This Proclamation Was Not Approved At
Washington, And Was Modified By The Order Of The President.
It was
understood also that he issued orders for military expenditure
which were not recognized at Washington, and men
Began to
understand that the army in the West was gradually assuming that
irresponsible military position which, in disturbed countries and
in times of civil war, has so frequently resulted in a military
dictatorship. Then there arose a clamor for the removal of General
Fremont. A semi-official account of his proceedings, which had
reached Washington from an officer under his command, was made
public, and also the correspondence which took place on the subject
between the President and General Fremont's wife. The officer in
question was thereupon placed under arrest, but immediately
released by orders from Washington. He then made official
complaint of his general, sending forward a list of charges, in
which Fremont was accused of rashness, incompetency, want of
fidelity of the interests of the government, and disobedience to
orders from headquarters. After awhile the Secretary of War
himself proceeded from Washington to the quarters of General
Fremont at St. Louis, and remained there for a day or two making,
or pretending to make, inquiry into the matter. But when he
returned he left the General still in command. During the whole
month of October the papers were occupied in declaring in the
morning that General Fremont had been recalled from his command,
and in the evening that he was to remain. In the mean time they
who befriended his cause, and this included the whole West, were
hoping from day to day that he would settle the matter for himself
and silence his accusers, by some great military success. General
Price held the command opposed to him, and men said that Fremont
would sweep General Price and his army down the valley of the
Mississippi into the sea. But General Price would not be so swept,
and it began to appear that a guerrilla warfare would prevail; that
General Price, if driven southward, would reappear behind the backs
of his pursuers, and that General Fremont would not accomplish all
that was expected of him with that rapidity for which his friends
had given him credit. So the newspapers still went on waging the
war, and every morning General Fremont was recalled, and every
evening they who had recalled him were shown up as having known
nothing of the matter.
"Never mind; he is a pioneer man, and will do a'most anything he
puts his hand to," his friends in the West still said. "He
understands the frontier." Understanding the frontier is a great
thing in Western America, across which the vanguard of civilization
continues to march on in advance from year to year. "And it's he
that is bound to sweep slavery from off the face of this continent.
He's the man, and he's about the only man." I am not qualified to
write the life of General Fremont, and can at present only make
this slight reference to the details of his romantic career. That
it has been full of romance, and that the man himself is endued
with a singular energy, and a high, romantic idea of what may be
done by power and will, there is no doubt. Five times he has
crossed the Continent of North America from Missouri to Oregon and
California, enduring great hardships in the service of advancing
civilization and knowledge. That he has considerable talent,
immense energy, and strong self-confidence, I believe. He is a
frontier man - one of those who care nothing for danger, and who
would dare anything with the hope of accomplishing a great career.
But I have never heard that he has shown any practical knowledge of
high military matters. It may be doubted whether a man of this
stamp is well fitted to hold the command of a nation's army for
great national purposes. May it not even be presumed that a man of
this class is of all men the least fitted for such a work? The
officer required should be a man with two specialties - a specialty
for military tactics and a specialty for national duty. The army
in the West was far removed from headquarters in Washington, and it
was peculiarly desirable that the general commanding it should be
one possessing a strong idea of obedience to the control of his own
government. Those frontier capabilities - that self-dependent
energy for which his friends gave Fremont, and probably justly gave
him, such unlimited credit - are exactly the qualities which are
most dangerous in such a position.
I have endeavored to explain the circumstances of the Western
command in Missouri as they existed at the time when I was in the
Northwestern States, in order that the double action of the North
and West may be understood. I, of course, was not in the secret of
any official persons; but I could not but feel sure that the
government in Washington would have been glad to have removed
Fremont at once from the command, had they not feared that by so
doing they would have created a schism, as it were, in their own
camp, and have done much to break up the integrity or oneness of
Northern loyalty. The Western people almost to a man desired
abolition. The States there were sending out their tens of
thousands of young men into the army with a prodigality as to their
only source of wealth which they hardly recognized themselves,
because this to them was a fight against slavery. The Western
population has been increased to a wonderful degree by a German
infusion - so much so that the Western towns appear to have been
peopled with Germans. I found regiments of volunteers consisting
wholly of Germans. And the Germans are all abolitionists. To all
the men of the West the name of Fremont is dear. He is their hero
and their Hercules. He is to cleanse the stables of the Southern
king, and turn the waters of emancipation through the foul stalls
of slavery.
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