Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1856-06-28

summit OF tic ROCKY Mountain cndln Inc
report of this exploration attracted great at
tenton, both at home and abroad, at well for
its unpretendng modesty as for the Importance
of the information contained in it. This report
was scarcely published when its author started
on second expedition designed to connect the
discoveries of the first one with the surveys to
be made by Commodore Wilkes of the Explor-
ing Expedition on the Pacific Coast, and thus
to embrace Il connected survey of the almost
unknown regions on both sides of the Rocky
Mountains. The party, including thrtynlnc
persons, started from the village of Kansas on
the 18th of May, lS43, and were employed Ill
the exploration till August of the next year.
1t was this exploration that first furnished any
accurate information as to the Great Salt Lake,
the great interior basin of Utah, and the noun
tain range of the Sierra Nevada, and the first
brought to light, as it were, the region nov
constituting the Territory of Utah and the
State of California.
After preparing the report of this expedition
in the Spring of 1915, Fremont, now Cap
tan set out on third expedition designed to
make more particular survey of the regions
which he had previously visited. 1t was while
engaged in this expedition, and before he had
received any intimation Of the commencement
of the war with Mexico, that, after having
! himself been once ordered off by the authori
[ ties, he was induced by the cntreaties of the
! American settlers in the valley Of the Sacra-
mcnto, whom the Mexicans threatened to drive
out of the country, to put himself at their
head. Thus led, they defeated the McxicanS.
Fremont put himself into communication with
| the naval commanders on the coast, and soon,
tanned complete possession of California of
which, on the oath of August, he was appoint
ed by Stockton Military Commander The
| fighting, however, was not yet over. The Cali
| fornianS rose in insurrccton but the arrival
Of Gen. kearncy with his dragons from New
| Mexico, enabled the Americans, after some
hard-fought battles, to maintain themselves in
possession. Pending these operations, com
mission arrived for Fremont as Lieut. Colonel
q promotion which neither he nor his friends
had solicited, but which he gladly received as
ratification on the part of the Government
of his Intervention, on his own responsibility, in
the affairs of California
From the moment Of Kcarncy's arrival a
dispute had sprung up between him and Com
modOre Stockton as to the chief command
kearney sought to throw upon Fremont the
responsibility of deciding between their rcspec-
| tive claims. This he declined, protesting his
readiness. if they would agree between them
selves to obey either but declaring his nten-
ton, till that point was settled, to continue to
obey the commander under whom he had first
placed himself and by whom the war had been
| conducted. Kcarney was greatly dissatisfied
at this, but dissembled his resentment till they
both reached Fort Lcayenworth on their re-
turn home, when he arrested Fremont for dis
obeience of orders and brought him to trial be-
| fore court-martial.
AS this Court held that kearney was the
rightful commander, they found Fremont guilty
Of the charges, and dscntcnccd him to be dismiss
ed from the service Mr. Polk, then PreSi-
dent, signed the sentence as being technically
| right, but at the same time offered Fremont n
new commission of the same grade as that of
| which he had been deprived. This Fremont
refused, and returned a simple citizen to pri-
vate life. Thus, discharged from the service
of the Government, he undertook fourth ex-
plorng expedition of his own, with view to
discover passage across the Rocky Noun
tans southerly Of the South Pass, near the
head of the Arkansas, which might serve the
purpose of a railroad communication with Cali
fornia. He started from Pueblo, on the Up
per Arkansas, with thirty-three men and q
hundred and thrty-three mules but, misled
by his guides, all his mules and third of his
men perishcd in the SHOWS and cold of the
Sierra San Juan, and he himself arrived on
foot at Santa Fe with the loss of everything
but his life. Not however to be baffled, he
rcfitted the expedition, and in hundred DAYS,
after fresh dangers, reached the banks of the
Sacramento.
In the rising State of California in which he
had become one of the earliest American pro-
prietors by the purchase during his former visit
of the since famous Marposa grant, Mr. Ere
mont took a great interest lie was active in
the formation of the State constitution, and in
securing in that document a positive exclusion
OF Slavery, and was chosen one of the Senators
to represent the new State in Congress A
short term of two years fell to his lot, and
owing to the delay in the admission of the