"Free Soil, Free Men, Fremont!"

John C, Fremont -- nicknamed "The Pathfinder" for his famed explorations of the West -- became the presidential candidate of the new, Republican Party in 1856. His anti-slavery stance, and such campaign slogans as above, caused Democrats to argue that his election would lead to civil war, but Fremont only carried eleven states, while James Buchanan, the Democratic candidate, carried nineteen.

Early in the War, President Lincoln gave Fremont command of the Union Army's Western Department, which included Missouri. But a proclamation issued by Fremont -- which not only confiscated the property and freed the slaves of rebel Missourians but stated that all persons caught with weapons would be tried and shot -- aroused so much public anger that Lincoln, removed him from his command.

The following editorial, taken from the September, 24, 1861 issue of the New York Times, illustrates the kind of pressure that men like Fremont and Lincoln found themselves under in the early, critical days of the War.

The Situation in Missouri ---*--- There has nothing transpired in Missouri for many weary weeks to cheer the hearts of the Union men here. On the contrary, discouragements and disasters have followed each other in unbroken succession until hope deferred has made the heart sick. The friends of the Government everywhere have reason to be ashamed of the impotency of patriotic effort in Missouri... Who is to blame for the anarchy and rebel rule and devastation west of the Mississippi? We make no charge but in the name of a wronged country, we declare that there are deep blood stains on some hands, that cannot easily be washed out... ...It is a sad day we have reached if the Executive of the Nation, who has nothing to hope for, nothing to live for, but the country's welfare dare not do his duty on an occasion so momentous and in a crisis so grave... Missouri... has only been a field of humiliation and disaster. Camp Jackson was captured last April and treason in St. Louis nipped in the bud. The battle of Booneville was fought soon after Claib. Jackson was compelled to flee the State... Since then what ray of light have we seen in Missouri? Siegel retreated from Carthage, and by a miracle of generalship saved his men and his guns from superior numbers... Gen. Lyon was left defenceless against four times his force under the practiced leader McCulloch, and perished in trying to sustain his country's flag against such odds... For weeks it has been known that Gen. Price was advancing upon Lexington with a view to install the rebel Governor Jackson, there and yet he is allowed to invest Lexington with overwhelming numbers... Is there never to be a chastisement inflicted on the rebel bands of Missouri? For months Martin Green has been ravaging Northeast Missouri, living by plunder... Thomas Harris marauds through counties lying south of Green's district, at the head of 1,000 men... St. Joseph, the second city in the State, and the terminus of the most important and only completed railway in Missouri, has hardly been a week out of the hands of the rebels, who pillage its stores and supplied their wants by robbery... Scarcely a day has passed for weeks that trains on railroads were not fired into and men murdered outright... The truth is, that Missouri, to-day, is a blighted field, where nothing appears to animate the patriot or give cheer to the Union... We have been told that Fremont has gathered at St. Louis one of the finest armies on the continent, numbering some say, 30,000, some say 60,000, some say 80,000 men... We are told that Fremont has thrown up entrenchments around St. Louis at a cost of $1,000,000. We know that Ben McCulloch is marching to the aid of Price and that our feeble forces at Rolla, Booneville and Jefferson City are in imminent danger. When shall these things stop? When? When? ...The Administration cannot afford to let these things continue.

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