Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-09-25
RECENT LITERATURE.
THE CURRENT MAGAZlNES-BAN-
CROFT'S CALIFORNIA TO 1s4s.
Cheap Library ~Series-Jessie FIRE.
mont's Latest Venture
in Literature.


Pathfinder =" to the front as a representa-
tive of the newborn party, the name of
Jessie Benton Fremont became famous
throughout the Union. Since then Cen
eral Fremonts career has been q checkered
one. He has met with many reserves, and
the ups and downs of life have badly used
him. Noman ever had a drawer or more
devoted wife, and wherever her name has
been mentioned it has inspired respect for
the courage with which she has battled
against i'll fortune and stood by
her husband. Now in her later years
she comes again into public notice
by the issue by General Fremont
OF the memoirs of his life. and the first
number lit is being Issued in parts gives us
a charming portrait of Jessie. General
Fremont, in this work, which certainly will
attract wide attention, gives an account of
the vario us explorations in which he played
so prominent a part. II is written in the
easy style of narrative, and the story is told
with straightforward earnestness. The
General proposes, IN the course of his re-
cital, to correct some statements
that nave been made concerning the Presi-
dental campaign of 1856, and to set forth
governing facts in that of 1864 which have
not been made public. So, too, he says,
some events of the civil war in which he
was directly concerned have been incor-
rectly stated, and these he proposes to set
right.
Part /. of the Memoirs opens with a
chapter by Mrs. Fremont on the plates
that are to appear in the book.
One of these is an admirable likeness
of General Fremont, another of herself,
a third of her father, Senator Thomas A..
Benton a fourth Of Napoleon, a fifth OF
Thomas Jefferson (bas relief in profile. a
sixth of a Cheyenne belle. a seventh OF a
buffalo hunt, an eighth of big Timber,
Arkansas river The two last are fine
steel-plate engrayings; the others in style
of art no less striking and fine. She tells
the story of the thirty years struggle CT
herself and husband 10 gather and preserve
the materials for the book. The third
chapter is q biographical sketch of Senator
Benton, written also by the hand of his
loving daughter Jessie. Not until the
fourth chapter is the first one of
the Fremont memoirs reached, and the
work of the General himself presented
10 the reader. His narrative is rapid, his
scenic descriptions artistic, his sketches of
dramatic action vivid and ornate Co.
ored maps will appear here and there
III Tic nuIlDtlOf di1Q III Vi lbtoct VI L al L.
shows very clearly the acquisitions of ter
ritory by the United States. The book is
being published by Bedford, Clarke & Co.,
of Chicago, and j. Dewing T. Co.. San
Francisco, are general agents for it on the
Pacific coast. We predict a large sale of
the book. 1t will be put up in two vol
umes of 1880 pages, with forty f~ull-page
steel-plate engravings and 16O other illus
t~rations, maps and fac-similes of docu-
- - -, - 49,. 1 coo -o-l. TLa
parts will be twenty in number, at so cents
each, and subscribers will receive two
handsome portfolios in which to keep
them. The publishers pledge themselves
to bind the volumes at a very low rate, and
to sell full bound volumes at no less or
greater rate than the cost to subscribers for
parts"
The fifth volume of Hubert Howe Ban
croft's History of California" Volume
NH. of Bancrofts works., covers the pc
Rod of 1916 to and inclusive of 1913. We
nave read the volume with an interest that
has resulted from no preceding one. As his
torical recital draws nearer to our own times
readers become more critical and the work
of the historian more difficult. We can
not discover, however, any greater caution
and pains to be accurate and exhaustive on
the part of Mr.. Bancroft in this latest work
thar have characterized his labors in earlier
issues, for whether the date is in times
of living witnesses or in eras of the remote
past, Mr.. Bancroft clearly has applied the
same method of arriving at the truth and
~exhausting the evidences, and has been as
painstaking in the one case as-in the other.
There nave been written many histories of
the conquest and occupation of California
by the United States, and nearly as many
conflicting statements as there have been
books. The array of proofs in this
volume appear to justify every conclusion
reached by the author. We cannot, in the
space now at command. take up any of the
issues of fact and motive treated by Mr..
Bancroft. We hope to do so in a distinct
article at an early day, however, and pre-
sent some striking extracts of broad in
terest to Californians. It must suffice now
TO say that we believe thoroughly
this to be the first complete history
of the ante-pioneer era of Califor-
MIA ever written. There is no phase
of that era, so crowded as it was with vital
events, that has not been taken up and
completely analysed under the light of
all obtainable evidence. Under such
treatment, exhaustion OF the subject must
result. Thus are presented proofs regard
ing the policy of our Government and the
steps it took relating to Pacific territory,
that AVE never before been given
to the public. These, Mr.. Ban
croft shows, were drawn from doc
umentary sources hitherto unknown.
and, as the author puts it, Many a
long-kept secret is brought to light"
The story of the American conquest
of California always has been obscured and
involved by the conflicting testimonies
and the efforts of many writers who
searched for the facts only specifically.
In the pool before us we are told graphic
a1ltr anI fnrpihlu-Tn CuPh n shirt &C Anuru
from perfect consciousness of impregnabil-
ity of position taken under proof-of the
doings of General Fremont, and which
the historian characterize as fool
ish interference :" the efforts of Con-
sui Larkin and Stearns to secure a change
of sovereignty by pacific methods; the
revolutionary blunders of lde; the raising
of the American flag by Commodore Sloat
and Montgomery; the advent and deeds of
the California battalion the role of Stock
ton the final struggles of the Californians
under Flores and Pico; the coming of
Kearny and his troopers; and finally
the close of the war, the occupation
of Los Angeles and the treaty
of Cahuenga. Such ~recitals are
supplemented by the story of the political
controversies of Stockton, Kearny and
Fremont, the narrative of the Mormon
Battalion aud the regiment of New York
NOlulttCIa duu 0OiuHdu - Inliu OulbSQ
States Artillery. Annals of immigration
include the tragic experience Of the
Bonner party and the coming
of Brannan's Mormon colony. The
Exclusions. with Indian affairs, and an
nails of trade, also furnish material for a
chapter the rule of Governor Mason in
1s47-S is chronicled in another, with lis
complication of new political problems;
and local annals of the north and south
include a plan Of San Francisco in 1913,
showing the site of every building, with
descriptive notes. At the end Of the vol
ume the Pioneer register and index, with
its 10000 sketches Of early Californians, is
carried on from P to u. and thus is COM
pleted one of the most laborious parts
of the California histories, for this homo
graphic register is at once an exhaustive
personal history of all the people who
played any considerable part in the history
of the American occupation. Throughout
this register, which the more it is exam
ined the more it increases in value in our
judgment, there is made reference to the
volume and pages of the histories where
the person is referred to in the l~etter-press,
thus making the register doubly valuable
and useful. A very extended chspter is
given TO the account of the horrible suffer
ings of the Bonner party, and all the testi-
mony is examined with minuteness rela-
i've to the caunibalism OF The party. Mr..