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mand the severest measures to repress the daily increasing crimes and outrages, which are driving off the inhabitants and ruining the State. In this condition, the public safety and the success of our arms requires unity of purpose, without let or hindrance, to the prompt administration of affairs.

"In order, therefore, to suppress disorders, to maintain as far as now practicable the public peace, and to give security and protection to the persons and property of loyal citizens, I do hereby extend, and declare established, martial law throughout the State of Missouri. The lines of the army of occupation in this State are for the present declared to extend from Leavenworth, by way of the posts of Jefferson City, Rolla, and Ironton, to Cape Girardeau, on the Mississippi River.*

"All persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these lines shall be tried by court-martial, and if found guilty, will be shot. The property, real and personal, of all persons in the State of Missouri who shall take up arms against the United States, and who shall be directly proven to have taken active part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use; and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free men.

"All persons who shall be proven to have destroyed, after the publication of this order, railroad tracks, bridges or telegraphs, shall suffer the extreme penalty of this law.

"All persons engaged in treasonable correspondence, in giving or procuring aid to the enemies of the United States, in fomenting tumult, in disturbing the public tranquillity, by creating and circulating false reports or incendiary documents, are in their own interest warned that they are exposing themselves to sudden and severe punishment.

"All persons who have been led away from their allegiance are required to return to their homes forthwith; any such absence without sufficient cause will be held to be presumptive evidence against them.

"The object of this declaration is to place in the hands of the military authorities the power to give instantaneous effect to existing laws, and to supply such deficiencies as the conditions of war demand. But it is not intended to suspend the ordinary tribunals of the country, where the law will be administered by the civil officers in the usual manner, and with their customary authority, while the same can be peaceably exercised.

"The Commanding General will labor vigilantly for the public wel fare, and in his efforts for their safety, hopes to obtain not only the acquiescence, but the active support of the loyal people of the country.

"J. C. FREMONT, Major-General Commanding."

In issuing this proclamation, Gen. Fremont was ten months in advance of the nation's representatives. He realized that the country was involved in real war. He realized that the rebels were in earnest. He realizedthat all attempts at pacification by timidity, and concessions to traitors were unavailing, and would but add fuel to the flame. He realized that the only way to stop rebellion was to chastise rebels with the rod of justice.

* This proclamation was not a brutum fulmen. The territory thus bounded was in the military occupation, and under the control, of Gen. Fremont.

Ten months later the Government at Washington began to see what Fremont then saw. In July, 1862, Congress incorporated, in a confiscation bill, the substantial principles of Gen. Fremont's proclamation. The world has, however, never suffered men to teach it with impunity. An outcry from all pro-slavery partisans, in all parts of the country, went up against the man who had first dared to proclaim liberty to the slaves of rebels. The Border States, supported by some conservative coadjutors in the North, demanded his removal. Fair means were not alone used for this end. The most strenuous efforts were secretly made to undermine him in the confidence of the Administration, and by bitter public attacks through the press to rob him of the confidence of the people. The most heinous charges were heaped upon him, both in private, before the Government, and in public before the country at large. Political rivals assisted in the work of partisan antagonists. And bitter enemies made common cause in their attacks upon one whose position, while he was defending his country from her enemies in the field, should have secured for him the coöperation of all who wished to see the integrity of their country maintained. But Fremont had friends as warm as his enemies were bitter. They rallied to his support. The masses of the people were his enthusiastic admirers. The journals were filled with discussions concerning his habits and all the details of his administrative career.

Gen. Fremont paid no attention to either the secret designs of the politicians, or the public calumnies of the press. He continued to devote all his energies to the task of overpowering and punishing the enemies of his country. President Lincoln wrote requesting him to modify his proclamation. He replied requesting the President himself to make such modification.

"If," said he, "your better judgment decides that I was wrong in the article respecting the liberation of slaves, I have to ask that you will openly direct me to make the correction. The implied censure will be received as a soldier always should receive the reprimand of his chief. If I were to retract of my own accord it would imply that I myself thought it wrong, and that I had acted without the reflection which the gravity of the point demanded. But I did not. I acted with full deliberation, and with the certain conviction that it was a measure right and necessary, and I think so still."

The President accordingly issued an order modifying that of Gen. Fremont. The effect of this modification, which the still controlling influence of slavery constrained the President to make, was to confine the confiscation and liberation of slaves to such as had been actually employed by the rebels in military service. If they worked the guns, they were to be free. If they only raised the cotton which enabled the rebels to buy the guns, they were not to be free. Gen. Fremont submitted to the modification. But this did not suit those who were even more anxious to protect slavery from harm, than to strike the rebellion heavy blows. The Cabinet at Washington, greatly embarrassed by these pro-slavery demands, which were continually pressing upon them from the Border States, could furnish Gen. Fremont with but very little sympathy or support, and were

finally forced to the humiliation of withdrawing the officer who, as this narrative proves, had developed, during his brief campaign, the highest qualities of the statesman and the general.*

The following is a copy of one of the deeds of Manumission, given by Gen. Fremont, and "Deed of Manumission.-Whereas, which the Government forbade him any longer to issue. T. L. S., of the city and county of St. Louis, Mo., has been taking active part with the enemies of the United States in the present insurrectionary movement against the Government of the United States, Now, therefore, I, John Charles Fremont, Major-General, commanding the Western Department of the army of the United States, by authority of law, and the power vested in me, as such Commanding General, declare Frank Lewis, heretofore held to service' or labor, by said T. L. S. to be Free, and forever discharged from the bonds of servitude; giving him full right and authority to have, use and control his own labor or service as to him may seem proper, without any accountability, whatever to said T. L. S., or any one to claim by, through or under him. And this Deed of Manumission, shall be respected and treated, by all persons and in all courts of justice, as the full and complete evidence of the freedom of said Frank Lewis.

"In testimony whereof this act is done at St. Louis, Mo., this 1st day of September, 1861, as is evidenced by the departmental Seal hereto affixed by my order.

(Signed)

"JOHN C. FREMONT."

CHAPTER XI.

GEN. FREMONT'S CAMPAIGN.-CONTINUED.

FAR-REACHING PLANS OF GEN. FREMONT.-TROUBLES MULTIPLYING.-HIS UNCEASING LABORS.CAPTURE OF LEXINGTON.-INCIDENTS.-VISIT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR AND ADJUTANTGENERAL U. S. A.-ZAGONYI'S HEROIC DASH INTO SPRINGFIELD.-EFFECT OF THE GOVERNMENT ORDER FOR THE REMOVAL OF FREMONT.-FREMONT'S APPEAL TO HIS SOLDIERS.-HIS RECEPTION BY THE PEOPLE OF ST. LOUIS.-RESUMÉ OF THE LABORS AND POLICY OF GEN. FREMONT.-REAL REASON OF HIS REMOVAL.-VIEWS OF THE NORTH RESPECTING THE POWER OF THE NORTH OVER SLAVERY.

On the 8th of September, Gen. Fremont sent a private note to President Lincoln communicating his plan for the commencement of the Mississippi River Campaign. He had already taken possession of Fort Holt and Paducah, Kentucky, by which movement he was enabled to command the Tennessee river, and thus to prepare the way for the movement down that river, which was successfully accomplished, at a much later period by his successor. He proposed also to occupy Smithland, at the mouth of the Cumberland river, and Hopkinsville, a town connected by railroad with Henderson, on the Ohio river, and twenty or twenty-five miles north-east of Fort Donelson; at the same time sending Gen. Nelson with a force of five thousand men to occupy Bowling Green, in Southern Kentucky, and Gen. Grant to occupy New Madrid and the western shore of the Mississippi river cpposite Cairo. He then proposed a combined attack on Columbus and Hickman, and an advance from Bowling Green and Hopkinsville on Nashville, with which point they are connected by railroad. These suggestions, subsequently proved to be so sagacious, were not, however, adopted. The rebels were permitted to occupy Bowling Green, fortify the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, and take possession of New Madrid. Months afterwards Gen. Fremont's plan was followed to the letter, and the same results which, had he been then sustained, could have been accomplished without a battle, unless possibly one at Columbus, were accomplished only after a long delay, and at the expense of millions of treasure and many sanguinary conflicts. The bombardment of Fort Henry, the terrible battle of Fort Donelson, the bloody engagement at New Madrid, and the tedious siege of Island Number Ten, were among the results of this rejection of Gen. Fremont's strategic plans. To all this we must also add the long unmolested occupation of Bowling Green by the rebel army, a source of terror to all Kentucky, of real danger to Louisville, and a rallying point for all Secessionists in the State.*

• "It is known that Gen. Fremont, on the 8th of September, sent to Washington, by a special

While Gen. Fremont was thus preparing the way for a successful descent of the Mississippi River, and was, meanwhile, laboring to maintain order in Missouri, and to prevent the rebels from advancing in Kentucky, Gen. Price, with his army of rebels, reorganized and recruited, was marching northward, toward the Missouri River. What point he intended to attack it was impossible to know, but it was believed that his purpose was to regain possession of Jefferson City, the capital of the State, and reestablish Gov. Jackson there. He had now reached the upper Osage, with a force of about fifteen thousand men, which was being constantly increased by recruits. The entire Missouri River had to be protected from his approach, and Gen. Fremont, in addition to his other labors, was busily engaged in organizing a force at Jefferson City and Rolla, to march to Springfield, and thus either compel Price's retreat, or surround him and destroy his force. Want of transportation, arms and money, impeded Gen. Fremont at every step, while the evident lack of cordial support, and thorough confidence, on the part of the National Government, sensibly weakened his credit, and added to his embarrassments.

At this critical position of affairs, he was visited by a Committee sent from Washington, to investigate his Department. Their visit, as a sign of growing suspicion on the part of the administration, was widely bruited throughout the country. Difficulties in his own camp also harassed him. For causes which have never been explained, Hon. Frank P. Blair, Jr., then acting Colonel of Missouri volunteers, who had been one of Gen. Fremont's warmest friends, became his bitterest enemy. He was arrested by order of Gen. Fremont for insubordination, and was promptly discharged, by orders from Washington, without any investigation as to the causes of his arrest. Col. Blair retaliated by filing charges against Fremont, which, however, were never pushed to a trial.

On the 9th of September, Gen. Fremont received intelligence that the rebels were on the eve of a general forward movement in Kentucky. They were at Columbus, in large force, and were preparing to advance on Paducah and Cairo. He immediately forwarded reënforcements to Gen. Grant, at the former point. On the 12th, he learned that Price was threatening Lexington, one hundred and fifteen miles west of Jefferson City. He immediately telegraphed to Col. Jeff. C. Davis, who was in command at the latter point, to despatch reënforcements to Lexington, to which point Col. Mulligan, with twenty-seven hundred men, had already been sent. A considerable force, however, threatened Booneville, and Col. Davis, under the belief that the latter was the point really threatened, held the reenforcements back for that place. On the 14th, Gen. Price appeared before Lexington, and invested it with his whole army, not less now than twenty-five thousand strong.

*

A busy and sad day was that for Gen. Fremont. On that day, six

messenger, lest, if sent by mail or telegraphed, it might become known to the country, and ultimately to the rebels, the entire plan of that now famous campaign, by our army and gun-boats, by the way of the Mississippi, Tennessee, Cumberland and White rivers, which his ultimate successor Halleck adopted, and which Halleck's subordinates carried out in its details."- Van Buren Denslow.

Col. Davis to Maj. Gen. Fremont, Sept. 13, 1861.

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