Description:

Fremont John



John C. Fremont ALS to Civil War Veteran

 

1p ALS inscribed overall and signed by John C. Fremont (1813-1890) as "J.C. Fremont" at lower right. Written "Wednesday e[veni]ng" at 21 W. 19th Street, New York City. The cream bifold stationery paper shows expected folds, and a few extra wrinkles. A small closed tear along the right margin, else very good to near fine. Blank inner pages, and pencil inscriptions on the last page. 4.75" x 7.5".

 

"Dear Sir

 

I was so busy yesterday that your note was not opened until after you called in the evening.

 

I happen to be very much occupied until Friday. Any hour of any day after that that you chose to name for an interview will be agreeable to me.

 

Yours truly,

J.C. Fremont.

 

Wednesday eng.

21 W. 19th

 

Col. Fairman

231 W. 21st."

 

Fremont's correspondent was almost certainly Col. James A. Fairman (1826-1904), a veteran militiaman and Civil War officer who is more celebrated today as an accomplished landscape painter. Fremont and Fairman shared much common ground: military experience, abolitionist sympathies, difficult personal temperament, and geographical location--New York City. One of Col. Fairman's first landscapes, entitled "Westward the Course of Empire Takes His Way," was gifted to General Fremont in the 1860s. Fairman's biographer raved, "the artist now thinks it a matter of indulgent generosity that the Great Pathfinder accepted it as a gift!" (Biographical Sketch of Col. James Fairman, A.M., the American Artist and Art Lecturer, London: 1880, p. 3.) During the Civil War, Fairman was an officer in New York's 73rd Regiment. He saw action in the Peninsula before he was invalided out of service in 1863. In later life, Fairman established an artist's studio in New York City and traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East painting well-received pictures.

 

John C. Fremont was dubbed the “Pathfinder” after leading five expeditions through Western territories during the 1830s and 1840s. The fiery Mexican War veteran was appointed Governor of California in 1847 and served as one of the first two senators from California. Fremont become the first Republican Party presidential candidate in 1856.

 

John C. Fremont's military service was checkered at best. President Lincoln had promoted John C. Fremont to Major General and appointed him Commander of the Western Armies on July 3, 1861. After arriving at his post in late July 1861, Fremont was dismayed to discover that Union forces in Missouri were constantly harassed by Confederate guerillas. Fremont declared a state of martial law in Missouri without obtaining permission from Washington, and when President Lincoln demanded that Fremont rescind the declaration of martial law and the emancipation edict, Fremont refused. He was dismissed from his command on October 24, 1861. More scandals followed Fremont from career to career.

 

Fremont attempted one more presidential bid in 1864 as a Radical Republican, but failed. He served as Governor of the Arizona Territory between 1878-1872. When Fremont’s business ventures permanently overturned in the 1870s, his wife Jessie Benton Fremont began to publish travel narratives and other memoirs to earn some income.

 


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