means one who is ready to welcome
into our ranks with open arms, and cordially embrace and promote
according to his merits every honest free State man who reads the
Constitution as we do, and will cooperate with us in its
maintenance, then I belong to that party, call it as you may, and
I should grieve to find a southern man who does not.

"But, on the other hand, having been all my life, and being still,
an ardent 'State Rights' man--believing 'State Rights' to be an
essential, nay, the essential, element of the Constitution, and
that no one who thinks otherwise can stand on the same
constitutional platform that I do, it seems to me that I am, and
all those with whom I act habitually are, if Democrats at all,
true 'State Rights Democrats.' Nothing in public affairs so
perplexes and annoys me as these absurd party names, and I never
could be interested in them. I could easily comprehend two great
parties, standing on two great antagonistic principles which are
inherent in all things human; the right and the wrong, the good
and the evil, according to the peculiar views of each individual;
and was never at a loss to find my side, as now, in what are known
as the Democratic and Republican parties of this country. But the
minor distinctions have, for the most part, seemed to me to be
factitious and factious, gotten up by cunning men for selfish
purposes, to which the true patriot and honest man should be slow
to lend himself. For myself and for you, while I represent you, I
shall go for the Constitution strictly construed and faithfully
carried out. I will make my fight, such as it may be, by the side
of any man, whether from the North, South, East or West, who will
do the same; and I will do homage to his virtue, his ability, his
courage, and, so far as I can, make just compensation for his
toils, and hazards, and sacrifices. As to the precise mode and
manner of conducting this contest, that must necessarily, to a
great extent, depend upon the exigencies that arise; but, of
course, I could be compelled by no exigency, by no party ties or
arrangements, to give up my principles, or the least of those
principles which constitute our great cause."

Senator Hammond entered the Senate with the reputation of a southern "Fire-eater," but before a year had passed by, he had taken ground with the most conservative northern Democrat, on Cuba, the African slave trade, and the general question of the annexation of foreign territory to this Union. Here was an apparent change which very naturally excited the criticisms of the ultra southern politicians.

Gov. Hammond is a native of Newberg District, South Carolina, where he was born, November 15, 1807. His parents were natives of the State of New York. He graduated at Columbia College, S.C., practised law from 1828 to 1830, afterward became editor of the "Southern Times," came to Congress a single term in 1835 and when the two years were over, made the trip of Europe. In 1841, he was made a militia general--yet something of an honor in South Carolina--and a year later was elected Governor of the Palmetto State. After a single term he retired to his extensive estate upon the Savannah River, where he remained in quiet, raising cotton and reading books till in 1857 he was elected by the State legislature to represent, in part, South Carolina in the United States Senate.

In his personal appearance Senator Hammond is prepossessing. He is of medium height, has a fine, open face, sparkling black eyes, and black hair--what there is left--a broad forehead and the manners of a pleasant gentleman.

HOWELL COBB.

Mr. Cobb is a native of Cherry Hill, Georgia, where he was born, in September, 1815. His father was in affluent circumstances, and the family one of distinction. He was educated at Franklin College, Georgia, where he graduated at the age of nineteen, in the year 1834. His uncle, Howell Cobb, after whom he was named, was in Congress during the war of 1812, and still later a cousin was U.S. senator. So the young man had examples in his own family of political distinction which were calculated to fire his ambition.

In 1834, Mr. Cobb was married, which was set down, we dare say, by his elderly friends as a very imprudent step, for he was but nineteen and had no profession; nevertheless, he established his household gods at that time, and two years after was admitted to the bar. The very next year he was made solicitor general of the western part of Georgia, so finely had he succeeded in his profession. For the next three years he applied himself very closely to the duties of his profession, and being naturally shrewd and quick-witted, he at once attained unusual success. To this day, in Upper Georgia, Mr. Cobb has a reputation unsurpassed by no local favorite.

Early in life, Mr. Cobb was known as a Jackson or Union man, in the thick of the nullification agitation. Either from education or nature, he seems from the first to have had a repugnance for ultraism, and has therefore never agreed with that class of southern politicians usually termed Fire-eaters.

In 1842, Mr. Cobb was elected to Congress, where he, in a short time, rose to a prominent position as one of the party leaders among the Democratic members. He was especially great on parliamentary questions, and was in his way a party oracle in these matters. Though he never sympathized with the disunionists of the South, he has been a consistent as well as an ardent supporter of the institution of negro slavery. His entire course in Congress showed his strong and persistent opposition to any of the movements of the friends of freedom. He voted against the right of petition on the 3d of May, 1844, and made a strong speech in favor of utter free trade. Mr. Cobb also favored the Mexican war. In 1849, he underwent a severe contest in Georgia. While in Congress he supported the famous compromise measures, which secured to him the opposition and enmity of the southern fire-eaters. The greatest contest of his life ensued. The Union Democrats put him in nomination for Governor of Georgia, and he took the stump and was elected by a tremendous majority. In 1855, he was reelected to Congress and was soon known as a Buchanan man. He labored for Mr. Buchanan's nomination, and when he was nominated canvassed the county in favor of his election. This secured, Mr. Cobb was rewarded for his services by a seat in the Cabinet, and as he was thought to be peculiarly fitted for the Treasury Department, he was made Secretary of the Treasury.

As a member of the Cabinet, Mr. Cobb used his influence in favor of the Lecompton bill and made war upon Mr. Douglas. During the winter of 1858-9 his recommendations on the tariff question were thought to indicate a change of opinion. Formerly he was in favor of free trade, and lacking that, he was in favor of the nearest possible approach to it. But in his communications to Congress as Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Cobb admitted that the revenues of the country were not sufficient for its expenses, and he recommended a revision of the tariff to meet the emergency. It is not probable, however, under present circumstances, that he would favor any change in the tariff.

As a man--socially speaking, we mean--Mr. Cobb is a favorite. Good natured and intelligent, he is surrounded by scores of friends, who like him all the better for the fact that he has been independent enough in his political career to make enemies.

JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE.

Perhaps no public man has more friends or fewer enemies than Mr. Breckinridge; but his modesty, or caution, is so great, that but few particulars of his history have ever got into print. His high position has attracted the eyes of the nation as well as the Senate to him, and he has been unanimously pronounced, both by political friend and foe, to be an impartial presiding officer, and a pleasant and upright man. His personal appearance is unusually prepossessing, and his social bearing is such as to win him scores of friends.

Mr. Breckinridge was born near Lexington, Kentucky, January 21, 1821, and is the grandson of John Breckinridge, who was United States Senator and Attorney General. He was educated at Central College, Danville, and studied law at Transylvania Institute. After his professional education was complete, he emigrated to Iowa, but the frontier life did not suit him, and he returned to Kentucky, where there was a better field for the display of his talents. Soon after his return, he married Miss Birch of Georgetown, Kentucky, and settled down in Lexington in the practice of his profession. When the Mexican war broke out, he volunteered at once to take a part in it, and was elected Major of the Third Regiment of Kentucky volunteers. The regiment came to the scene of strife so late that they did not see much active service.

Upon Mr. Breckinridge's return from Mexico, he was elected to the State legislature, and in 1851, after an exciting contest with General Leslie Coomb, he was elected to Congress. In 1853, a still fiercer canvass ensued; but he was reelected to the House by a heavy majority. One of his first acts was to deliver a eulogy upon Henry Clay, a political opponent.

In the Thirty-third Congress, an unpleasant scene occurred between Mr. Breckinridge and Mr. Cutting of New York, upon the Kansas and Nebraska act. Mr. Cutting, though a Democrat, refused to support that measure, while Mr. Breckinridge supported it with considerable zeal.

The debate occurred March 27, 1854, and we quote from a report of it:

"The House of Representatives, Monday, resolved itself into
committee of the whole on the Custom House bill, Mr. Hamilton in
the chair; but the chairman decided that before that bill could be
taken up, all those preceding it must first be set aside; and that
the first business in order was the consideration of the bill
making appropriations for the civil and diplomatic expenses of the
Government for the year ending June 30, 1855. Mr. Houston moved
that the committee take up the bill named by the Chair, which was
agreed to.

"Mr. Cutting then arose and replied to the remarks made by Mr.
Breckinridge on Thursday last. He adverted to his course in moving
that the Senate Nebraska bill be committed to the committee of the
whole on the state of the Union, and said that at that time he
gave his reasons for the act, and declared that there was no
gentleman on this floor who was to be regarded as a stronger and
more zealous advocate of the great principle which the measure was
said to contain--that of non-intervention--than he was. But the
bill required amendment and discussion before it could receive
that support to which, in his opinion, it was entitled. After this
subject had been disposed of, and after the elapse of some two
days, a gentleman from a slaveholding State, who had had no lot or
parcel in its discussion, as a volunteer merely, came into the
House, and thought it not incompatible with his character as a
leading member to undertake to assail his motives; though it was
true that he disclaimed any intention of attacking them. The
gentleman [Mr. Breckinridge] came into the House, with
concentrated wrath and bitterness, to assail him for having, in
his place, and under his responsibility as a member, stated his
views frankly as to the direction this bill ought to take.

"The gentleman had charged him with being a secret enemy of the
bill, and, while professing friendship for it, as having taken a
course which would end in its destruction. When did the gentleman
from Kentucky ever hear him say he was friendly to the bill? The
gentleman was present, and heard him declare his opposition to it
in the shape in which it came from the Senate, and the belief that
not only himself, but a majority of the House, would be found
against it. Had not the gentleman sufficient perspicuity of
understanding to know the difference between the principles
involved in a measure and a bill which professed to carry them
out? And when he [Mr. C.] declared in this House frankly and
openly, before the question on the motion to commit was put, that
he was against the bill, but in favor of the principles which it
professed to enact, how came the gentleman to undertake to declare
that he [Mr. C.] had declared himself a friend of the bill,
against the record, against the reports that appeared everywhere?

"The gentleman had complained that by the motion to commit he [Mr.
C.] had consigned this measure to the tomb of the Capulets. If
this were so, and this bill could never again be brought before
the House, why did the gentleman submit to an hour's argument to
prove that it ought to pass? It was time wasted, time thrown away.
No gentleman acquainted with the orders of the calendar could for
a moment believe that sending this bill to the committee of the
whole would prevent action on it this session. The gentleman had
said that there were scores and scores of bills before it on the
calendar. Now, what was the fact? There were some eighteen or
nineteen bills and resolutions, all told, large and small, of
great and little degree, ahead of it on the calendar, including
appropriation bills, which were subject to the control of the
committee of ways and means. Then why, with this fact staring the
gentleman in the face, did the gentleman undertake, for the
purpose of making an assault on him, to declare that there were
scores upon scores of bills before this measure on the calendar?
By what authority did the gentleman, who had a supposed connection
with the Administration, complain of him, a friend of the measure,
of undertaking to send it to a tomb, where there was a mountain
piled upon it, for the purpose of creating a false impression in
the public mind?

"For the course he had seen proper to pursue he had been assailed
in papers of this city (one of them, the "Union," it was said,
conducted by the clerk of this House), and by other presses. How
was it that he, a friend of the measure, had been selected as a
victim to drive off those who had given the principle their
support? Was it to assassinate the friends who had stood with him
on this subject?

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE.--Does the gentleman intend to apply that remark
to me?

"MR. CUTTING.--Not unless you consider yourself a portion of the
Union newspaper.

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE.--I was at that moment taking a note, and heard
the word. I would ask whether the gentleman applied the remark to
me?

"MR. CUTTING.--I did not. I am the only one charged with being an
assassin.

"He had been subject to the continual attacks of New York papers,
which, while opposing this measure, were enjoying the patronage of
the Administration.

"In the course of his remarks, he said that there was but one
single ground upon which the Democracy of the North could stand,
and that was the principle of non-intervention. If this was found
in the bill, he should vote for it; and the reason why he wished
it referred was for the purpose of examining into the matter, that
there might be a distinct and plain understanding between the
different sections of the country, as to the character of the act,
so that there might be no misunderstanding upon the subject of the
principles contained in it.

"Mr. Breckinridge said that he had forborne to interrupt the
gentleman; but whilst his remarks were fresh in his mind he wished
to reply.

"Mr. Cutting yielded, and no objection was made to Mr. B.'s
proceeding.

"Mr. Breckinridge said that he had listened to the gentleman from
New York, who had not met a single position which he took the
other day. He had been amazed at the manner in which a man of
intellectual ingenuity had twisted and distorted words and
opinions out of their proper connections.

"He explained that the reason why he permitted two days to elapse
before he replied to the gentleman, was because the gentleman
himself after making his speech the other day on the motion to
commit, put down the hatchway of the previous question, so that he
was denied an opportunity of responding to him.

"He had said, and he now repeated, that with the gentleman's
motives he had nothing to do; he had made and should make no
attack upon them. When he spoke of the movement of the gentleman,
he characterized it as one the effect of which would be to kill
the bill, and said that after the question was decided, he was
surrounded by every abolitionist in the hall, and received their
congratulations for the course he had pursued. He did not intend
to charge the gentleman with intentionally playing the part of an
assassin; but said, and could not take it back, that the act, to
all intents, was like throwing one arm around it in friendship,
and stabbing it with the other--to kill the bill.

"The gentleman from New York had said that there were but eighteen
or nineteen bills before the Nebraska bill on the calendar?

"MR. ENGLISH.--There are fifty bills before the Senate bill.

"MR. CUTTING.--Before the House bill?

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE.--I will nail the gentleman to the counter
there. 'Before the House bill?' says he. 'Why, I give up that we
will never reach the Senate bill, but we will reach the House
bill.' But did not the gentleman say that his object in moving to
commit the bill was that he might discuss the bill and examine the
Badger proviso? And is not the Badger amendment contained in the
Senate bill? Thus it would be seen that the bill which the
gentleman moved to commit for the purpose of examining into could
never be reached.

"The meaning of the gentleman's remarks about the press was, that
he (Mr. B.) had acted in concert with papers in this city to drive
the gentleman from the support of the bill. Was it not a low
ambition for a man to take a course against a measure because
another was for it? Did the gentleman suppose that twenty
Administrations could ever drive him (Mr. B.) from his position?
Even if the Administration were against the bill, he (Mr. B.)
would go for it. They should never influence him in this respect.
He had no more connection with the Administration than any other
gentleman on this floor.

"The gentleman had said that he (Mr. B.) was the last individual
whom he supposed would have made an assault on him, because in the
hour of his greatest need the Hards came to his assistance. This
innuendo was so deep that he could not understand it, and
therefore asked for an explanation.

"MR. CUTTING replied, that he had been informed that during the
canvass in Kentucky, it having been intimated that the gentleman's
friends needed assistance to accomplish his election, his friends
in New York made up a subscription of some $1,500, and transmitted
it to Kentucky, to be employed for the benefit of the gentleman,
who is now the peer of Presidents and Cabinets. [Laughter.]

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE.--And not only the peer of Presidents and
Cabinets, but the peer of the gentleman from New York, fully and
in every respect.

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE, resuming, said that the gentleman should have
known the truth of what he uttered before he pronounced it on this
floor. He (Mr. B.) was not aware that any intimations were sent
from Kentucky that funds were needed to aid in his election, nor
was he aware that they were received. He did not undertake to say
what the fact might be in regard to what the gentleman had said,
but he had no information whatever on that fact. He (Mr. B.) came
here not by the aid of money, but against the use of money.
[Applause.] The gentleman could not escape by any subtlety, or by
any ingenuity, a thorough and complete exposure of any ingenious
device to which he might resort for the purpose of putting
gentlemen in a false position, and the sooner he stopped that
game, the better.

"MR. CUTTING said that he had given the gentleman an opportunity
of indulging in one of the most violent, inflammatory, and
personal assaults that had ever been known upon this floor; and he
would ask, how could the gentleman disclaim any attack upon him
when he followed it up by declaring that his (Mr. C.'s) intention
and motive was to destroy a measure for which he professed
friendship?

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE asked the gentleman to point to the occasion
when he made such a remark.

"MR. CUTTING submitted to the committee that the whole tenor and
scope of the speech of the gentleman from Kentucky was an attack
upon his motives in moving to commit the bill. It was in vain for
the gentleman to attempt to escape by disclaiming it; the fact was
before the committee. But he would say to the gentleman that he
scorned his imputation. How dare the gentleman undertake to assert
that he had professed friendship for the measure, with a view to
kill it, to assassinate it by sending it to the bottom of the
calendar? And then, when he said that the committee of the whole
had under its control the House bill upon this identical subject,
which the committee intended to take up, discuss, amend, and
report to the House, the gentleman skulked behind the Senate bill,
which had been sent to the foot of the calendar!

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE.--I ask the gentleman to withdraw that last
word.

"MR. CUTTING.--I withdraw nothing. I have uttered what I have said
in answer to one of the most violent and most personal attacks
that has ever been witnessed upon this floor.

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE.--Then, when the gentleman says I skulk, he says
what is false.

"THE CHAIR.--The gentleman is not in order.

"MR. CUTTING.--I do not intend upon this floor to answer the
remark which the gentleman from Kentucky has thought proper to
employ. It belongs to a different region. It is not here that I
will desecrate my lips with undertaking to retort in that manner.

"Mr. C. then declared that in moving to commit the bill, his
object was to get it in such a shape as would be satisfactory to
the country, and put at rest the outcries of fanaticism which now
prevailed throughout the land.

"He desired peace and harmony, and would suggest to gentlemen who
were anxious for the passage of the bill, that it was not the best
mode of accomplishing their object by assailing those who
proclaimed themselves favorable to its principles and its great
cardinal outlines. It seemed to him, if gentlemen desired the
success of the bill, it would answer a better purpose if they
would turn their batteries upon its enemies, rather than attempt
to destroy those who were its friends."

The result was, that the preliminaries of a duel were arranged, but fortunately, by the interposition of friends, an amicable adjustment of the difficulty was arrived at.

When Mr. Pierce was in power, he offered Mr. Breckinridge the Spanish mission, but he refused it. In 1856, he was put upon the Democratic ticket and elected Vice-President of the United States.

The official position of Mr. Breckinridge has been such as to render his position on some of the present political issues somewhat doubtful. He is, of course, a believer in the old Democratic creed, and is a moderate supporter of the South and her institutions. It was generally understood at Washington, during the Lecompton struggle, that he sided with the President against Mr. Douglas--in other words, was in favor of the bill. He was a warm supporter of Mr. Douglas in 1854, and his great measure, the Kansas act. In the last session of Congress, Mr. Breckinridge gave his casting vote to postpone the consideration of the Homestead bill, which gives an indication of his hostility to the measure. He is a very fair politician, of unspotted integrity as a man, and is possessed of talents of high order, such as fit him to occupy with ability any office within the gift of the people.

JOHN C. FREMONT.

The leadership of Mr. Fremont in a Presidential campaign has doubtless made his name and history familiar to all intelligent men, but the fact that he is a prominent candidate for the Presidency in 1860, makes it proper to give in this volume an outline sketch of his life. Aside from this, such men as Fremont, whether Presidential candidate or not, whether President or not, are the great, daring, characteristic, men of our times, and their deeds should always be held in remembrance.

Mr. Fremont is a native of Savannah, Georgia, where he was born, June 21, 1813. At an early age he entered the law office of John W. Mitchell, of Charleston, where he gave such indications of talent, that Mr. Mitchell bestowed unusual pains upon his education, placing him under the care of an excellent teacher, Dr. Robertson, a Scotch gentleman, who carried him through the classics. At the age of sixteen, young Fremont was confirmed in the Protestant Episcopal church. In 1833, the sloop-of-war Natchez entered the port of Charleston and was ordered from there to South America. Fremont, just twenty years old, got the situation of teacher of mathematics aboard of her, and made a cruise of two and a half years. Upon his return, he was made professor of mathematics and appointed to the frigate Independence. He afterward made one of a corps of topographical engineers to explore a route of a railway from Charleston to Cincinnati. It was here that Fremont got his first experience of camp life. He went next to the Upper Mississippi on a similar undertaking.

In 1841, Mr. Fremont was ordered to examine the Desmoines River, in Iowa--then a wilderness; and when it was performed, he returned to marry Jessie Benton, the young daughter of Thomas H. Benton. The next year he projected his first great exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains, setting out from Washington, May 2, 1842. The results of the expedition were great and made a deep impression upon the Government and nation, and a second expedition was ordered, much more complete in preparation than the first. The party left Kansas in May, 1843, and did not get back to the United States until August of 1844. The tour was full of dangers and thrilling incidents, and the results were still more striking than those of the first expedition. Col. Benton sketched the expedition in a few eloquent words, as follows:

"'The Government deserves credit for the zeal with which it has
pursued geographical discovery.' Such is the remark which a
leading paper made upon the discoveries of Fremont, on his return
from his second expedition to the great West; and such is the
remark which all writers will make upon all his discoveries who
write history from public documents and outside views. With all
such writers the expeditions of Fremont will be credited to the
zeal of the Government for the promotion of science, as if the
Government under which he acted had conceived and planned these
expeditions, as Mr. Jefferson did that of Lewis and Clark, and
then selected this young officer to carry into effect the
instructions delivered to him. How far such history would be true
in relation to the first expedition, which terminated in the Rocky
Mountains, has been seen in the account which has been given of
the origin of that undertaking, and which leaves the Government
innocent of its conception; and, therefore, not entitled to the
credit of its authorship, but only to the merit of permitting it.
In the second, and greater expedition, from which great political
as well as scientific results have flowed, their merit is still
less; for, while equally innocent of its conception, they were not
equally passive to its performance--countermanding the expedition
after it had begun--and lavishing censure upon the adventurous
young explorer for his manner of undertaking it. The fact was,
that his first expedition barely finished, Mr. Fremont sought and
obtained orders for a second one, and was on the frontier of
Missouri with his command, when orders arrived at St. Louis to
stop him, on the ground that he had made a military equipment
which the peaceful nature of his geographical pursuit did not
require! as if Indians did not kill and rob scientific men as well
as others, if not in a condition to defend themselves. The
particular point of complaint was that he had taken a small
mountain howitzer, in addition to his rifles; and which, he was
informed, was charged to him, although it had been furnished upon
a regular requisition on the commandant of the arsenal at St.
Louis, approved by the commander of the military department
(Colonel, afterward General Kearney). Mr. Fremont had left St.
Louis, and was at the frontier, Mrs. Fremont being requested to
examine the letters that came after him, and forward those which
he ought to receive. She read the countermanding orders and
detained them! and Fremont knew nothing of their existence, until
after he had returned from one of the most marvellous and eventful
expeditions of modern times--one to which the United States are
indebted (among other things) for the present ownership of
California, instead of seeing it a British possession. The writer
of this view, who was then in St. Louis, approved of the course
which his daughter had taken (for she had stopped the orders
before he knew it); and he wrote a letter to the department
condemning the recall, repulsing the reprimand which had been
lavished upon Fremont, and demanding a court martial for him when
he should return. The Secretary of War was then Mr. James Madison
Porter, of Pennsylvania; the chief of the topographical corps the
same as now (Colonel Abert), himself an office man, surrounded by
West Point officers, to whose pursuit of easy service, Fremont's
adventurous expedition was a reproach; and in conformity to whose
opinions the secretary seemed to have acted. On Fremont's return,
upward of a year afterward, Mr. William Wilkins, of Pennsylvania,
was Secretary of War, and received the young explorer with all
honor and friendship, and obtained for him the brevet of captain
from President Tyler. And such is the inside view of this piece of
history--very different from what documentary evidence would make
it.

"To complete his survey across the continent, on the line of
travel between the State of Missouri and the tide-water region of
the Columbia, was Fremont's object in this expedition; and it was
all that he had obtained orders for doing; but only a small part,
and to his mind, an insignificant part, of what he proposed doing.
People had been to the mouth of the Columbia before, and his
ambition was not limited to making tracks where others had made
them before him. There was a vast region beyond the Rocky
Mountains--the whole western slope of our continent--of which but
little was known; and of that little, nothing with the accuracy of
science. All that vast region, more than seven hundred miles
square--equal to a great kingdom in Europe--was an unknown land--a
sealed book, which he longed to open, and to read. Leaving the
frontier of Missouri in May, 1843, and often diverging from his
route for the sake of expanding his field of observation, he had
arrived in the tide-water region of Columbia in the month of
November; and had then completed the whole service which his
orders embraced. He might then have returned upon his tracks, or
been brought home by sea, or hunted the most pleasant path for
getting back; and if he had been a routine officer, satisfied with
fulfilling an order, he would have done so. Not so the young
explorer, who held his diploma from nature, and not from the
United States Military Academy. He was, at Fort Vancouver, guest
of the hospitable Dr. McLaughlin, Governor of the British Hudson
Bay Fur Company; and obtained from him all possible information
upon his intended line of return--faithfully given, but which
proved to be disastrously erroneous in its leading and governing
feature. A southeast route, to cross the great unknown region
diagonally through its heart (making a line from the Lower
Columbia to the Upper Colorado of the Gulf of California), was his
line of return; twenty-five men (the same who had come with him
from the United States) and a hundred horses, were his equipment;
and the commencement of winter the time of starting--all without a
guide, relying upon their guns for support; and, in the last
resort, upon their horses--such as should give out! for one that
could carry a man, or a pack, could not be spared for food.

"All the maps up to that time had shown this region traversed from
east to west--from the base of the Rocky Mountains to the bay of
San Francisco--by a great river called the _Buena Ventura_: which
may be translated, the _Good Chance_. Governor McLaughlin believed
in the existence of this river, and made out a conjectural
manuscript map to show its place and course. Fremont believed in
it, and his plan was to reach it before the dead of winter, and
then hibernate upon it. As a great river, he knew that it must
have some rich bottoms, covered with wood and grass, where the
wild animals would collect and shelter, when the snows and
freezing winds drove them from the plains: and with these animals
to live on, and grass for the horses, and wood for fires, he
expected to avoid suffering, if not to enjoy comfort, during his
solitary sojourn in that remote and profound wilderness.

"He proceeded--soon encountered deep snows, which impeded progress
upon the highlands--descended into a low country to the left
(afterward known to be the Great Basin, from which no water issues
to any sea)--skirted an enormous chain of mountain on the right,
luminous with the glittering white snow--saw strange Indians, who
mostly fled--found a desert--no Buena Ventura; and death from cold
and famine staring him in the face. The failure to find the river,
or tidings of it, and the possibility of its existence seeming to
be forbid by the structure of the country, and hibernation in the
inhospitable desert being impossible, and the question being that
of life and death, some new plan of conduct became indispensable.
His celestial observations told him that he was in the latitude of
the bay of San Francisco, and only seventy miles from it. But what
miles! up and down that snowy mountain which the Indians told him
no men could cross in the winter--which would have snow upon it as
deep as the trees, and places where people would slip off, and
fall half a mile at a time;--a fate which actually befell a mule,
packed with the precious burden of botanical specimens, collected
along a travel of two thousand miles. No reward could induce an
Indian to become a guide in the perilous adventure of crossing
this mountain. All recoiled and fled from the adventure. It was
attempted without a guide--in the dead of winter--accomplished in
forty days--the men and surviving horses, a woeful procession,
crawling along one by one--skeleton men leading skeleton
horses--and arriving at Sutter's Settlement in the beautiful
valley of the Sacramento; and where a genial warmth, and budding
flowers, and trees in foliage, the grassy ground, and flowing
streams, and comfortable food, made a fairy contrast with the
famine and freezing they had encountered, and the lofty Sierra
Nevada which they had climbed. Here he rested and recruited; and
from this point, and by way of Monterey, the first tidings were
heard of the party since leaving Fort Vancouver.

"Another long progress to the south, skirting the western base of
the Sierra Nevada, made him acquainted with the noble valley of
the San Joaquin, counterpart to that of the Sacramento; when
crossing through a gap, and turning to the left, he skirted the
Great Basin; and by many deviations from the right line home,
levied incessant contributions to science from expanded lands, not
described before. In this eventful exploration, all the great
features of the western slope of our continent were brought to
light--the Great Salt Lake, the Utah Lake, the Little Salt Lake;
at all which places, then deserts, the Mormons now are; the Sierra
Nevada, then solitary in the snow, now crowded with Americans,
digging gold from its flanks; the beautiful valleys of the
Sacramento and San Joaquin, then alive with wild horses, elk,
deer, and wild fowls, now smiling with American cultivation, the
Great Basin itself, and its contents; the Three Parks; the
approximation of the great rivers which, rising together in the
central region of the Rocky Mountains, go off east and west,
toward the rising and the setting sun--all these, and other
strange features of a new region, more Asiatic than American, were
brought to light and revealed to public view in the results of
this exploration.

"Eleven months he was never out of sight of snow; and sometimes,
freezing with cold, would look down upon a sunny valley, warm with
genial heat; sometimes, panting with the summer's heat, would look
up at the eternal snows which crowned the neighboring mountain.
But it was not then that California was secured to the Union--to
the greatest power of the new world--to which it of right
belonged; but it was the first step toward the acquisition, and
the one that led to it. The second expedition led to a third, just
in time to snatch the golden California from the hands of the
British, ready to clutch it. But of this hereafter. Fremont's
second expedition was now over. He had left the United States a
fugitive from his Government, and returned with a name that went
over Europe and America, and with discoveries bearing fruit which
the civilized world is now enjoying."

In 1845, the third expedition of Col. Fremont was made--principally intended to explore the Great Basin and country of Oregon and California.

"He approached these settlements in the winter of 1845-6. Aware of
the critical state of affairs between the United States and
Mexico, and determined to give no cause of offence to the
authorities of the province, with commendable prudence he haulted
his command on the frontier, one hundred miles from Monterey, and
proceeded alone to that city to explain the object of his coming
to the commandant general, Castro, and to obtain permission to go
to the valley of the San Joaquin, where there was game for his men
and grass for his horses, and no inhabitants to be molested by his
presence. The leave was granted; but scarcely had he reached the
desired spot for refreshment and repose, before he received
information from the American settlements, and by express from our
Consul at Monterey, that General Castro was preparing to attack
him with a comparatively large force of artillery, cavalry and
infantry, upon the pretext that, under the cover of a scientific
mission, he was exciting the American settlers to revolt. In view
of this danger and to be in a condition to repel an attack, he
then took a position on a mountain overlooking Monterey, at a
distance of about thirty miles, intrenched it, raised the flag of
the United States, and with his own men, sixty-two in number,
awaited the approach of the commandant general.

"From the 7th to the 10th of March, Colonel Fremont and his little
band maintained this position. General Castro did not approach
within attacking distance, and Colonel Fremont, adhering to his
plan of avoiding all collisions, and determined neither to
compromise his Government nor the American settlers, ready to join
him at all hazards, if he had been attacked, abandoned his
position, and commenced his march for Oregon, intending by that
route to return to the United States. Deeming all danger from the
Mexicans to be past, he yielded to the wishes of some of his men
who desired to remain in the country, discharged them from his
service, and refused to receive others in their stead, so cautious
was he to avoid doing anything which would compromit the American
settlers or give even a color of offence to the Mexican
authorities. He pursued his march slowly and leisurely, as the
state of his men and horses required, until the middle of May, and
had reached the northern shore of the greater Tlamath Lake, within
the limits of the Oregon territory, when he found his further
progress in that direction obstructed by impassable snowy
mountains and hostile Indians, who, having been excited against
him by General Castro, had killed and wounded four of his men, and
left him no repose either in camp or on his march. At the same
time, information reached him that General Castro, in addition to
his Indian allies, was advancing in person against him with
artillery and cavalry, at the head of four or five hundred men;
that they were passing around the head of the Bay of San Francisco
to a rendezvous on the north side of it, and that the American
settlers in the valley of the Sacramento were comprehended in the
scheme of destruction meditated against his own party.

"Under these circumstances, he determined to turn upon his Mexican
pursuers, and seek safety both for his own party and the American
settlers, not merely in the defeat of Castro, but in the total
overthrow of the Mexican authority in California, and the
establishment of an independent government in that extensive
department. It was on the 6th of June, and before the commencement
of the war between the United States and Mexico could have there
been known, that this resolution was taken; and, by the 5th of
July, it was carried into effect by a series of rapid attacks, by
a small body of adventurous men, under the conduct of an intrepid
leader, quick to perceive and able to direct the proper measures
for accomplishing such a daring enterprise.

"On the 11th of June, a convoy of 200 horses for Castro's camp,
with an officer and 14 men, were surprised and captured by 12 of
Fremont's party. On the 15th, at daybreak, the military post of
Sonoma was also surprised and taken, with nine brass cannon, 250
stand of muskets, and several officers and some men and munitions
of war.

"Leaving a small garrison at Sonoma, Colonel Fremont went to the
Sacramento to rouse the American settlers; but scarcely had he
arrived there, when an express reached him from the garrison at
Sonoma, with information that Castro's whole force was crossing
the bay to attack that place. This intelligence was received in
the afternoon of the 23d of June, while he was on the American
fork of the Sacramento, 80 miles from the little garrison at
Sonoma; and, at two o'clock on the morning of the 25th, he arrived
at that place with 90 riflemen from the American settlers in that
valley. The enemy had not yet appeared. Scouts were sent out to
reconnoitre, and a party of 20 fell in with a squadron of 70
dragoons (all of Castro's force which had crossed the bay),
attacked and defeated it, killing and wounding five, without harm
to themselves; the Mexican commander, De la Torre, barely escaping
with the loss of his transport boats and nine pieces of brass
artillery, spiked.

"The country north of the bay of San Francisco, being cleared of
the enemy, Colonel Fremont returned to Sonoma on the evening of
the 4th of July, and on the morning of the 5th, called the people
together, explained to them the condition of things in the
province, and recommended an immediate declaration of
independence. The declaration was made, and he was selected to
take the chief direction of affairs.

"The attack on Castro was the next object. He was at Santa Clara,
an intrenched post on the upper or south side of the Bay of San
Francisco, with 400 men and two pieces of field artillery. A
circuit of more than a hundred miles must be traversed to reach
him. On the 6th of July the pursuit was commenced, by a body of
160 mounted riflemen, commanded by Colonel Fremont in person, who,
in three days, arrived at the American settlements on the Rio de
los Americanos. Here he learnt that Castro had abandoned Santa
Clara, and was retreating south toward Ciudad de los Angeles (the
city of the Angels), the seat of the Governor General of the
Californias, and distant 400 miles. It was instantly resolved on
to pursue him to that place. At the moment of departure, the
gratifying intelligence was received that war with Mexico had
commenced; that Monterey had been taken by our naval force, and
the flag of the United States there raised on the 7th of July; and
that the fleet would cooperate in the pursuit of Castro and his
forces. The flag of independence was hauled down, and that of the
United States hoisted, amidst the hearty greetings and to the
great joy of the American settlers and the forces under the
command of Colonel Fremont.

"The combined pursuit was rapidly continued; and on the 12th of
August, Commodore Stockton and Colonel Fremont, with a detachment
of marines from the squadron and some riflemen, entered the City
of the Angels, without resistance or objection; the Governor
General, Pico, the Commandant General, Castro, and all the Mexican
authorities, having fled and dispersed. Commodore Stockton took
possession of the whole country as a conquest of the United
States, and appointed Colonel Fremont Governor, under the law of
nations; to assume the functions of that office when he should
return to the squadron.

"Thus, in the short space of sixty days from the first decisive
movement, this conquest was achieved by a small body of men, to an
extent beyond their own expectation; for the Mexican authorities
proclaimed it a conquest, not merely of the northern part, but of
the whole province of the Californias.

"The Commandant General, Castro, on the 9th of August, from his
camp at the Mesa, and next day 'on the road to Sonora,' announced
this result to the people, together with the actual flight and
dispersion of the former authorities; and at the same time, he
officially communicated the fact of the conquest to the French,
English, and Spanish Consuls in California; and to crown the
whole, the official paper of the Mexican government, on the 16th
of October, in laying these official communications before the
public, introduced them with the emphatic declaration, 'The loss
of the Californias is consummated.'

"The whole province was yielded up to the United States, and is
now in our military occupancy. A small part of the troops sent out
to subject this province will constitute, it is presumed, a
sufficient force to retain our possession, and the remainder will
be disposable for other objects of the war."