Passion and Principle: John and Jessie Frémont, the Couple Whose Power, Politics, and Love Shaped Nineteenth-Century America

by Sally Denton

She was the daughter of powerful Missouri politician Thomas Hart Benton and was a savvy political operator who played confidante and advisor to the inner circle of the highest political powers in the country. He was a key figure in western exploration and California's first senator, and became the first presidential candidate for the Republican Party―and the first candidate to challenge slavery. Both shaped their times and were far ahead of it, but most extraordinarily their story has never fully been told. Thanks in part to a deep-seated family quarrel between Jessie's father and the couple, John and Jessie were eclipsed and opposed by some of the most mythic characters of their era, not least Abraham Lincoln. Award-winning historian Sally Denton restores the reputations of John and Jessie and places them where they belong―at the center of our country's history.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Westerns, Civil War, American History

480 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 2007

Reviews

[Allison Frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most remarkable story. It is a historical biography of John and Jessie Fremont. For those who are not familiar with them, they lived in the 19th century. Their lives were filled with adventure, betrayal, the California gold rush, abolition politics, presidential races, and even cannibalism. Sally Denton is an incredible writer. She crafts a beautiful story that is so compelling, it reads like a novel. This is the best historical biography I have ever read.

For more books & movie reviews about strong women, please visit: http://inspiration4women.blogspot.com/

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

loving this

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Has been a long time since I read a nonfiction book that rivals fiction for drama. (Thinking about "Nicholas and Alexandra" by Massie.) Learned so much about the history of California and the conflicts within the Republican Party as Civil War loomed. I trusted the research of author. However, I did wonder about two phrases she used when describing Jessies's meeting with Lincoln concerning the need for more support for men and arms in Missouri. On page 318, she hands him the sealed letter from her husband and says that she was sent to answer any points. " At this, Lincoln smirked." Later on page 319, author writes " 'You are quite a female politician, ' he said with a sneer." Does Denton have a source for those two reactions: smirk and sneer? Still, I kept turning the pages rapidly as I wanted to know how they handled adversity throughout the remaining years.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well researched and written work covering a lot of genres woven around biographies of two progressive individuals. As one reads more detailed history rather than the superficial pablum taught in Elementary and Secondary schools the veneration of our forebears becomes problematical. We discover they were often petty and of course bigoted. Frequently their actions prolonged disputes because they had personal scores to settle with people on their own side and/or were greedy individuals. Many times a person(s) nose(s) would get bent out of shape because one was successful but not of the proper training or lineage or gender. This book points that out and appropriately lauds two people who, in their time (and by several biographers and historians) been slandered by innuendoes and lies. This book should be on high school and higher learning reading lists.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

After my California trip and visiting a museum that spoke about this couple, I became intrigued. So I decided to pick up this book. I will say, it took me a while to begin reading it because for a time I just didn't feel like reading nonfiction, but I did like this author's style once I did read it. She did a nice job of making the book interesting. It is not often that you see a woman having so much power during those days in the 1800s. It looks like it was possible if you had a certain personality and support. It did not paint a good picture of Lincoln though. This was the first time that I saw a bad image of him. John and Jessie did so much together and you could tell loved each other to bits. It is sad they had to be separated so much.

[Samm Seals · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a wow if you are interested. I didnt expect the format, it's not a novel. Must be a thesis? The writing style is comfortable and flows. Highly recommend if history is an interest. I have never had Fremont enter my mind before. So I was surprised by everything I read. So interesting. It's a five star for sure.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellently written leaving with me my first impressions of the under appreciated Fremonts. It is my first biography read of the Fremonts. A complicated couple that I believe Ms Denton has captured well. Her arguments addressing the mostly negative treatment of this influential couple of John and Jessie are effective and probably pulls the real truth into a middle light.

[Dianne Lange · Rating 4 out of 5]

John may have been the great adventurer, but Jessie was definitely the brains of the couple! Today, she would be the one to run for president! Fascinating history of the West and the politics of the day.

[Selena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so glad someone wrote this. It brought tears to my eyes that the Fremonts have finally had their names cleared and their contributions honored.

[Carl Rollyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"They were everything a growing nation needed for a symbol of success, and the country was not to see this combination of youth and daring again until the later cults of hero worship for George and Elizabeth Custer, Charles and Ann Lindbergh, or John and Jacqueline Kennedy," wrote the biographer Richard Egan about the subjects of Sally Denton's "Passion and Principle: John and Jessie Frémont, The Couple Whose Power, Politics, and Love Shaped Nineteenth-Century America."

John Frémont (1813–1890), called "The Pathfinder" for his repeated forays into the treacherous West at a time when California still belonged to Mexico and Britain still staked a claim on Oregon, was celebrated for intrepid journeys (surviving the hazardous Rockies, hostile Indians, and death-threatening diseases) that made him the embodiment of manifest destiny.

Jessie Frémont (1824–1902), the daughter of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, one of the most progressive and learned politicians this country has ever produced, sat at the knee of Andrew Jackson in the White House, where, in moments of stress, the President would unconsciously clench her hair. Taught not to complain, Jessie became an independent, spirited woman far ahead of her time, working with her husband on best-selling narratives of his adventures and managing his 1856 presidential campaign.

So how did it all go wrong? And how did this couple right themselves only to suffer enough repeated setbacks and comebacks to fill at least five seasons of an HBO series? The trouble began shortly after they met.

While Benton admired the young explorer and touted his prospects, it was quite another matter when Frémont fell in love with 15-year-old Jessie. Smitten with the 26-year-old Frémont, Jessie married John in a secret ceremony performed by a Catholic priest, apparently the only member of the clergy not sufficiently worried about Benton's wrath.

Eventually reconciled to the marriage, Benton again sponsored Frémont, who was promoted quickly to colonel in the U.S. Army, but who also aroused the envy of senior officers. They resented his popularity and tendency to take action without (so they thought) proper authority. What should have been Frémont's crowning glory, conquering California without war, turned into a court martial when he refused to cede command to President Polk's handpicked replacement. Frémont's original orders, Ms. Denton explains, were ambiguous, allowing Polk to retain or replace Frémont depending on the president's closely held political objectives.

For all Frémont's skills — he was a trained scientist, engineer, and cartographer — he had no political brain, and he never stooped to study politics. Charged with being a secret Catholic during the 1856 presidential campaign, he would not even issue a denial, let alone go on the offensive against his inept but ultimately victorious opponent, James Buchanan, a Democratic Party hack.

Jessie always had to do the heavy lifting, tirelessly trying to get her father to support her husband's presidential bid, for example. Benton was anti-slavery, pro-Western exploration, and so a natural Frémont ally, but Benton could not abide his son-in-law's high-handed moral tone or his inability to see that preserving the Union came first. Benton thought, and rightly so, that Frémont would make a terrible president, although Ms. Denton seems to demur on this point.

Jessie, a stellar player in her husband's campaign (she was the first presidential candidate's wife to make widespread public appearances), became the target of critics who decried such a visible role for a woman. She never wavered in her husband's support, even when advisers close to his campaign resigned, suspecting him of infidelity (rumors of his affairs would continue even after he abandoned politics).

Later she made a major blunder: In 1861, she went directly to President Lincoln to argue her husband's case—why it was necessary for Frémont (in charge of defending Missouri) to issue an Emancipation Proclamation before Lincoln was ready to countenance such a momentous act. Lincoln rejected her plea, even ridiculing her for arguing in her husband's stead.

Whether Frémont was morally right is beside the point. Ms. Denton calls his proclamation an act of courage and Jessie's plea a natural consequence of a woman at home in the White House. But Frémont's proclamation was also an act of political folly. No president can countenance an officer in the field announcing such a momentous policy on his own authority.

Disagreeing with Ms. Denton's judgments, however, is not as important as recognizing that she has written a riveting narrative about what she calls a "power couple" who "fascinated and baffled" the public. They are curiously modern and "evocative of Bill and Hillary Clinton," Ms. Denton rightly concludes.

[James (JD) Dittes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking forward to another trip out West, I read Passion and Principle again. It is truly one of my favorite books on American history, covering a key time period when America became the nation it is.

It is a mystery to me how Fremont is left out of school history books considering his part in so many key points of mid-19th-century American history: exploring the west, the conquest of California, owning the biggest California gold mine to emerge from the Gold Rush, first Republican presidential candidate, Civil War general, Emancipator, advocate for a transcontinental railroad--heck he was investing in Los Angeles real estate (and going broke) eighty years before the post-World War 2 boom.

Denton gives equal focus to Jesse Benton Fremont, and her efforts on behalf of her father--a powerful Missouri senator and the godfather of "Manifest Destiny" and then of her husband, showing her to be a powerfully political mover and shaker of her day--marching her way into the offices of presidents Polk and Lincoln to advocate on her husband's defense.

Denton alludes to negative portrayals of John and writes with an almost "set the record straight" goal. Admittedly, I have read a lot of American history, and I knew very little of Fremont aside from a handful of place names in western states.

With Denton as my first real source on him, I wondered if she hadn't been too sympathetic on his behalf. A lot of terrible, vindictive things happened to Fremont: his court martial, business failures and fraud, revocation of his generalship, and accusations of adultery. Denton offers plausible excuses--and holds up Jessie's enduring loyalty as the trump card.

The best I can say for this book is that it makes me want to learn more about John and Jessie Fremont.

[LaSchelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this history lesson. I had not really ever heard of John or Jessie Fremont.

I am amazed at how much they contributed to the country, but were treated rather poorly. I had no idea of Johns explorations, that were encouraging to settling the west and the dream of a transcontinental railroad. I had never heard of Thomas Hart Benton, Jessie's influencial father who was the Missouri senator who did much to encourage exploration of the west and the railroads.

Jessie was very politically connnected because of her father. She was in the White House as a small age, as Andrew Jackson liked to play with her hair as a small child when her father went to discuss politics. She had many ties to men in the White House over the years, but had less than pleasant enchanges with Abraham Lincoln.

I found the history of California very interesting. I have been really aware and proud as I see state flags, since reading the book. I think it interesting that Mary Todd Lincoln's nephew designed the Bear flag, that is still used today.

I thought the political description and the background to the Republican party was interesting. I had no idea that John Fremont was the first Republican candidate.

John Emancipation Proclamation that got him into trouble with Abraham Lincoln's administration ironically was released nearly 2 years before Lincoln's that was similar. Jessie and John were supporters of freeing slaves long before it happened. Jessie's mom had freed the slaves she inherited from her wealthy Virginia father, upon his passing.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard of John and Jessie Fremont. I know I am not alone. When I was asked what I was reading and mentioned them, no one else had heard of them either. So sad to me now after reading this book and realizing their accomplishments and the many sacrifices they made. I also enjoyed reading about Thomas Hart Benton(someone else I had never heard of). He was Jessie's father, and a powerful senator of 30 years from Missouri.

The author, in her Acknowledgements, "...Jessie and John Fremont were not footnotes to history- where they had been relegated for more than a hundred years-but were the embodiment of American history during its most vital movements."

This is a well written and well researched work and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys U.S. history.

Jessie Benton Fremont was a very intelligent, independent, strong woman. In her memoirs she wrote," I only hope that the youth of this country will learn to evaluate the past in the light of our heroes' dreams as well as their achievements, and this for their own sakes, since by the largeness of our dreams do we truly live."

In an interview she quoted her friend Horace Greeley,(a newspaperman and politician who founded and edited the NY Trib) 'Fame is a vapor; popularity, an accident. Character is the only thing that endures.'

Jessie, John and Thomas Hart Benton had plenty of character. They will not be forgotten by anyone who reads this book.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thoroughly researched and very well written look at two people who both shaped and reflected politics in the U.S. in its formative years -- though they are rarely written about outside of California and Western histories. Jessie lobbied delegates to California's Constitutional Convention in 1849 to ensure California entered as a Free State. John issued the first Emancipation Proclamation when he was commander of the Western army during the Civil War, and got roundly reprimanded by Lincoln who thought the official freeing of slaves was premature. Their financial and political fortunes roller-coasted through the decades. Author Denton obviously admires them both tremendously and that's the only drawback, she tends to gloss over some aspects of their life and work (especially John's) that should have received much more critical review.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most sympathetic account of Fremont's life that I have read, and an interesting view of Jessie Fremont, whom Denton portrays as a woman outside her time.
I downloaded this as a Kindle title from Overdrive, and was disappointed with the edition. The scan had lots of errors (including easily detected things like hyphens in the middle of words which had broken lines in the original, and punctuation marks within words.) Names were particularly bad, which is problematic in a history. There was no easy way to check on notes, and Denton is fond of expressions like "one twenty-first century historian." The illustrations were not indicated in the table of contents, but appeared at the end of the chapter they followed in the printed version.

[Mary]

I gave up halfway through despite the SF Chronicle's glowing review and living in territory that Fremont led an expedition through. Just really boring and the sort of flat prose that tells you constantly what a person was like (or in this case, how crazyinlove Fremont and his wife were) rather than demonstrating it. Really disappointing given the local connection, plus a lot of the research sources came from one of the libraries I used with work with.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really interesting since I didn't know much about the time period. I liked the story, but the author seemed a little too biased towards the characters at some points. They can still come off as decent people without having to defend every little thing they ever did. People DO make mistakes.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting view. There is a great deal of history "between the lines".

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great historical novel with politics galore. Filled with the stuff you never learned in high school. A good read for history lovers.