“water broke alternately over her guards”: Ibid.
“squibs and serpents . . . a stout lead pencil”: Ibid., 223.
“nearly impenetrable barrier . . . peopled by freemen”: New York Tribune, reprinted in Niles’ National Register, vol. 65, October 28, 1843.
“The clouds . . . the thunder storms”: JCF, Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 447.
“and as she gave . . . excellent cup of coffee”: Ibid., 470.
“Our cannon caused unnecessary alarm”: Preuss, diary entry, August 23, 1843, Gudde and Gudde, Exploring with Fremont, 86.
“Shooting buffalo with the howitzer is a cruel but amusing sport”: Preuss, diary entry, August 10, 1843, ibid., 84.
“the brass cover . . . future traveler”: JCF, Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 509–10.
“the first ever attempted on the interior sea”: Ibid., 502.
“highly exaggerated and impossible”: Ibid., 471.
He gave the region a name, the Great Basin: Ibid., 541.
“glowing in the sunlight this morning”: Ibid., 557.
“Three unknown Indians . . . and myself”: Ibid., 562.
“On a low broad point . . . tents of the emigrants”: Ibid., 564.
“their land of promise”: Ibid., 567.
nineteen-year-old named William: JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 287.
he was believed to have come from the related Wasco tribe: This is the tradition of both the Chinook Nation and the Wasco tribe. Tony Johnson, chairman, Chinook Indian Nation, email to author, May 8, 2019; Valerie Switzler, manager, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, email to author, May 8, 2019.
“every comfort . . . shelter could give”: JBF to Adelaide Talbot, June 15, 1844, Expeditions, vol. 1, 361.
“a charm for me . . . correct some old error”: JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 485.
“God only knows . . . move ahead slowly”: Preuss, diary entry, December 16, 1843, Gudde and Gudde, Exploring with Fremont, 99.
0 degrees Fahrenheit: “Table of observations with the thermometer,” Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, unnumbered appendix after 784.
“the air was dark . . . green prairie country”: Ibid., 591.
“a magic view from above . . . promised land”: Preuss, diary entry, December 16, 1843, Gudde and Gudde, Exploring with Fremont, 102.
rolled downhill some five hundred feet: Ibid.
52 degrees Fahrenheit: “Table of observations with the thermometer,” Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, unnumbered appendix after p. 784.
thousands of rabbits: Preuss, diary entry, December 16, 1843, Gudde and Gudde, Exploring with Fremont, 102.
571 miles since the Columbia River: “Table of Distances,” Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, unnumbered pages after 724.
“We have been sitting here . . . instead of water”: Preuss, diary entry, December 16, 1843, Gudde and Gudde, Exploring with Fremont, 103.
stolen, the men believed, by Indians: JCF, Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 603.
“furniture and farming utensils . . . machinery for a mill”: Ibid., 430.
“plenty to eat” and “grass in abundance”: Quaife, Kit Carson’s Autobiography, 14.
delayed giving the order for nearly two more weeks: Charles Preuss wrote on January 5 that “we shall probably cross over to California,” proving that the idea was part of the men’s discussions; but Frémont wrote that he did not make the decision until January 18.
“My decision was heard with joy . . . new life through the camp”: JCF, Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 611.
“scarlet cloth . . . country of the whites”: Ibid., 621.
“pointed to the snow on the mountain . . . impossible for them to get through”: Ibid.
“now scanty provisions”: Ibid., 622.
peas, flour, rice, and sugar: Preuss, diary entry, Janurary 26, 1844, Gudde and Gudde, Exploring with Frémont, 105.
urged the travelers not to cross: JCF, Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 624–25.
“He was thinly clad . . . worn out”: Ibid., 625.
snow began to fall: Ibid., 626.
“We still do not know where we really are”: Preuss, diary entry, January 26, 1844, Gudde and Gudde, Exploring with Fremont, 104.
“six feet deep on the level for a distance of three leagues” Quaife, Kit Carson’s Autobiography, 79.
“Driven by hunger . . . meat for food”: Ibid.
“old tall, thick fir trunks were set afire . . . and our kitchen”: Preuss, diary entry, February 3, 1844, Gudde and Gudde, Exploring with Fremont, 108–9.
Another dog, named Clammet: Ibid.
“Rock upon rock—snow upon snow”: JCF, Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 630.
“Seated around . . . serious faces”: Ibid.
they had made it over the divide: Ibid., 637.
“was clear and very long . . . silence and desolation”: Ibid.
9,338 feet above sea level: Ibid., 638.
at 8,574 feet: The elevation now appears on a highway sign on California State Route 88, which leads through what is today called Carson Pass.
“We had with us . . . for famished people”: JCF, Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 645.
“became light-headed . . . knowing where he was going”: Ibid., 645.
“not yet recovered his mind” . . . “as if it were summer”: Ibid., 646.
“On a bench . . . the curiosity to measure”: Ibid., 643.
“Never did a name sound more sweetly”: JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 350.
“I am a vaquero . . . very rich man”: Ibid.
“under his hospitable roof”: Ibid.
1,142 meandering miles: “Table of Distances,” Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, unnumbered pages after 724.
“were all on foot . . . emaciated as themselves”: JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 350–51.
exceeded 60 degrees Fahrenheit and once even hit 75: “Table of observations with the thermometer,” Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, unnumbered appendix after 784.
130 horses, 30 head of cattle: Hurtado, John Sutter, 128.
“silver plated bridle”: Financial records, January 1, 1843–December 31, 1844, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 382, fn 387.
“buck-skin pantaloons & moccasins”: Ibid.
he fled to avoid debtors’ prison: Hurtado, John Sutter, 13.
kanakas . . . rented out to him: Ibid., 45.
“a very moderate compensation . . . of clothing”: JCF, Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 654.
“take payment in dried meat”: Sutter to Antonio Sunol, May 19, 1845, Sutter papers, Bancroft Library.
the laborers were “innocent”: Sutter to Antonio Sunol, June 14, 1845, ibid.
“obtains as many boys and girls as he has any use for”: JCF, Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 654.
sexually abused the girls: Hurtado examines the stories heard and spread by Heinrich Lienhard, another Swiss settler, in John Sutter: A Life on the North American Frontier, 115–16.
planned wool factory: JCF, Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 654.
after killing their parents in war: “Will send you young Indians after the campaign against the Horse-thieves,” Sutter writes in one letter. Sutter to Sunol, May 19, 1845. “Correspondence Between John A. Sutter and Ant
onio Sunol, 1840–46,” Bancroft Library.
he took his time: Chaffin, Pathfinder, 221.
take positions working for Sutter: Dillon, Fool’s Gold, 147. Some dropped off the expedition after Frémont accused them of stealing sugar, but Frémont left on civil enough terms that one went out of his way to meet him upon his return to California in 1845–46.
“inspired with California . . . make there a home”: JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 419.
CHAPTER SIX: THE MANIFEST PURPOSE OF PROVIDENCE
August 15, 1843: “Minutes of the National Convention of Colored Citizens,” August 15–19, 1843. JCF records himself camping on the Green River on that date in Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 466.
public hall at the corner of Washington and Seneca streets: “Minutes of the Convention of Colored Citizens,” 4.
Henry Highland Garnet called the meeting to order: Ibid. “Garnet” is the common spelling of his surname, although the minutes of the convention spelled it “Garnit.”
“infused with tears . . . we shall take it.”: Ibid., 13.
“at first lacked the depravity indispensable to shutting me up in mental darkness”: Douglass, Narrative, 32.
“insurrection . . . better way”: “Minutes of the Convention of Colored Citizens,” 13.
broke his hand: Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 198.
activists could range more widely giving speeches: The role of transportation in Frederick Douglass’s rise is noted in Blight, Frederick Douglass, 123–24.
campaigning to end the House gag rule: Barker, “The Annexation of Texas.”
leaving behind a trail of clear smooth water: The ship’s ice cutting was described in “The Princeton,” Washington Globe, February 17, 1844.
smokeless coal called anthracite, and had a funnel that could be retracted: Pearson, “The ‘Princeton’ and the ‘Peacemaker.’”
in collaboration with John Ericsson: It is commonly written that Ericsson developed one of the Princeton’s big guns and Stockton the other, but correspondence shows both men working on both weapons in concert with others. Ibid., 167.
“the invention of gunpowder”: Washington Daily Globe, February 14, 1844, 3.
the army’s chief of ordnance, who warned: Ibid., 171.
anchoring within sight of the Capitol’s green dome: It anchored “a mile below Greenleaf’s Point,” the southern extremity of the city. Today the Capitol dome remains visible from locations near this point, such as Reagan National Airport across the Potomac. “The U.S. Ship Princeton,” National Intelligencer, February 13, 1844, 3.
On February 16, President Tyler boarded the ship: “The Princeton,” Daily Globe, February 17, 1844, 3.
“I saw the hammer . . . the shattered gun”: Benton, Thirty Years’ View, vol. 2, 568.
included a black man, a slave: Holland, The Invisibles, 177.
“It is almost as if . . . and charged it”: Child writing in the Liberator, April 5, 1844, 5.
“a positive good”: “Speech on the Reception of Abolition Petitions, Delivered in the Senate,” February 6, 1837, in Crallé., ed., Works of John C. Calhoun, 631.
“There never has yet existed . . . the labor of the other”: Ibid.
“deafness . . . insanity, and idiocy”: Calhoun to Pakenham, April 18, 1844, ibid., 337.
“sudden, reckless, and monstrous course”: Benton speech, May 16, 18, and 20, 1844, Appendix to Congressional Globe, 28th Congress, 1st Session, 474–86.
“I shall not engage in schemes . . . face was never seen”: Ibid.
“the crime and infamy of unjust war”: Ibid.
“the same extra compensation”: “Extra Compensation,” Washington Union, September 28, 1850.
a Grove battery: Silverman, Lightning Man, 236.
“He was so worn-out . . . brilliant hollow eyes startled one”: JBF, Souvenirs of My Time, 61.
FOREIGN CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE LIBERTIES OF THE UNITED STATES: “Foreign Conspiracy Against the Liberties of the United States,” New-York Observer, September 20, 1834. The article is attributed to “Brutus,” the author of a dozen such articles; Brutus is identified as Morse in Silverman, Lightning Man, 134.
his “electro-magnetic telegraph”: The bill was H.R. 641, 27th Congress, 3rd session. American State Papers.
“laughed at in Congress”: JBF, Souvenirs of My Time, 61.
Congress should also subsidize mesmerism: Silverman, Lightning Man, 221.
from chestnut poles: Morse posted recurring newspaper ads offering to buy “straight and sound Chestnut Posts, with the bark on.” Daily Madisonian, multiple dates including April 11, 1844.
“9¾ o’ clock . . . hissed by some”: “Telegraphic Dispatch,” Whig Standard, May 28, 1844.
“Those attending . . . Baltimore!”: “Morse’s Telegraph,” Whig Standard, May 28, 1844.
there was no news in Washington: “Washington,” New York Herald, May 30, 1844.
“the annihilation of space”: The phrase appeared in both the New York Tribune, May 27, 1844, and the Whig Standard, May 28, 1844.
“Professor Morse’s telegraph . . . that has been”: “Washington,” New York Herald, May 30, 1844.
“Mr. Saunders declares . . . favor of annexation”: Ibid., May 29, 1844.
along with “mutterings”: “Telegraphic Despatch,” Whig Standard, May 30, 1844.
rush the news of Polk’s nomination into print: “Telegraphic News,” Daily Madisonian, May 29, 1844.
“the manifest purpose . . . Rocky Mountains”: Bancroft letter August 15, 1844, reprinted in the Cadiz Sentinel, September 4, 1844.
“Senators . . . War is war, whether great or small”: Appendix to Congressional Globe, June 1, 1844, 499, American State Papers.
August 6, 1844: JCF, Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 724.
Gabriel . . . Jessie was not home: JBF, Souvenirs of My Time, 163.
“in his uniform and thin as a shadow”: Ibid., 163.
“was thronged with welcoming friends”: Ibid., 165.
The throng apparently included a reporter: The Missourian article from August 13 was reprinted in the Whig Standard of Washington, August 19, 1844.
become part of the crowded Benton household: JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 409; JCF, Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 724.
questions about . . . California: JBF refers to this in a passage of Memoir, 74.
“We were forced . . . Mr. Frémont rented”: JBF, Memoir, 74.
“kept up the camp habit and very early brought me coffee”: JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 414.
“Nine o’clock . . . could not be done”: JBF, Memoir, 74.
“The narrative . . . positive observation”: JCF, “Notice to the Reader,” reprinted in the Washington Union, May 20, 1845.
“Carson sprang over . . . compressed among rocks”: JCF, Report of the Exploring Expedition to Oregon, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 641.
“going off for . . . only a rain storm”: JBF, Memoir, 46–47.
“twenty feet deep . . . seventeen thousand feet”: “Lieut. Frémont’s Expedition,” Whig Standard, August 19, 1844.
“Fremont’s Peak beyond the South Pass”: “To the Public,” Daily Madisonian, December 10, 1844.
“Fremontia vermicularis . . . you do not know”: JCF to John Torrey, March 23, 1845, Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 402.
named one Sphenopteris Fremonti: Appendix B, “Report of the Exploring Expedition,” Jackson and Spence, Expeditions, vol. 1, 744.
Convention of American Geologists and Naturalists: “Convention of American Geologists and Naturalists,” New York Tribune, May 7, 1845.
“peculiarly arduous . . . encounter an
d overcome”: “Report of the Secretary of War,” New York Herald, January 12, 1845.
reprinted in the Daily Madisonian in Washington: “Report of the Secretary of War,” Daily Madisonian, December 6, 1844.
first lieutenant to captain: Senate Executive Journal, January 21, 1845, American State Papers.
“five thousand extra copies”: Senate Executive Journal, March 1, 1845, 226, American State Papers.
ten thousand extra copies: Senate Executive Journal, March 3, 1845, 249, American State Papers.
accounts . . . appeared in the Nauvoo paper: Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses, 124.
descriptions of the Great Salt Lake: Baugh, “John C. Frémont’s 1843–4 Western Expedition,” 23–55.
CHAPTER SEVEN: A TASTE FOR DANGER AND BOLD DARING ADVENTURE
“better to harmonize . . . new element of discord”: Clay to Peter Buel Porter, 1838, cited in Jones, “Henry Clay and Continental Expansion, 1820–1844,” 260–61.
Pennsylvania mandated the use of the Bible: Lannie and Diethorn, “For the Honor and Glory of God.”
reserved their own railroad cars: “Fourth of July Celebration in Philadelphia by the Native Americans,” New York Herald, July 2, 1844.
“watching the flashes . . . against the sky”: Testimony of George S. Roberts, Schmandt, “A Selection of Sources Dealing with the Nativist Riots of 1844.”
“the scene of riot and bloodshed—of civil war”: “Terrible State of Affairs in Philadelphia,” New York Herald, July 9, 1844.
he rushed the latest updates to Secretary of State: Silverman, Lightning Man, 238.
“Native Americans!” . . . “liberally”: editorial signed “J.T.B.,” Boston Courier, October 31, 1844.
“Half past 2, p.m. . . . additional returns”: “Presidential Election Returns,” Whig Standard, November 4, 1844.
would be “shamefully defeated”: “Col. Polk’s Election,” Daily Madisonian, November 6, 1844.
THE DEMOCRACY GLORIOUSLY TRIUMPHANT: Ibid., November 12, 1844.
“We have no regrets . . . triumphant”: “The Whig Standard,” Whig Standard, November 16, 1844.
“The design to send . . . Thomas H. Benton”: Benton to Francis Preston Blair, January 12, 1845, Thomas Hart Benton Papers, LOC.
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