The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1856-09-19
I'VE DAILY DISPATCH.
r.. f,enenlosy OF Great Men, iEciudins
rIe.sieur Jean Fremont.

Friday sIornipe, septe"eet 20, sco
IT,. 1,..enlosy OF Great Men, Including
Nro.steur Jean Fremont.
,.. a. work Herald, and other leading aaSo
Z, .,o Free Soil candidate for the Presidency.
cen.ure the loving biographers OF that a"su''
....,,a for eudeavoring to elueidafe son'c w
s.,re messages In his ancestral history
ra,dsrs are aware, these biograpaerS h~'o oes.
sore,v exercised by disclosures MADE oy 'o"e VI
,he pa,lis,ne organs of the Southern community
In relation to the genealogical tree OF monsi
Jean Fraymong, the French gentleman " nv 10 s'o
candidate of the Paris Usfrers tie Ne" 1 OH III
-. .nd ~ James Watson Webb. for the next
Presidency These biographers deny tnattoe union
ha,wsen Col Pryor. Of Revolutionary fame, and
~, a., s,ouse was dissolved through French in
,,rynen.slity bat declare that the regular opera,
zion of law In the shape of divorce, LEFT the par
ties q, liberty to form new contract. Every man,
woman and child that lived In Richmond at that
.,ns Knows the total falsehood OF that assertion
Five hundred witnesses, still living testify that
the father of Fremont ran off with the wife Of Mr..
PRYOR. and that no divorce was ever granted to
either of the parties. This is not the point, how
ever, on which we propose to comment at present.
Our object is to vindicate the Free Soil biogra-
pliers against the Free Soil editors. We agree
with the former that the genealogy of all great
men is a matter of interest and has been always
50 considered by all biographers and historians,
and we totally dissent from the latter, who main
tain that no one cares to know the pedigree OF q
political race.hoi se and that in fact the man In
this age who has father, or knows him when ne
sees him, Is little better than an old fogy
We disclaim distinctly any aristocrate notion
that man is the better or the worse on accoans Oh
the social position Of bis progenitor II there IS any
difference, is in favor of the person who rises
from humble state, and by force OF strong VIII
and superior natural endowments, becomes the
founder of his own eminencc. Any way, the pup
lic who sympsthize justly with this latter Glass OF
men, like to know all aboutthe origin aud FOUNTAIN
of great man. and biographers have always en-
deavorcd to satisfy this laudabie curiosity. WASH
ington Irving, in his Life of George Washington
has traced the pedigree of that eminent man, to
very distant age, ana. Bigelow, biograpner OF
Fraymong, who asserts that that person mas the
blood Of Washington in his veins, ID bound to show
the branches, streams or channels, by which the
magnificent current which filled w ashington's
veins, and the somewhat Insignificant rill which
they are trying to make Mississippi of, may be
traced 10 the same parent spring.
The biogrsphers of Fremont may quote the au-
thorty not only Of all biographers of men, but Of
the history of the gods, whose parentage has been
always regarded as among the most interesting
portions of the celestial annals We recommend
Bigelow to fortify himself by an appeal to the
Heather Mythology of Punch. With what lumi'
nous pencil Punch draws the family tree from
Chaos, supposed to be relation of Chase of Ohio,
the orthography having been slightly modified in
the lapse of ages3 who is thought by some to have
been the Oldest of the gods, though others say
and in this respect we are struck with the resem.
blance to Fraymong,-that he was the offspring OF
Necessity and consequ emily the brother OF lnven-
tion a leading Free Soil editor of that time. Then
there was the wife of Chaos Dame Darkness, by
whom he had son Erebus, or Abolition, and a
daughter Nox, who having bee. married, produced
hopeful brood of Black Repub Leans, creatures
who delight in darkness because their deeds are
evil There is no need of tracing out all these my
biological ramiications, Enough to say that the
ancients never condescended to chronicle the ca
reer of any god wthou: also informing of his lin
cage, so that can be quite sure that everything
In the antecedents of his progenitors shpshape
and Olympus fashion.
Even the Free Soil editors must admit the neces
sity of saying something in regard to the genealo
Ky of candidate for the Presidency. 1t is at all
events desirable to know where he born, SO
that we can admire detest him, according to our
opinions Of the place of his nativity. We must
also know something of the persons by whom he
was begottep, in order to enable US to form &C
curate opinion of his own character. The blood
of an honorable ancestry is not apt to degenerate
into q mud puddle. 1t is therefore rational and
proper that the biographers of the Free Soil nomi
nee should endeavor to let daylight through the
thick branches of his genealogical tree and should
seek to disprove the Southern biographies of the
father of Jean Fremont.
Nevertheless, those Southern biographies are
true and all the seurrilous and ferocious common.
tares of the Free Soil press cannot rail that truth
away. We have no desire, in their cant phrase
to make war upon women. Heaven forbid We
leave that manly business to Curtis the Free Soil
lion of Putuam's Magazine, freely acknowledging
that to malign the character, to wound the feel
ings of woman, is an achievement worthy only
of those Free Soil heroes who abound in Kansas
where it 10 the universal fact that warriors who
fly from men are perfectly fearless and ferocious
towards females. But as the biographers of Ere
mont have aspersed the memory of veteran of
the Revolution, declaring that his conduct towards
his wife was such as to compel her to apply for
divorce, which divorce, they say, was granted, we
deem it perfectly legitimate in vindication of the
memory of an honorable Virginia soldier and of
the truth of history, to state the fact which every
survivor OF that generation living in Richmond
knows that Major and Mrs. Pryor were not sepa-
rated by divorce, but by the voluntary departure
of Mrs Pryor from her husband, with a person
named Fremont, who was afterwards spoken of
by the simple minded old soldier "a good for no.
thing fellow" Truth ought not to be surrendered
justice to an old soldier who served his country
well, and helped to build up this Union, ought not
to be sacrificed in behalf of courtesy towards the
family of man who is an instrument in the hands
of traitors to pull down the country, and destroy
tie Union.
Spirit Rapping.
This extraordinary humbug seems to be still
eiciting considerable interest ia various Northern
and European towns all the fools in the world be-
ing by no means dead yet Iu Geneva the Swiss
ghosts have started newspaper. Professor Hare
of Philadclpha, who doesn't believe word of the
Bible has the most undoubting faith in spirit rap
ping. We understand that large nu pber of tho