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John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was an American military officer, explorer, and politician who became the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, when he led four expeditions into the American West, that era's penny press and admiring historians accorded Frémont the sobriquet ''The Pathfinder''.〔Allan Nevins, ''Frémont, the West's Greatest Adventurer: Being a Biography from Certain Hitherto Unpublished Sources of General John C. Frémont, Together with His Wife, Jessie Benton Frémont, and Some Account of the Period of Expansion which Found a Brilliant Leader in the Pathfinder'' (1928)〕 During the Mexican American War, Frémont, a major in the U.S. Army, took control of California from the Bear Flag Republic in 1846. Frémont then proclaimed himself military Governor of California; however, for that he was convicted in court martial for mutiny and insubordination. After President Polk commuted his sentence, Frémont led a fourth expedition, which cost ten lives, seeking a rail route over the mountains around the 38th parallel in the winter of 1849. He retired from military service and settled in California. Frémont acquired massive wealth during the California Gold Rush, but he was soon bogged down with lawsuits over land claims, between the dispossession of various land owners during the Mexican-American War and the explosion of Forty-Niners immigrating during the California Gold Rush. These cases were settled by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing Frémont to keep his property. Frémont became one of the first two U.S. senators elected from the new state of California in 1850. He was the first presidential candidate of the new Republican Party, carrying most of the North. He lost the 1856 presidential election to Democrat James Buchanan when Know-Nothings split the vote and Democrats warned his election would lead to civil war. During the American Civil War, he was given command of Department of the West by President Abraham Lincoln. Although Frémont had successes during his brief tenure as Commander of the Western Armies, he ran his department autocratically, and made hasty decisions without consulting Washington D.C. or President Lincoln. After Frémont's emancipation edict that freed slaves in his district, he was relieved of his command by President Lincoln for insubordination. In 1861, Frémont was the first commanding Union general who recognized an "iron will" to fight in Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant and promoted him commander at the strategic base near Cairo, Illinois. After the Civil War, Frémont's wealth declined after investing heavily and purchasing an unsuccessful Pacific Railroad in 1866. Frémont served as Governor of Arizona appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes and served from 1878 to 1881. Frémont, retired from politics and financially destitute, died in New York City in 1890. Historians portray Frémont as controversial, impetuous, and contradictory. Some scholars regard him as a military hero of significant accomplishment, while others view him as a failure who repeatedly defeated his own best purposes. The keys to Frémont's character and personality may lie in his being born illegitimately, his ambitious drive for success, self-justification, and passive-aggressive behavior.〔Andrew Rolle, "Exploring an Explorer: California, Psychohistory, and John C. Fremont," ''Southern California Quarterly,'' March 1994, Vol. 76#1 pp 85–98〕〔Andrew F. Rolle, ''John Charles Fremont: Character As Destiny'' (1991)〕 ==Early life and education== Frémont's mother, Anne Beverley Whiting, was the youngest daughter of socially prominent Virginia planter Col. Thomas Whiting. The colonel died when Anne was less than a year old. Her mother married Samuel Cary, who soon exhausted most of the Whiting estate. At age 17, Anne married Major John Pryor, a wealthy Richmond resident in his early 60s. In 1810, Pryor hired Charles Frémon (Louis Rene Frémon b. 1768 in Québec), a French-Canadian immigrant who had escaped from a British prison, to tutor his wife. In July 1811, Pryor learned that his wife, Anne Whiting Pryor, and Frémon were having an affair. Confronted by Pryor, the couple left Richmond together on July 10, 1811, creating a scandal that shook city society.〔Nevins pp. 3–7. Chaffin pp. 19–21〕 Pryor published a divorce petition in the ''Virginia Patriot'', in which he charged that his wife had "for some time past indulged in criminal intercourse." Mrs. Pryor and Frémon moved first to Norfolk, Virginia, to live as a couple (though unmarried); they later settled in Savannah, Georgia. Mrs. Pryor financed the trip and purchase of a house in Savannah by selling recently inherited slaves valued at $1,900. When the Virginia House of Delegates refused Mr. Pryor's divorce petition, it was impossible for the couple to marry. In Savannah, Mrs. Pryor took in boarders while Frémon taught French and dancing. On January 21, 1813, their first child, John Charles Frémon, was born.〔Chaffin, pp. 21–22〕 The son was born out of wedlock, a serious social handicap. A household slave called Black Hannah helped raise young John. In 1818, Frémont's father Frémon died, leaving Mrs. Pryor to take care of John and several young children alone on a limited inherited income.〔Dictionary of American Biography, p. 19〕 Mrs. Pryor and her family moved to Charleston, South Carolina. The young Frémont was known to be "precious, handsome, and daring," and he had an apt ability at gaining protectors.〔 A lawyer, John W. Mitchell, provided for Frémont's education, and in May 1829 Frémont entered Charleston College. Frémont continued at Charleston College, while teaching at intervals in the countryside. He was expelled from the college for irregular attendance in 1831. Although Frémont did not graduate, he had been grounded in mathematics and natural sciences.〔 In ''Andrew Jackson, His Life and Times'', H. W. Brands wrote that Frémont added the accented E and the T to his surname later in life. But in ''John Charles Frémont: Character as Destiny'', Andrew Rolle wrote that Frémont began using the accent in 1838 at the age of 25. Relying on Pierre-Georges Roy (1922), Rolle relates how Charles Frémon was originally named Louis-René Frémont, born in Québec City, Canada, on December 8, 1768 (he died in 1818 in Norfolk, Virginia). He had changed his name to Charles Fremon or Frémon to avoid pursuit by British naval agents. Thus, John reclaimed his father's true French name. After attending the College of Charleston from 1829 to 1831,〔(John C. Fremont )〕 Frémont was appointed a teacher of mathematics aboard the sloop USS ''Natchez''. In July 1838 he was appointed a second lieutenant in the Corps of Topographical Engineers, and assisted and led multiple surveying expeditions through the western territory of the United States and beyond. In 1838 and 1839 he assisted Joseph Nicollet in exploring the lands between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In 1841 with training from Nicollet, Frémont mapped portions of the Des Moines River. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John C. Frémont」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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