A Measure Right And Necessary
The Story of Union Maj. Gen. John Fremont’s Civil War Emancipation Order of August 30, 1861
When Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States in late 1860 the country was teetering on civil war. As he assembled his cabinet, the president-elect looked to men whose counsel he would value, including fellow republican John Charles Fremont, who he considered to fill the post of ambassador to France; although some of Lincoln’s closest advisors even suggested Fremont for a more prominent cabinet post, such as Secretary of War.
Fremont was an intriguing 19th century figure. At the time, his fame rested primarily on his various expeditions mapping and surveying the western United States, which occurred over a course of twelve years (1842–54), wherein he personally led and directed five western expeditions. Importantly, he popularly chronicled these travels in newspaper accounts and books he wrote with his wife Jessie Benton Fremont’s assistance. Fremont had carefully built a reputation as the epitome of the American adventurer.
Four years earlier, in 1856, Fremont had been the first presidential nominee of the newly organized Republican Party; formed by anti-slavery Whigs and Free Soil Democrats. Curiously, he had rejected overtures from the rival, and also newly-formed, American Party because of their anti-immigration views. He also repudiated an effort to enlist him as the nominee of the Democratic Party (looking to replace embattled incumbent President Franklin Pierce) because of their insistence that Fremont support the Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854, which provided for the extension of slavery into new states, including possibly the territory of Kansas. An opponent of this expansion as well as the Fugitive Slave Law (mandating arrest and transport of any slaves escaped north of the Mason-Dixon line), Fremont chose to align himself with the new Republican Party.
Although Fremont had briefly served as military Governor of California (for less than a month) after American settlers seized the land from Mexico, and he had also served as a Free Soil Party U.S. Senator from California, for less than six months (only 21 days of which were spent in Washington), Fremont didn’t have the political experience to justify being so widely courted. Rather, it showed that each party was looking for someone who had avoided recent political skirmishes and who didn’t carry excessive political baggage. Fremont’s relative youth, he was 43 years old in 1856, also was seen as desirous, as it was thought he would appeal to younger voters.
Ultimately, Democrat James Buchanan was elected with 174 electoral votes, while Fremont and his running mate William Dayton, a senator from New Jersey, received 114 votes (former President Millard Fillmore, running as the nominee of the nativist Know Nothing Party, received 8 electoral votes). Fremont’s far-reaching popularity, mostly due to his anti-slavery views, is illustrated by Walt Whitman’s dedication of the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass to his presidential candidacy.
Command of the Military Department of the West
Fremont met with the President-elect in January 1861 and expressed interest in being a military commander in what they both believed was the impending Civil War. Lincoln acquiesced and in July 1861, after Fremont returned from a trip to Europe during which time he made arrangements to purchase military armaments, he assumed command of the Union’s western army which included the geographical areas of the states of Illinois and Missouri, all the way to the Rockies, and also the state of New Mexico. Fremont set up his headquarters in St. Louis, as Missouri was facing substantial Confederate hostilities and was seen as a critical position to hold for the Union.
Although Fremont was one of four of Lincoln’s main generals at the start of the conflict, the entire army under Fremont’s control is estimated to have been only 16,000 troops; hardly adequate to quell Confederate hostilities in Missouri which threatened neighboring Kentucky. Fremont immediately focused on retaining Cairo, Illinois in Union control, given that it was strategically located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, rightfully understanding it would be critical to any Confederate invasion of Kentucky, then a neutral state (albeit slave state).
General Fremont’s Martial Law & Emancipation Order of August 30th
On August 30, five weeks after assuming command, and three weeks after the Union defeat at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek (the first major battle fought west of the Mississippi River), Fremont was desperate to at least contain the confederates to southwestern Missouri. Convinced that he had been given full authority to suppress secession in Missouri, Fremont believed he needed to immediately implement measures that would weaken Confederate sympathies in the area, thus directly affecting the war effort.
Fremont justified issuing the martial law order throughout the state saying it was “in order 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.” His proclamation had two key components. First, “All persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within these lines [North of the area from Cape Girardeau, Missouri to Leavenworth, Kansas, an area controlled by the Union] shall be tried by court-martial, and, if found guilty, will be shot.” In effect, he authorized capital punishment for secessionist bearing arms north of the then-existing Union controlled line.
The proclamation further stated that “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. [emphasis added] This second provision freed the slaves of any secessionists who took up arms against the government. This latter provision mirrored sentiments made the previous month, in July 1861, by former-slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass who stated: “To fight against slaveholders, without fighting against slavery, is but a half-hearted business, and paralyzes the hands engaged in it.” This was a sentiment Fremont now openly acted upon. Fremont issued his proclamation without consulting the Governor of Missouri or any military or cabinet officials in Washington, D.C.. In fact, President Lincoln learned of Fremont’s proclamation by reading it in the newspaper.
President Lincoln’s Letter of September 2nd
Although Fremont was focussed on deterring Confederate activity in the region under his command, his pronouncement created a crisis in Washington. President Lincoln was particularly concerned about losing pro-slave (including slave-holding) Unionist in the border states of Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland; three states which had thus far remained neutral in the national conflict. Lincoln knew he must act quickly lest any of these states consider entering the conflict and aligning themselves with the Confederate cause, something which was very possible at this early period of the war.
Three days after Fremont’s order was issued, on September 2, Lincoln wrote Fremont a letter expressing “some anxiety” about his proclamation of August 30. Lincoln made clear he did not want any Confederate prisoners shot without his consent, for fear that the Confederates would retaliate by killing Union soldiers they captured. Lincoln wrote “Should you shoot a man, according to the proclamation, the Confederates would very certainly shoot our best men in their hands in retaliation; and so, man for man, indefinitely. It is, therefore, my order that you allow no man to be shot under the proclamation without first having my approbation or consent.”
Concerning the confiscation of property and freeing of slaves, Lincoln stated “I think there is great danger that the closing paragraph, in relation to the confiscation of property and the liberation [of] slaves of traitorous owners, will alarm our Southern Union friends and turn them against us; perhaps ruin our rather fair prospects for Kentucky.”
Lincoln thus asked Fremont to amend the order such that Union forces would only confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes. Lincoln politely concluded “This letter is written in the spirit of caution, and not of censure. I send it by special messenger, in order that it may certainly and speedily reach you.”
Lincoln argued that emancipation was “not within the range of military law or necessity” and that such authority rests solely with the elected federal government.
According to Lincoln, and taken from a letter he wrote to a supporter of Fremont, a Kentucky militia unit fighting for the Union “threw down their weapons and disbanded” upon hearing of Fremont’s proclamation. Although the event is otherwise unconfirmed, as Lincoln had written Fremont, “I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game.”
Lincoln biographer Michael Burlingame notes that despite Lincoln’s concern “Defiantly, Fremont ordered thousands of copies of the original proclamation distributed after the president had demanded its modification.”
General Fremont’s Letter of September 8th
Fremont wrote a reply to Lincoln’s request that he refine his order on September 8, 1861 and sent it to Washington in the hands of his wife, Jessie Benton Fremont, who was well acquainted with the President and with Washington protocols having grown up the daughter of former Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton. She met with the President in the White House on September 10. In the letter his wife carried, Fremont stated that he knew the situation in Missouri better than the President and that he would not rescind the proclamation unless directly ordered to do so. In fact, he made clear that he preferred that Lincoln rescind it himself.
Concerning emancipation, Fremont noted “I acted with full deliberation, and upon the certain conviction that it was a measure right and necessary, and I think so still.”
Jessie Fremont later reported that Lincoln harbored particular upset over her husband’s emancipation proclamation. She would later recall the President saying “It was a war for a great national idea, the Union, and … General Fremont should not have dragged the Negro into it.”
Despite his apparent obstinacy, Fremont did acknowledge the President’s supremacy in the matter: “If upon reflection, your better judgment still decides that I am 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 by me as a soldier always should 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 do so. I acted with full deliberation and upon the certain conviction that it was a measure right and necessary, and I think so still.”
President Lincoln’s September 11th Public Letter Rescinding Fremont’s Order
Once he realized Fremont would not acquiesce, and with a sense of urgency, Lincoln issued a public letter dated September 11, modifying Fremont’s order. Specifically he rescinded the emancipation clause to conform with existing federal law, making it clear that only slaves who participated in armed rebellion could be confiscated and freed. Lincoln wrote: “It is therefore ordered that the said clause of said proclamation be so modified, held, and construed as to conform to, and not to transcend, the provisions on the same subject contained in the act of Congress entitled, ‘An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes,’ approved August 6, 1961.”
General Fremont is Relieved of his Command
Lincoln began to consider removing Fremont from his command. However, because Radical Republicans and other abolitionists had enthusiastically supported Fremont’s emancipation order, Lincoln was hesitant to remove Fremont, fearing it would be assumed to be related to his abolitionist views, thus possibly alienating his own Republican Party base. Rather, he sent a number of government officials to visit Fremont during the ensuing weeks, who slowly gathered information strengthening the case for Fremont’s removal based on his alleged ineffectiveness.
A few months later, on November 3, on the eve of a planned attack against Confederate forces led by General Sterling Price, Fremont was relieved of his command, thus ending his 100 day command. Accounts of Fremont’s autocratic leadership style, in some cases exaggerated by his detractors and communicated to Lincoln, were cited as the reason.
Despite whatever criticism may or may not be warranted of Fremont, one notable decision he made while in command was appointing Ulysses Grant brigadier general and giving him charge of southeastern Missouri and southern Illinois, where he successfully seized riverfront positions in Kentucky and Missouri from Confederates. This first command, given to him by Fremont, foreshadowed his important role in the Union’s efforts.
Effect of the Proclamation
History records that Fremont’s emancipation order directly “freed, in the end, two slaves” as if to say it wasn’t of much significance. Although it is noteworthy that Fremont is known to have also issued freed papers to twenty-one other slaves while the order was in effect. The St. Louis press gave considerable attention to the affair and records the names of the two men directly freed by the emancipation proclamation; Frank Lewis and Hiram Reed. Jessie Fremont would later write that the two men, declared “to be free, and forever discharged from the bonds of servitude” were the first slaves freed by authority of the Federal Government of the United States.
Historian Tom Chaffin notes that “The directive did manage to demonstrate the popular appeal among northern voters of elevating the war’s objective from mere reunion of the states to the abolition of slavery — and thus laid the groundwork for Lincoln’s more wide-ranging Emancipation Proclamation almost one year later.” Lincoln’s rescision of the order “ignited a firestorm of protest” according to biographer Michael Burlingame, who noted, “His mailbag overflowed with letters denouncing the revocation. Pro-secession Missourians took heart. One observer reckoned that the president’s action ‘gave more ‘aid and confort to the enemy’ in that State than if he had made the rebel commander, Sterling Price, a present of fifty pieces of rifled cannon.’” Republican Congressman George Washington Julian of Indiana wrote, “Fremont’s proclamation stirred and united the people of the North during its ten days of life far more than any other event of the war.”
Fremont remained very popular with Radical Republican congressmen who applauded his emancipation order. Even President Lincoln seemed to forgive their quarrel, inviting Fremont and his wife to a party at the White House only three months after relieving him of his command. Importantly, a congressional inquiry into Fremont’s conduct in Missouri formally exonerated him of any substantive wrongdoing in his conduct as a commander noting the difficult circumstances he was faced with and the depleted military force he had at his disposal. Lincoln would even offer Fremont a new command in the newly created Mountain Department which included western Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and areas of Tennessee.
Fremont accepted the appointment but his army was later merged with the newly created Army of Virginia under the command of Union General John Pope, once his subordinate. Once again, Fremont felt that Lincoln purposefully and unfairly diminished his authority. By late 1862, Fremont again retreated to civilian life.
Less than a year after Fremont’s August 30th order, on September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued his own far-reaching Emancipation Proclamation (taking effect January 1, 1863), very certainly dragging the issue of slavery, which he had criticized Fremont for, to the forefront of the war effort. Like Fremont’s order, Lincoln’s was premised on the military benefit abolition of slavery would provide to the North.
Presidential Campaign of 1864
In May of 1864, Fremont accepted the presidential nomination of an abolitionist splinter party of the Republican Party, called the Radical Democracy Party, believing Lincoln’s leadership was faltering. By this point, Lincoln’s own emancipation declaration had been issued; so the critique stemmed mostly from a belief that Lincoln was not sufficiently prosecuting the war effort. The Radical Democracy Party also adopted a platform calling for direct election of the president, who they wanted to be limited to a single term; and a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. Four months later, however, Fremont withdraw from the contest when it became apparent his candidacy wasn’t gaining traction and would likely aid Democratic nominee George McClellan who supported maintaining slavery in the south, if it meant peace for the nation. Whatever differences persisted with Lincoln, Fremont set them aside for the sake of ending slavery.
Acknowledging Fremont’s Role in the California Indian Genocide of the 1840s
Although John Fremont’s enlightened views concerning slavery are to be admired, his reputation is deeply compromised because of his participation in the California Indian genocide of the 1840s. The worst of these recorded episodes involving Fremont includes the Sacramento River massacre of April 5, 1846, wherein an expedition led by Col. Fremont attacked an Indian village (likely from the Wintun tribe), near current day Redding, California. The exploring party justified their acts based on unsubstantiated claims the Native Americans were preparing an attack against White settlers.
Details of these atrocities wherein at a minimum 100 men, women, and children were killed (and hundreds more wounded) comes from memoirs written by Fremont’s own expedition members including Thomas Breckenridge, Kit Carson, and Thomas Martin.
By Matt Gonzalez
Sources
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).
Tom Chaffin, Pathfinder: John Charles Fremont and the Course of American Empire (New York City: Hill and Wang, 2004).
Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1999), edited by Philip S. Foner & abridged/adapted by Yuval Taylor.
Steve Inskeep, Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Frémont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity, and Helped Cause the Civil War (New York City: Random House, 2020)
Donald Jackson and Mary Lee Spence, eds., The Expeditions of John Charles Frémont, 3 vols. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1970–84).
Allan C. Nevins, Frémont: Pathmaker of the West (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992).
