Imperfect Union
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a rancho controlled by an American: Spence, Expeditions, vol. 3, xxxii.
“Some of the Sonorians decide[d] to go . . . told them would be found”: JCF, notes on 1848–9 expedition, undated, Spence, Expeditions, vol. 3, 51–52.
“I had always intended . . . foothold in it”: JCF to Jacob R. Snyder, December 11, 1849, Spence, Expeditions, vol. 3, 122.
sold to John for three thousand dollars: Frémont v. United States, US Supreme Court, 1854.
“I had never seen the place” . . . “nothing of its character or value”: JCF to Jacob R. Snyder, December 11, 1849, Spence, Expeditions, vol. 3, 122.
contemplated suing Larkin: Nevins, Frémont: Pathmarker of the West, 371; Gates, “The Frémont-Jones Scramble for California Land Claims.”
making arrangements to build a special traveling coach: JBF, Year of American Travel, 118.
many soldiers deserted: Crotty, “The California Constitutional Convention of 1849.”
“long thin young”: JBF, Year of American Travel, 109.
renting the Frémonts one wing of it: Herr, Jessie Benton Frémont, 203.
window overlooking the bay: JBF, Year of American Travel, 154.
“my name represented only invasion and defeat”: Ibid., 107.
“every eatable thing . . . nothing raised”: Ibid., 104.
arriving on a different ship in late August: Lavender, The Great Persuader, 18.
hacking down enormous redwood trees: Taylor, Prose Writings of Bayard Taylor, 70.
“Fleas swarmed there . . . language is spoken”: JBF to Lydia Maria Child, July–August 1856, Herr and Spence, Letters, 122.
helped him obtain equipment and sent him off to Las Mariposas: JBF, Year of American Travel, 114.
“cook, washer, and ironer” . . . “helpless woman in town”: JBF to Lydia Maria Child, July–August 1856, Herr and Spence, Letters, 122.
four thousand dollars: Ibid.
held up his eight-pound lump of gold: Thompson, “Edward Fitzgerald Beale and the California Gold Rush,” 207.
“wearing a sombrero” . . . “keen as a hawk’s”: Taylor, Prose Writings of Bayard Taylor, 69.
“the mark of confidence bestowed upon me”: Spence, Expeditions, vol. 3, 116.
“were put for safety under the straw mattress” . . . “trunks in our rooms there”: JBF, Year of American Travel, 125.
“with scrupulous honor . . . their stipulated portion”: Ibid., 126.
“hundreds—soon becoming thousands—crowded to the same place”: JCF to John R. Snyder, December 15, 1849, Spence, Expeditions, vol. 3, 120.
1,512 . . . 43 women . . . 1,105 miners: United States Census for Mariposa County, 1850.
the ship called Colonel Fremont: Crotty, “The California Constitutional Convention of 1849.”
“the culprit hall” . . . “gamblers, convicts, and tipplers”: Ibid., 9, 356.
Sherman . . . sent as an observer: Sherman and Fellman, Memoirs, 85.
“a sort of ornamental appendage”: Crosby, Memoirs of Elisha Oscar Crosby, 39.
daily hosting other delegates: Ibid., 46.
“The Spaniards . . . with what grace they could”: Ibid., 38.
“tall and of commanding presence” . . . “dignified expression”: Taylor, Prose Writings of Bayard Taylor, 157.
“carried an enormous bowie knife & was half drunk most of the time”: Crosby, Memoirs of Elisha Oscar Crosby, 46.
“foundation of civilization”: Stanley, “Senator William Gwin: Moderate or Racist?”
“Gwin, with good grace adopted the clause prohibiting slavery”: Crosby, Memoirs of Elisha Oscar Crosby, 48.
“Neither slavery . . . in this State”: Constitution of the State of California (1849), Section 18.
“The admission of California . . . every other consideration”: Crosby, Memoirs of Elisha Oscar Crosby, 41.
prohibited the entry of any black people at all: “Further Particulars by the Empire City,” New York Tribune, quoted in the Portage Sentinel, November 19, 1849.
“every white male citizen of the United States”: Constitution of the State of California (1849), Article II, Section 1.
landowning Indians had previously enjoyed the franchise: Rosenus, General Vallejo and the Advent of the Americans, 203.
the legislature could, by a two-thirds vote, allow voting to select Indians: Constitution of the State of California (1849), Article II, Section 1.
“all property” . . . “shall be her separate property”: Ibid.
by a single vote he was defeated: His biographer thinks Vallejo may have offered this addition to the crowded seal as a kind of joke, but his proposal was defeated by only a single vote. Rosenus, General Vallejo and the Advent of the Americans, 204.
William T. Sherman saw him: Sherman and Fellman, Memoirs, 84.
showing off samples of gold: Taylor, Prose Writings of Bayard Taylor, 110–11.
“that I really did not want slaves”: JBF, Year of American Travel, 144.
“was made on the side of free labor . . . crowding into the country”: Ibid., 146.
“Frémont was a very nice little gentleman . . . intelligent and comprehensive”: Crosby, Memoirs of Elisha Oscar Crosby, 35.
Crosby denied that Jessie had influenced the convention: Ibid.
“I was induced to vote for him . . . extreme Southern man”: Ibid., 41.
“so palpable a cut or insult to the South . . . chance of admission”: Ibid., 42.
“What we had done in Monterey . . . continue the work”: JBF, Year of American Travel, 151.
“our old home life to be restored”: Ibid.
“By association” . . . “the two great parties”: JCF to Jacob R. Snyder, December 15, 1849, Spence, Expeditions, vol. 3, 121.
“a central, national railroad” . . . “Asiatic races”: Ibid.
“The result was entirely satisfactory” . . . “obstacles in the way of the road”: Ibid., 122.
“The rains set in furiously . . . and heavily on the beach”: JBF, A Year of American Travel, 154.
“tremendous rain” . . . “make him cross the pretty room”: Ibid., 159.
“When we heard the steamer’s gun” . . . “turned the way you wish to go”: Ibid., 160.
thinking it might take seven years: Ibid., 150.
“a timely and excellent donation for this state”: “Proceedings of the Legislature,” Weekly Pacific News, January 31, 1850.
one hundred volumes in all: Journal of the Senate of the State of California, 1849–50, 96. Journal located by the California State Library, which, as of 2018, still possessed seven of the one hundred books.
“treatise on field fortification”: Ibid.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: WE THOUGHT MONEY MIGHT COME IN HANDY
It was a Colt revolver: Foote, Casket of Reminiscences, 339.
mass-producing a small, five-shot weapon for civilian use: Wilson, Colt, 42–43.
feared a confrontation with . . . Thomas Hart Benton: Foote, Casket of Reminiscences, 339.
huddled in his cloak: Peterson, The Great Triumvirate, 460.
“great and primary cause” . . . “protecting us”: Washington Union, March 5, 1850.
“pick a quarrel for a wicked purpose”: Chambers, Old Bullion Benton, 349.
“a degenerate Roman senator”: Ibid., 357.
“the oldest member of the Senate” . . . “calumniators”: “The Compromise Committee,” Weekly National Intelligencer, April 20, 1850.
“almost every Senator was on his feet”: Ibid.
“I have no pistols! Let him fire! Stand out of the way, and let the assassin fire!”: Ibid.
“locked it in his desk”: Ibid.
to “assassinate” him: Ibid.
he wrote the United States attorney: Benton letter to Phili
p Fendall, “U.S. District Atto,” Thomas Hart Benton papers, LOC.
interrupted by shouts from spectators: Congressional Globe, 31st Congress, 1st Session, 115.
“surrender” . . . was a “monster”: Benton, Mr. Benton’s Anti-Compromise Speech.
“a higher law than the Constitution”: Seward, Seward at Washington, 1846–61, 126.
“dark and depraved” . . . “a new and powerful Northern party”: Frederick Douglass’ Paper, April 5, 1850.
“rambles much about the Parisian streets, unattended”: “Louis Napoleon,” North Star, April 20, 1849.
“were compelled to eat . . . before they became cold”: Ibid.
“Col. Fremont is said to have fallen upon untold riches”: “More About the Californian Convention,” North Star, November 23, 1849.
his election to the Senate: “California—the New Constitution,” North Star, December 14, 1849.
brick house . . . selected for its location: So said his next-door neighbor Jane Marsh Parker in “Reminiscences of Frederick Douglass.”
turn waterwheels and dump waste: Truesdale, “Historic Main Street Bridge.”
a single room contained an iron printing press, a desk in the corner, and wooden type cases along the walls: Photo of Douglass’s office, undated, Rochester Public Library, Local History and Genealogy Division.
Aided by an assistant and sometimes by his young daughter and son: Horace McGuire, “Two Episodes of Anti-Slavery Days.”
“Colored newspapers . . . are sometimes objected to” . . . “professors and editors”: “Colored Newspapers,” North Star, January 7, 1848.
“volunteered in aid of the inhuman man-stealer”: Ibid.
“the doctrine of NO UNION” . . . “otherwise happy republic”: Ibid.
Mary Hallowell, Maria E. Wilbur, Mary M’Clintock, and Amy Post: Ibid.
“gentlemen present in favor of the movement”: Report of the Woman’s Rights Convention, July 19 and 20, 1848.
“Anxiety was manifest” . . . “nearly drowned them”: “Woman’s Rights Convention,” Frederick Douglass’ Paper, August 11, 1848.
“the omnipotency of right”: Ibid.
“the faith . . . the point of the bayonet”: “The Southern Caucus,” Frederick Douglass’ Paper, January 12, 1849.
“it is the imperative duty of the Southern States . . . at all hazards and to the last extremity”: “Movements at the South on the Slavery Question,” Frederick Douglass’ Paper, January 19, 1849.
almost five whole columns: “Mr. Calhoun’s Manifesto,” Frederick Douglass’ Paper, February 9, 1849.
“Those who cared nothing for the slave . . . inheritance of the nation”: Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 256.
“was hardly dry on the page . . . to keep it alive and vigorous”: Ibid., 255.
September 10, 1850, William M. Gwin presented his credentials: Senate Journal, September 10, 1850, 616.
His term was to end on March 3, 1851: Bigelow, Memoir of the Life and Public Services of John Charles Fremont, 409.
“Since the mission of Him who came into the world” . . . “the real El Dorado”: James Rhoads, “Colonel Frémont,” Sartain’s Union Magazine of Literature and Art 7 (October 1850): 241.
“F. Hultmann” . . . loaned “Lieutenant Colonel J.C. Frémont” some $19,500: Senate Journal, January 13, 1851, 80.
actually spelled Huttmann: Spence, Expeditions, vol. 3, 349fn.
“Any slave” . . . “liberated and free”: Senate Bill 226, 31st Congress, Section 1.
“to run away from his, her, or their owner or lawful possessor”: Senate Journal, September 14, 1850, 632.
“to prohibit the coming of free negroes to reside”: Ibid., 633.
“the mustering of colored men into the service of the country”: Dodson appealed to Congress for compensation in 1856. “Congress,” Daily National Intelligencer, April 16, 1856.
John voted along with them: Senate Journal, September 12, 1850, 627.
because John faced reelection first, he would introduce the necessary legislation: Ellison, “Memoirs of Hon. William M. Gwin.”
Foote struck him in the face: Foote, Casket of Reminiscences, 341.
“to preserve peace with the Indian tribes . . . gold-mine districts”: Senate Journal, September 11, 1850, 622.
“In California . . . the strong hand alone”: Bigelow, Memoir of the Life and Public Services of John Charles Fremont, 413.
“there has been no continuous effective policy” . . . “white man”: JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 27.
“moneyed capital” . . . “courage and industry”: JCF, “Address to the People of California,” reprinted in New York Evening Post, February 14, 1851.
“shall have the authority to grant permits to American citizens”: Senate Bill 343, 31st Congress, 1st session, 1.
“All our American population . . . by foreigners”: Ibid., 1366.
the first proposals to ban foreigners from the mines: Kanazawa, “Immigration, Exclusion, and Taxation.”
tax that applied only to foreigners: Ibid.; Crosby, Memoirs of Elisha Oscar Crosby, 47.
“civilized Indians and inferior castes”: Congressional Globe, September 24, 1850, 31st Congress, 1st Session, 1366.
“This brought into California . . . to the exclusion of Americans”: Ibid.
“not taking . . . stipulated portion”: JBF, Year of American Travel, 126.
“More than half . . . born aliens”: Congressional Globe, September 24, 1850, 31st Congress, 1st Session, 1366.
“presidential aspirant” . . . “of foreign birth”: Ibid.
numerous states in the nineteenth century allowed noncitizen residents to vote: Lyman, in “Our Inequalities of Suffrage” in 1887, lists Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and Wisconsin. These states had various residency requirements of up to one year, and some excluded “paupers” from the vote, but did not require US citizenship (p. 306).
“they were voters in Wisconsin . . . blast all their hopes”: Congressional Globe, September 24, 1850, 31st Congress, 1st Session, 1366.
“I think Mexicans are a miserable people . . . from the mines”: Ibid.
253–54 “We know nothing” . . . “gets all the gold”: Ibid.
“But we do not want them at all”: Ibid.
“persons from Europe who produce testimonials of good character”: Ibid.
November 21 they were gliding through the Golden Gate: Herr, Jessie Benton Frémont, 219.
“over seven hundred paces” . . . “good, long paces at that”: “Long Wharf,” Alta California, October 15, 1851.
grown ill on the voyage: Bigelow, Memoir of the Life and Public Services of John Charles Fremont, 428.
12,625 residents in San Francisco County: All census figures were reprinted by the Sacramento Transcript, October 31, 1850, and January 3, 1851.
take a house on Stockton Street: JBF and F. P. Frémont, Great Events in the Life of Major General John C. Frémont, 157.
capitalized at one million dollars: Spence, Expeditions, vol. 3, xlvi–xlvii.
“Col. Frémont is now sojourning at San Jose” . . . “mingling freely with the members”: Untitled item, Sacramento Transcript, January 11, 1851; “San Jose Intelligence,” Alta California, January 12, 1851.
He was shocked: So he seemed in his address “To the People of California,” reprinted in New York Evening Post, February 14, 1851.
the Frémonts would suggest that his opposition to slavery had caused his political trouble: As in John’s letter to Charles D. Robinson, reprinted in the Washington Star, April 10, 1856.
in favor of slavery and tied to Southern interests: Stanley, “Senator William Gwin: Moderate or Racist?”
&
nbsp; “If this bill passes” . . . “no pleasant residence for them”: “Frémont’s Land Bill,” California Courier, November 15, 1850. A rival newspaper, the Alta California, identified it as a Whig paper started by new arrivals.
“senseless. . . . Fremont to the Senate”: Ibid.
“we are not at all sorry”: “The News from the States,” Alta California, November 30, 1850.
“has been condemned in general terms for excluding foreigners”: JCF, “To the People of California,” reprinted in New York Evening Post, February 14, 1851.
“your delegation” . . . “held responsible”: Ibid.
“sallow emigrants” from: Stockton Times, November 16, 1850, quoted in Spence, Expeditions, vol. 3, xxxvii.
“a tax upon American citizens to work in the mines”: “The Mining Bill,” Sacramento Transcript, December 13, 1850.
“Our people are already taxed enough”: Ibid.
“the talented, urbane, and unsullied Fremont”: “Our San Jose Correspondence,” Daily Pacific News, January 13, 1851.
“I hope you will be at San Jose in time for the election”: JCF to Abel Stearns, December 1, 1850, Spence, Expeditions, vol. 3, 212.
“the good things, which nourish and make glad the physical nature of man”: “Festive Entertainments at the Capital,” Daily Index (Sacramento), February 20, 1851.
a banquet thrown by one of John’s Senate rivals: Ibid.
“suggested as a mode of getting along . . . 21st ballot”: “Proceedings of the Joint Convention,” Alta California, February 21, 1851.
“to sustain the nominee until the present Legislature ceases to exist”: “Arrival of the Columbia!” Alta California, February 24, 1851.
“In Missouri, Mr. Geyer has been elected in place of Mr. Benton”: “United States Senators,” Sacramento Transcript, March 6, 1851.
offer to buy an immense rancho: JCF to Abel Stearns, April 24, 1851, Spence, Expeditions, vol. 3, 224.
“olives figs & grapes, as well as peaches & apricots”: JBF to Francis Blair, April 11, 1851, Herr and Spence, Letters, 43.
an orchard in what would become the city’s Mission District: Spence, Expeditions, vol. 3, lxxi; JCF to Abel Stearns, December 12, 1851, ibid., 287.
He had assigned seventeen leases: Spence, Expeditions, vol. 3, xlv.