ar would not have been
successfully concluded: the free use of cavalry (strongly opposed by
General Scott and others); exchange of prisoners with the enemy;
fortification of large cities, to allow armies to take the field;
building of river gunboats for the interior operations at the West;
and the emancipation of the slaves. In short, he contributed more
than is generally credited to him." "To get rid of Fremont," says
Major-General Sigel, "the good prospects and honor of the army were
sacrificed to the jealousy of successful rivals." Fremont was
relieved of his command in 1861, and shortly after appointed
commander of the Mountain District of Virginia, Kentucky, and
Tennessee, where he did most honorable service, Stonewall Jackson
retreating before him after eight days' sharp skirmishing, ending in
the battle of Cross Keys.

Upon the appointment of General Pope as Commander of the Army of
Virginia, making him Fremont's superior officer, Fremont asked to be
relieved; his request was granted.

A minority of the Republican party, the radical wing, opposed to the
renomination of Lincoln in 1864, nominated Fremont as their
candidate. He accepted, but finally withdrew. "Not to aid in the
triumph of Lincoln," he said, "but to do my part toward preventing
the election of the Democratic candidate." One of the Republican
candidates would have to retire to save the party. Here is a subject
for debating clubs: Was the interest of the country best served by
Fremont's withdrawal from the canvass of 1864?

After 1864 Fremont took little part in public life. He became
absorbed in his great trans-continental railroad scheme of a line
from Norfolk to San Diego and San Francisco, in which he ultimately
lost his large fortune. French agents, in disposing of his bonds in
France, made false representations. He was prosecuted by the French
Government in 1873, and sentenced by default to fine and
imprisonment, although no judgment was given on the merits of the
case.

The sale of his Mariposa grant brought him several millions, which
he invested in railroads soon after the war, buying the properties
that now constitute a large part of the Texas Pacific and other
roads belonging to the Atchison and Santa Fe. In the great
consolidation entailed by the foreign litigation, his confidence was
abused, and he met with heavy and irreparable loss.

From 1878 to 1881 he was Governor of Arizona. His "Memoirs" appeared
in 1886. The closing years