Answer; John Charles Frémont (1813-1890)
General John Charles Frémont circa 1857 by Charles Loring Elliot (Image Courtesy of Brooklyn Museum
On August 30, 1861, General Frémont issued an order that declared Missuori under martial law and freed slaves in the state. President Lincoln was not pleased and ordered Frémont to rescind the order.
“In August 1861, Congress authorized the confiscation of slaves used to aid the rebellion in the First Confiscation Act. On the 30th of that month, Union General Fremont issued a proclamation freeing all slaves in Missouri that belonged to secessionists. In aletter dated September 11, Lincoln ordered Fremont to change his proclamation to conform to the First Confiscation Act. The letter was widely published in the newspapers, and Lincoln received many letters condemning his decision and expressing support for Fremont.”
Source: Library of Congress
Read Lincoln’s response to Frémont here.
Once one of America’s most famous men, Frémont was known as the “Pathfinder,” for helping chart the way west to California.During the Mexican War, he helped establish California as a republic and then was its military governor and later first U.S. Senator, Married to Jessie Benton, the daughter of one of the Senate’s most powerful men, Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, he became the first Republican candidate for president in 1856. When the war broke out, he was named a Major General and in August, issued his controversial edict.
Read more about the Frémonts and their extraordinary lives in A Nation Rising.
