Thank you for being with us organizing todays event in my Live Audience here in San Francisco you can always visit us at www. Commonwealth club. Org and with the upcoming schedule. With cohost of morning edition of npr with jesse and john fremont thank you for coming. [applause] thank you everyone im delighted you could come this afternoon one of the most beautiful cities in the world San Francisco and to talk about jesse and john fremont to had some issue with the creation of california as we know it is so much to do with the creation of San Francisco as we know it. And then on the july a delayed flight from los angeles and then to be picked up by a car and driven by a car the thing about live radio but with San Francisco traffic but really you will not make your exact time. [laughter] but 8 00 a. M. Pacific time and still on the road creeping up the freeway seven or 9 miles an hour but looking out the right side San Francisco bay is out there and the Southern Suburbs with the hills in front of me and missing my deadline which is horrifying for journalists to do. This is the world the fremont made. [laughter] for better or worse. It is the most wonderful city and delighted to be researching the book and San Francisco its a story of two people at the story of a marriage and their ambitions at a time when the United States was deeply divide divided. The imperfect union refers to when they had outlawed slavery and others embraced it and with this very unusual couple to achieve all that they could in that very divisive time to play a vital time jar John Charles Fremont was and explore and a man who in the 18 forties and fifties started in saint Louis Missouri with any consequence of the United States and with u. S. Army officer hired civilians to go along to match the oregon trail ultimately ended up in california and was intrigued and then returned a couple of years later to the mexican controlled territory with a party of 60 gunmen and began the process to take over california from mexico to make it part of the United States. As the explorer he did not discover much that was new was traveling across the land that was traversed for centuries explored by for trappers but he codified it and made it accessible and more important coming back to where he was based and with those accounts of his adventures his job was not to use explore the west but promote the west and entice settlers to move to the west because that was part of the process to take over that territory to ensure that it would become part of the United States. In the process in the 18 forties and fifties and write the accounts of these adventures official u. S. Army reports and write them like a novel to describe the landscape of the Rocky Mountains for that vast area that encompasses most of nevada and utah and several other states and a sought to describe california very provocatively and to become a mired individual and the apparent achievements that over in 1850 there was a magazine named John C Fremont the three most important world historical figures since jesus christ. [laughter] kind of an american centric lis list. The first of the three figures was Christopher Columbus and to establish european contacts would be a better way to phrase it but the second was George Washington the founder of the country and the third was John C Fremont who got him on the list with the reputation conqueror of california with el dorado to the United States. He had real talent and courage and fortitude and real accomplishments that as i write the most important would be the person who made it possible to take full advantage of the times his wife and to make few choices to chart their own course. And then to provide that previously unknown husband to the highest levels of the government it is no coincidence the began to soar after they eloped 28 and 17. I thought as many others did that Jesse Benton Fremont was the better man of the two and how to write the famous reports with the writing partner and occasional ghostwriter. And then became the political advisor and attracted talented young men to the circle and lashed out at enemies. To carry on conversations with senators twice her age to offer her opinion to president s even when they did not agree with her and was gradually recognized but the timing was as perfect as her husbands and was pushing the boundaries just as women were beginning to demand a larger place a national life. In the 18 forties and fifties and then to campaign against slavery. The Republican Party was founded and it capture their energy in 1856 the republicans for the first time nominated a president ial candidate seeking someone heroic and then to bind the Party Together to nominate John Charles Fremont the first nominee ever to run for president on the Republican Party ticket. When john was nominated for president , jesse became part of the campaign it had songs of praise for jesse. Steve this is three very modern story. It is a story about rugged wilderness challenges but also a story about fame and what you make of the word or work that you do in about reputation and it was a time in the news media were expanding expanding when democracy was working and when great issues were being debated in the free months for themselves at the center of it all. In the first thing that had to happen for them though, was the actual exploration of mapmaking of the west. John seen fremont had a reputation in both reputation utterly fearless adventurer who surmounted one difficulty after another and although he was also in reality, rather erratic leadr and he would hire groups of civilians, maybe a couple of dozen and sometimes more. This was in st. Louis and they would head out into the wilderness. In 1942, the First Expedition that he commanded he went off of the oregon trail as far as what is now wyoming and went to the Continental Divide there which was supposed to be an standpoint. And the point his mission was he was supposed to go back home by some of the road and doing smart mapmaking along the way. But reaching the Continental Divide for him turned out to be kind of anti climatic and into little boring. He was in the past where it was hard to figure out what the Continental Divide was and he decided that maybe what you really do is climb the tallest mountain that he could see. He took some of this man and he went up the highest mountain that he could see and they decided partly up to abandoned the mules that they had been taking because the ground was getting rough in the big same think it was just right there. So the left behind with the mules there, food, most of their other supplies, and even there. It was summer but theyre getting into some altitude pretty do not take long to understand that they had misread the campground ahead of them in what looked like a been a direct ascent concealed more valleys that they needed navigate and they were reaching altitudes snow covered the ground even in august and when the men nearly slid off a snowy slope that over a precipice to his death and he saved himself only by dropping flat on the surface to gain traction. Exhausted and the thin air, the parties at stop for the night just below the tree line. That was around 10000 feet above sea level they try to hunt a Mountain Goat for dinner printed in the field. They tried to sleep without the blankets on a slab of granite. Lt. Fremont began to experience severe headaches and vomit through the his leadership grew erratic next anyones party lose cohesion as they clambered up bill across Broken Ground lease putting the ones and twos and taking different routes through the rocks and snow which meant they could not easily helpful in another. The mapmaker on the expedition, charles price, the germans democrats, was walking alone at the top of this snowy slope when he lost his footing. And again sliding. There is no way to stop. He continued some 200 feet big 40 crash and rocks at the bottom and was lucky to somersault over the first truck and when the broke bones. After he was found by johnny a guest, blackman who is a member of the expedition, the brought word that the lt. Fremont was vomiting again as were others, the double under fremonts outward message to try to reach the summit. Jenny said run barometer which i could use to measure the altitude of the mountains. Not being idiot, he refused. He refused to go on and went back to camp and he assumed, that this meant that the effort to reach the summit was done. In camps, he mentioned that anna bring up a little benefit so they so they had the first meal in nearly two days and they had a night sleep and price book in the morning expecting that everyone would descend mountain. They discovered otherwise. John reminded him that they had brought along a bottle of brandy. Well mr. Price, i hope we shall after all into glass on top of the mountain. That was a sick in the hundredweight for him to say he kept are intended to keep climbing and fremont took extraordinary risks. Well beyond what seemed necessary for mission at hand. And gain certain rewards and individually they did reach the top of the mountain and they planted an american flag, and john and it been a brilliant Public Relations looking around the mountains around him and decided without any evidence at all that he just climbed to the i speak in all of north america. [laughter]. Later expiration buildings not among the top 100 peaks. In the Rocky Mountains but it didnt in long time to realize that. This was 1842. Fourteen years later when he ran for president , there were still images being published of him cementing the highest point in the Rocky Mountains. It was part of his campaign. As part of his fame and why he was nominated for president. In spreading the word of his accomplishments, jesse was crucial. His editor, the first person who would care historically came back, personally would sometimes take vacation of the stories that he had pilfered a person who would receive his letters they would would occasionally manage dissent by various means from out west, and she would receive them in washington and take them to newspaper editors and have them published to publicize his various months. He seemed to know that this was going to be the case and some of his letters read like press releases. Her letters read like love letters in his read like press releasreleases. But they took advantage of the fact that there was a quickening National Conversation in the phone had just rain which was actually symbolic for this moment so dont feel embarrassed about that at all. This is the period when weekly newspapers which had been around in america for a long time are becoming daily newspapers. And always been a few of them but there were more and more daily newspapers and the information the papers are being accelerated more and more because of the mention of telegraphs in 1844, samuel morris, succeeded in string copper wire from washington dc, from the capital in fact all of the way up to baltimore. With the Democratic National convention is being held in a telegraph or at the baltimore and similar published developments back to morris himself in washington and morse was deciphering his own code that there is his name and reading aloud to a crowd hundreds of people at the couple, the latest news development. It was like it was the first news anchor. There are remarkable accounts of people marveling at this idea of instant communication. The annihilation of space, is more than one person called it. Who could imagine possibilities that a person could learn about any event anywhere instantly. Professor morse is a telegraph in the correspondence to the New York Herald has said it originated in the mind of new species of consciousness. Never behold anyone conscious that humans with certain team, 40 100 or 500 miles off. In reading that paragraph, we realized that we were wind and saying there in 1984 the dawn of the earth that we are living in today. We are swamped by today. We are struggling with today. Instructed to see with how People Struggle with it in the very beginning. As surely as any number of about the possibility of bringing the world together. Improving over understanding of a dealer and while it did that in many ways, also many ways in which it drove the world apart. And this became apparent by the president ial campaign of 1856, the campaign in which John Charles Fremont was nominated by the republicans is an anti slavery candidate. In the first election where there was a major party that was meaningfully opposed of the spread of slavery, always before than it had been necessary pretty National Party to appeal to southern posted of having any chance of winning sleep tried very hard about remain silent or to be actively proslavery. This party was different. Northerners had realize there was a demographic change going on in america. The northern elation at one much more rapidly than in the south not created an opportunity to elected president with northern boats alone. That made it very dangerous time. Because of southview that that is an effort to cut them out of power. Two profoundly threatened institution in which they had instructed their economy and their ace society and they said, many said the nurse said that if republicans were ever to win an election they would lead the union. There was a battle going on over the western states, or whether slavery should be allowed to spread in the western states. There was violence in kansas which was proposed to be a New Territory anti slavery and proslavery forces were fighting. In a dispute over kansas, triggered a Political Violence in washington south. Republican senator of massachusetts delivered a lengthy talk in 1956 in what he called the crime of kansas. An especially withering passage he mocked South Carolina prison coherent phrases and the loose expectoration of the speech. While opposing kansas as a free state. There was some there said, no possible deviation from truth which he did not make. Can you imagine the idea of a politician. [laughter]. Deviating from the truth. Senator butler was not present for this tirade but his nephew learn the speech afterwards and considered it an insult to his family. Nephew Preston Brooks was a member of the house of representatives. He walked into the chamber and found summer writing it at his desk and beam again and again with a have again until he was unconscious. Brooks kept pressing him even if tim kaine broke into pieces over summers head. Now that the conflict had reached one of the medias media centers, we learn of every detail. They read read about the caning almost formula taken is late and had read further facts. Nothing wouldve been bought possible decade earlier. The news was filtered through northern and southern editors which meant the northerner and southerners work reading simultaneously different versions of the same event. Openness quoted in the chicago newspaper said the summer was ambushed, and then at his desk and beaten mercilessly going for his desk from this from happening and then he pinched forward fellow floor. Correspondent in the charleston courier and south all but rolled his eyes. The telegraph is already spread thousand and one stories about this transaction he wrote, many of them incorrect. Summer was beaten, it was true but is not seriously hurt. Very irritating southerners. People in the south celebrated the caning. And voted prizes for the congressman who had administered the beating. And then Something Else happened. As quickly as the telegraph had spread the news of the caning everywhere, its for the southern reaction across the north. Readers of the New York Herald unfolded the papers to discover extended experts are the Southern Press praising chivalrous congressman brooks repeating the senator of massachusetts printed and this was a new phenomenon in itself printed massive american thorn not only of disturbing events more rapidly than ever before but also that in their americans celebrated the very event that horrified them. It changed the political calculus in 1956 and it became a way that americans were driven apart. Rather than together. By the sudden speed and force of this information americans learn something about each other and they did not like it what they learned. About one another. They struggled with that then, we struggle with that phenomenon now. It is one of the great challenges of our time. The campaign of 1856 seems to me, profoundly revealing. And speaks again and again to this day because of the media environment and because of the issues printed the questions that americans eighth 1956, included who gets to be american. Who gets to be equal. If there was debate over slavery but not only slavery, there was a profound debate at the same time over immigration. A movement against democrats had arisen in the country. The people who are at the heart of this movement refer to themselves as native americans. Only cement native born white people. Not indians. They were aware that the immigrants could sway elections and endorsed various proposals to prevent immigrants from voting. They would often organize rallies provocative rallies, move it into immigrants neighborhoods knowing that this would provoke violence predict reaction from irish immigrants to say, so they would do it again and again until he got the reaction that they wanted. Some americans were actually pushing against dangerous and alien religion. Catholicism. The pope was described as a sinister plot or wanted to use immigrants to take control of the United States and change it from what it always been, a protestant nation. In all of this became part of the president ial campaign. John Charles Fremont, been born the illegitimate son of an immigrant. The french immigrant name Charles Fremont with a slightly different spelling, who had fallen in love with the virginia aristocrat. They ran away together and had children including john even though divorce was never granted. So he was the son of an immigrant. But in the newspapers in 1856 campaign and hostile newspapers, they changed him from the son of an immigrant to an immigrant. Who have borne outside of the United States and therefore was ineligible for the presidency there were brothers, in 1856 and even worse, they began producing evidence John Charles Fremont was catholic. He was a foreigner born somewhere else and inherent to this alien religion. This was part of the campaign against John Charles Fremont an incredibly bitter and nasty election with a great deal at stake. A fight to restrict slavery in the United States. The fight over who got to be counted as an american. A threat to break up the union if the election is results can be runway and a threat to destroy the system. And there were no Public Opinion polls. See look through the documents of the time in the historians have carefully studied the selection, and you see politicians try to calculate from different bits of evidence. Who would win. He would lose and they didnt truly know. Although things were beginning to look rather desperate for the republican side, against the democrat James Buchanan in late october. On friday night, october 31, republicans landed mass gathering in new york city for mechanics and workmen rated republican elected to the academy hall for music, new york tribune called it one of the largest and most enthusiastic gatherings ever seen there. In a large number of ladies graced the meeting with a presence. Ladies. Women were involved in the president ial campaign because women had been involved in the campaign against slavery in the new party captured some of their energy even though they cannot vote printed the season symbol. Fremont, they had made her, so they are running for president in a way and ladies are grazing meetings by the presence pretty group that called themselves the Rocky Mountain glee club. Sing a rallying song for fremont. There should still be a Rocky Mountain glee club. [laughter]. And with the tree credit looked up and one of the private parts of the theater, they spied their candidate. This is a time when president ial candidates did not campaign by the way. They did not go out in public. That was considered undignified it printed they would avoid making speeches. If they had to make a speech, they would avoid saying anything meaningful and if they were forced to Say Something meaningful, they would write it in a letter to a friend which would be linked to the newspapers. They stayed out of sight. There is no record of even a single tweet but hey president ial candidate 1956. Not a single word. But on this evening in the theater in new york city, people looked up and spied their candidates who was in a deviation from ordinary practice and chosen to attend the event with his wife. John Charles Fremont, illegitimate son of an immigrant inventor of his own name pretty young man on the make, survivor of snowstorms and hunger, fame to be on the measure. Limited by his experiences often lost inside of his own head. He was granted one evening to take in the applause. He said john in a theater box, set Jesse Fremont who had chosen her husband and she looked with him, warning absences and his children and then exalted him and protected him from that which she could not bear. Jesse wanted note but nothing more than dropping of your fathers assistant. Who had made a mark on the world even when that which was denied an ode lost her father when she was stood up for what she believed was right. Because her father is a United States senator would not support her campaign for president. In one of the speakers that the academy of music that evening was henry stanton. A man with it and chop whiskers deep set eyes, a writer performer and abolitionist brain he was married to Elisabeth Cady Stanton. One of the womens rights activist who a few years earlier had attended the convention in seneca falls urging womens right to vote printed on this night, mature stanton offered his vision of the sinks of the election. Whether or not western territories would be row and for what he called the curse of human slavery. Stanton said he was certain that the republican president ial candidate was protestant. But he also said it didnt matter. I would rather be rolled over to the next four years by a liberty, loving catholic. He was treated the union via slavery loving protestant with default to freedom. In free soil and humanity in the crowd applauded. When election arrived, stanton said we will touch those course which will vibrate down the fist of the future in which will not cease to reverberate until the good or evil and it shall cease to exist. That weekend, hallucinate november 2. Jesse, the letter to investment physically. Jesse remains also attend the democratic postmasters reading her mail like a hack at the dnc or something. [laughter]. That she facetiously wrote on the inside of the letter postmaster, please send the students read to mr. Lee. And to lizzie she then said i dont dare say anything more than to tell you that we made be successful. The telegraph will do the rest. 1945, congress had passed a law sweeping away an old practice where different states voted over a period of weeks there is when beat won election day, the first tuesday after the first monday of november which in 1956 would be two days later. The telegraph wires were being results from across the country as quickly as each states balance could be collected. And counted. Now i know, and of the end of the story. Because John Charles Fremont does not become president. In fact he must stand in history as the man who was defeated for election by the worst president according to many historians, and the history of the United States. James buchanan won the presidency and declared that the union had been saved and he was a pennsylvanian and his northerner the southerners connections and he declared the union had been saved. And having election, he then manipulated the course. He lobbied the Supreme Court for what is now known as the dred scott decision declaring that africanamericans were not citizens and that the declaration of independence said all men are created deep people do not actually mean that. An effort to codify slavery throughout time. Something happened i told you about that demographic change in america. That the northern states were more populous than the southern states. In an effort had been made to win the presidency with northern boats alone which fell narrowly short in 1956 before years later, publicans try to begin with the candidate named Abraham Lincoln. So it campaign for John Charles Fremont in 1956 by the way. They seek seated, the south then follow through on his threat to destroy the system pretty they defeated from the union and fired the first shot in the civil war. But at the end of that war, shortly after the end of that war, lincoln in the last days of his life pushed through a constitutional amendment out long slavery. As a leap in Human Progress that no one and i know its a no one but relatively few political leaders were willing to even contemplate. And the time of this story 1956. A living Human Progress that built on the story that is told in perfect union. The story of this imperfect couple struggling imperfectly forward in pursuing their own ambitions and often wrong and often biased, often bigoted themselves and harmful to others, sometimes helpful to each other but ultimately, bashing in st. Paul to do or what to do, towards right. Thank you for taking a little time to listen today. The book is called imperfect union. I will be happy to take questions about it. Guest morning edition mvr, and the cohost first question. Steve is there a woman would like to take the first question. It worked enunciate or something. Really, no questions at all. There we go knows it no discrimination against you sir. We will get to you soon. Do you mind saying your name also so we get to know each other a little bit. Guest good afternoon, i think you from talking about is fascinating. My name is joy. I am curious how you think californias history bends at this period of time which shape the Union Overall versus what would happen today. Sometimes more progressive status diverse and the original history. Steve it was an amazingly diverse state at the very beginning. Up until the gold rush in a course the majority of the population was negative. And then there were a few thousand mexicans and a few thousand american settlers and other kinds of people, immigrants, there were chinese at a very early days, although not in the numbers that would come a little bit later. There were lots of different types of people. But it wasnt the beginning, a state with a really reactionary political leadership. California became a state in 1850 and one of the first two senators elected with John Charles Fremont. In one of the first things he did in this very brief senate term, was proposed a bill to regulate the gold rush. That was kind of the Silicon Valley of his time. This event that people were making ridiculous amounts of money and also transforming the wider economy and fremont was a part of this. He had come back to california in 1949 after the mexican war and after the conquest of california, he happened it to hud acquired land during the war. They ran into some mexican migrants who come north to seek their fortune any sins and took his land to prospect and they made him fantastically rich pushed very little effort on his part. So he benefited from the gold rush. He benefited from employment immigrants and mexicans. And then as a United States senator proposed a goldmining relation bill saying they must buy a permit to prospect for gold and the permits shall be limited to United States citizens. Im a u. S. Citizen and am in favor as much as the next person but a debate on the floor of the u. S. Senate, made it explicit that the purpose of this legislation was to show the side variance racism and nationalities and people. Fremont himself and wanting to get reelected and seeking the desires of his wifes constituents said that the who are being attracted north for just a really bad glass of people didnt want any more of them. There kinds of people and made him ridiculously rich. Nobody seemed to what chinese theyre not in my nobody having the white men were debating this in the senate. But then other lawmakers stood up and said he played minute, some immigrants who are good. The europeans once, and this was not purely a matter of racism. It is matter of practice topicality. There were some things that had been settled by european immigrants like wisconsin and iowa, Brenda States and these were states were immigrants who were not yet citizens but residents were allowed to vote. In a surprising turn of events, the senators to depended on those of the immigrants, became pro immigrants. [laughter]. And they decided to amend this bill so that the permits would be for u. S. Citizens and european immigrants of good character. Well still going that nobody wanted in a mexicans there. There are a lot of things driving this. There are a limited number of white men when taken over this area from another country. And lots of different kinds of people there. And they wanted to control its. They didnt want more than a handful of indians getting the right to vote. Division i africanamericans are in operating california approved the constitution as a free state. They were profoundly influential but part of the reason that company did that was that their poor White Californians who did not want to compete in the goldfield against some guy with a bunch of african slaves read having banned slavery, the very same Constitutional Convention came very close to banning black people at all. From coming to california. It was a profoundly racist time. And yet, it was profoundly diverse place and time. Its a really vital thing to understand about her history, we have a debate now about who is included in history and who participates in historic is that we are telling it is a wonderful moment and that we are hearing more stories told from the perspective of slaves, and the perspective of other a mac afghan americans in their immigrants. And what i want to do in a narrative like this is that weve all of that together printed so that you hear from the white guy but you also hear from his wife and you hear from an africanamerican like Frederick Douglass it was very influential at the time and you encounter some of the indians the some of these characters encountered and you have an opportunity to see different perspectives of things and understand how different kinds of people, the push and pull between them and in this emerging democracy made the nation that we have today. In a simple answer to your question, when he significant in the progress. I will take another question. Anybody else pretty go ahead sir even though youre not a woman. [laughter]. Guest im rick, honey think things would have developed had fremont defeated buchanan for president. Steve one possibility had fremont one in 1956, the civil war wouldve come then. The self, and leaders were saying that this will destroy the union. And we know that they were not bluffing, because four years later, they could if it could happen then, fremont couldve been the president instead of Abraham Lincoln and i want to note that when the civil war did come, fremont wasnt general in the union side and turned out to be revealed its much more erratic leader than people that thought he was. And many of his former supporters, concluded that while they had favored his election passionately in 1856, they thanked god that he had not actually won. Because they thought the result couldve been much more terrible had this guy he was just not a political thinker the way that lincoln was had been president. Guest hi my name is julie. I was wondering, while all of the significant things were going on, was jesse working with groups of women to try to earn the boat. Steve no. It is really interesting that she was picked up as a symbol. Jesse, i dont know that jesse wouldve ever really embraced the word womanist. I think of her in a way that i think of dolly parton. I dont know if you guys have heard the amazing series of podcasts about dolly parton. Just the last few months. There is a lot of discussion in the podcasts which include interviews with her. But i had dolly is a hero to feminist because she not only sane, she became her own boss, and she charted her own course, and shes incredibly talented songwriter and businessperson as well as being a singer and performer. But feminist in the label it dolly parton wanted to embrace. She was doing that in their own light but did not wanted to be ideal of jiggly there. I think of jesse as the semi. She grew up with this boys name, her grandfathers name. She got herself educated like a boy, ultimately was forced back into traditional generals did not reject them. She was away for much of his mother, she took care of kids for and she with the grief of losing children. In infancy which is really common then. She did all of those things and she stayed home while her husband went all across the world and yet she also wanted to be politically engaged and active have something to say in her fathers official Senate Meeting and have something to say to the president of the United States the present after that. And she was one of the managers of her husbands president ial campaigns. She was in every way, feminist not weight. But when some years after the election of 181856, Elisabeth Cady Stanton came to her and said, you are very rich jesse joined making a contribution to the Womens Suffrage Movement and her initial response was im not sure what to do that. I think that women in their present condition manage men better. [laughter]. She later changed her mind. But thats another many things that feels profoundly modern about the story. If you think about the complicated relationships that a great number of people have with the word feminist, you see jesse without that word present in the discussion, you see a wrestling with this very same issues print well more than a century ago. Time for another question. Guest good afternoon, and welcome to our little town. Disclosure moment, charles james, retired professor erratic and Communication Studies read. Steve l. Guest to the point, the public expressions of peoples persona, to help us understand them in a public way. It would if you can close the gap elise for me a little bit in your profile of Jesse Fremont, she sent an assertive active person with Many Political and social interest from feminism to the french, what remains in representation of her, are largely pieces of appreciation for wild animals, enjoyment of the grizzly bear for example and enjoyment of the great outdoors, and the does seem to be a space between what remains of her presentation self and this other side of her which paint. How can that be narrowed even just a little bit. Steve you need to go through jesses many writings. Invite information outside of the text often to understand what she is really saying. The part of the book. Theres a quote, it would hardly do, to tell the whole truth about everything. It was a direct quote from jesse. [laughter]. One of the ways that she. [laughter]. Is like the right. One of the way she shaved her husbands image was by suppressing embarrassing information about him as well as promoting things that she viewed it to be positive and she sorta wrote the same way did there is a wonderful memoir of her call the year of American Travel which describes one of her journey to california and ends here in San Francisco i can bend the description of San Francisco as it was then. She finally gets there describes it as this collection of shacks this rapidly growing up the hill. Nightmare city. I people finally got the room a ship named gone down and from pam them all and finally up and down the other way and is so horrifying they are most do not want off the ship. [laughter]. She writes this book in the beginning of the book is filled with references to her depression and to her despair, to the nightmares that she was having. It is really deeply evocative materials except if you just picked up the book, did not know note much memory when it really know what she was saying. Because she left something out. And that is that just days before the story began, her infant son had died. And days after the infant son died, her husband left on one of his expeditions to the left west. She does not mention the death. Once you understand that, you understand what shes saying with all of these references and descriptions, you understand or frame of mind, she would leave out vital bits of information. Data privacy, and of the kind of victorian sense of propriety. Perhaps out of the sense that you needed to be tough because lots of women lost children in infancy or childbirth or dying themselves in childbirth. She left out this vital fact that theres enough in those writings that if you find the wider context to understand that at times close going on with her. It also at the very end of her life, she wrote us fascinating unpublished memoir which is full of anecdotes, strange anecdotes about her life, not entirely reliable and back and some in senses, definitely in treatment even in instances where she got the facts wrong, the way she got the wrong is revealing. You just have to read it really closely and go for context which is true of lots of things including pete peoples tweets by the way. [laughter]. We still have time for three or four more questions. Guest i am doug and you alluded at the beginning of your talk, but just conversations with president s and theres that famous confrontation at the white house between her and Abraham Lincoln. The middle of its in the book but i wondered if you would talk about her general, or the couples relationship with lincoln. Steve my book focuses on the 1840s and 50s with an epilogue goes over that. And then some of the most fascinating parts of their lives. As the civil war. The general in missouri by president lincoln was but there and facing an infant sufficient military forces he was took in an extreme measure of freeing slaves who people who were disloyal. President lincoln was not yet ready to be praying slaves. There were still slaves days and were part the union and he wanted to keep the man. He did not want to directly order fremont to change his policy because that would be embarrassing but it may declare the free month and he wanted fremont himself to patrol the orders. Fremont, begin many ways of persistent guy, which is a good thing, but also a stubborn guy which can be bad, same quality depends on the circumstance, refused lincolns order. This one on for weeks and weeks. And lincoln repeated what he wanted done and finally, john agreed to send jesse back to washington to set Abraham Lincoln straight. [laughter]. She gets on the train and she is back to washington and she checks into a hotel or whatever and she sends a note over to the white house saying that she would like to see the president if any time convenient for you. And eight letter comes back from lincoln for a note comes back lincoln as one word. The single word is now so she goes over now. And she starts talking to lincoln who was very little to say and she explains why the freeing of the slaves is really good this would help keep control of missouri and will play really well in Europe Lincoln finally says, you are quite take female politician. This according to a letter right Jesse Fremont written not to let his father afterwards. She felt that lincoln just was not listening. Lincoln felt that he understood the strategic situation and what was necessary at the time and he did not need to lose the state of kentucky. That was one of the slave states still in the union pretty did not need to lose that slave states in a way that might cause him to lose the work and you dont treat any slaves. In a different point of view. Ultimately, he fired general freeman. Fremont was still very famous, the big deal the Republican Party so i can give him a second assignment. As a general in another part of the country where he quickly lost the battle. He turned out to be a brilliant promoter but not a very good general at all. It was sidelined again. 1964, so this is lincolns reelection now, John Charles Fremont allowed himself to be foot forward in the candidate against him for a home lincoln as radical version of Abraham Lincoln. Ultimately he backed off but not until about september of 1864. There was a danger had he stayed in the race, that he mightve split the republican vote and cause Abraham Lincoln blues reelection. I think this is part of the reason that the fremont are not as wellknown as the might be because nobody is about to begin his Abraham Lincoln and fared well in history. Think about the people in jefferson davis, not really wellregarded today. [applause]. Lincoln douglas, it kind of vaguely remember that guy douglas was but as much is lincoln and a few months also were diminished. By that experience but also the fascinating story is really amazing, if you choose to buy the book, theres an account of a speech that lincoln gave on behalf of Charles Fremont in 1856 and its really a deeply moving speech. It includes a line by lincoln, come to the rescue of the great principle of equality. Yes or go ahead. Guest one of the things i found fascinating about your talk in your answer to some of the questions is the parallel between fremont fighting her own and if there were any more that you want to share with us printed. Steve the demographic change is a big one. We are in a time of date great demographic change which makes people nervous because people see a change in power and at the groups are growing more rapidly in this country. Younger people, people of color, implements, we can go want to name a bunch of different kinds of people. They tend to vote for more than one party than the other in and allows democrats some democrats to think confidently but they can win elections without compromising so much the conservatives. And it is because republicans feel that they are in their mind unfairly being shut out of power. In a way that seems very familiar. Republicans have not only spoken explicitly about this but present trump is known about speaking explicitly about things and in the 2016 campaign, he told supporters this is your last chance to save the country. Your last chance for your side to win. He wasnt suggesting that as a country continued to change, that of his i did not do something out, they would be out of power forever. And i think that its there for many of his supporters. That fear is there. We now have democrats who are concerned about being forever shut out of power by the president he was appointing conservative judges to Lifetime Appointments who has constantly talked about illegal voting is a way it seems to encourage efforts to limit certain peoples voting participation and it was said that he is the right to do whatever he wants as president. And invest look at all of that and they see someone who is poised to wipe out the system. And i think that is part of the reason that this is such ahead of time. People are not nearly fearful of losing an election, their fearful of losing forever. And that means that we will need a citizens i think to keep our heads and keep our perspective during the selection there is no beginning. Other women want any more questions pretty go ahead. If that the microphone printed. Guest my name is tom and thank you so much for the presentation and in the back row of the long line of the story. Both of these people can you give a little quick timeline the fremont and jesses time in california. His arrival has got several kind of controversial points to it. From north to south during the mexicanamerican war. And then they settled, by yosemite. And at one point i believe he was courtmartialed for his role in his activities in california and we navigated that in ultimately would be viewed by californians. It. Steve let me go through a few events, he first arrived in 1944 in california, arrived by mistake one of his expectations the needed supplies so they turned and went over the sierra nevadas in the snow. I met a guy named john sutter, who is able to supply them with food and horses and so forth. He then returned in the winter of 1845 to 1946 with a 60 gunman and begin the process of taking over the future states. He was a part of what evolved into the california part of the mexican war up until about 1847 but was involved in a conflict between an army general and a navy coma nora both said they were in charge in california and fremont chose the wrong guy to support. And ultimately was courtmartialed. He was granted clemency by the present because he was a National Hero resigned out as a point of principle anyway. He returned to california in 1949. In time for the gold rush. And that was a moment in which he encountered the group of mexicans and had his land prospecting for gold and made himself very rich. There is a. Where going back and forth. And they spend 1849 in california and then by the end of the year, california approved a state constitution and chosen him as one of californians first two senators and on new years day in 1915, the governorship to go back to the east. By the end of 1850 is going back to california again. Hes a spy coastal in and is not a six hour flight people. [laughter]. And continues going back and forth after the defeat in the election of 1856, jesse decided to remain in new york. And john who had difficulty staying in one place decided to return to california. And they went back and forth again printed and on mentioning the one more thing, later in life, he blew the money in a railroad investment. They were really broke and one of the ways that they supported themselves was that jesse wrote memoirs of their experiences which is part of the reason we have some of the lovely writings of hers that we have. And in 1887, with john, his health was failing and jesse decided that his health would be better in the climate of los angeles. So the one across the country they lived in los angeles for a little while but john could not remain in one place and this man for so often had left his wife to travel to the west now they had on gone all the way to the left. They left his wife to travel east. And looking for in washington a pension for his military service, pursuing some kind of business in new york and he died in new york city in 1890. Jesse, remained in los angeles. She was penniless but was understood to have contributed something really significant to california and to the country and women in los angeles raise money to buy her house. She lived there until her death in 19 oh two. I guess we have time for one or two more questions. One more. Gueststeve is there a woman who would like to ask a question printed. Guest i was just wondering, when he came out with his 60 soldiers to take over, did he just during that up. [laughter]. Steve the episode is marked even today. President james had just been elected, wanted california, wanted to buy california from mexico. As in the process of provoking an actual war against mexico but the work hello started yet. Nevertheless fremont was going into the direction of the present according to the documentary evidence, he knew that fremont was going there. It is unclear if he had quietly told him, take over if you get a chance. [laughter]. It seems a little more likely that the plans were a little bit more vague. Folks that he would get california one way or another wanted to make really sure that some european colonial powers did not capture it first and so fremont was just going to be out there to be available and useful if he possibly could. And fremont, when god california did not act like anybody was in any great strategic purpose. He pressure on the state and he gradually went to the mexican authorities and annotated them. He told the mexicans he was going to get organ initiative but he did not go. Late in life, the explanation he gave her why he did not leave california was it was shopping for beachfront real estate. Affect as one does when one comes to california. Any thought, senators would be a great place to live and he could bring his mom out there. Anyway to look at santa cruz and those close to the capital monitoring as part of the reasons that he had a conflict with mexican authorities which escalated and led to the United States takeover of california printed so that dreamed up real estate transaction is part of the reason that we are all standing or sitting here today in the United States. Instead of mexico. Thank you very much. I really enjoyed this discussion. [applause]. Thank you. Thank you. [applause]. Host and so ends another event. Inc. You so very much. Gambling out. Recently at George Washington university in washington dc, nikki haley recalls her time as ambassador to the United Nation and the trump administration. Here is a portion of the program. There still asking the questions why did nikki say that there were sanctions where are the sanctions and what is happening. So i called multiple people in the administration. Chief of staff, secretary of state, National Security advisor was in at the time i said look we have got a problem. Theres nothing wrong with the president changing his mind, just go out there and tell the truth. Go tell what happened. But everybody is calling the office and saying you need to fix is pretty nice and can pay. That was monday and Tuesday Morning happened and it the level is rising. I said okay, this is the deal. Either yall fix it by 5 00 oclock today or i will fix it by 5 00 oclock today trust me it will go lot better if youll fix it. Nothing happened and then i think it was like, 445 or so and my friend larry kudlow goes out in front of the press and they ask the question about the sanctions and he said, what i think nikki just got momentarily confused. So that was it. Then i happened to look at the television and the five was getting ready to come on fox, and i called my friend dana perino and us and could you call me real quick. She called and she said he was up and i said i need to put out a statement. And she said okay, what is it. I said will you just say, one sentence. With all due respect, i dont get confused. Yay. [applause]. She said, thats it. I said that set printed i will text it to you so you have it in writing. So she goes and does it. Within ten minutes, larry calls me and he said nikki i am so sorry. You know i love you and i have my tail between my legs i am so sorry. I said larry, at what point do you say that i am confused. And he said i know, should not have done it. Trust me, i will make it up to you. I said no, you will make it up to me. And you will do it by going out there and telling them that you are wrong and it wasnt pretty said i can do that nice oh yes you can and you will. And he did and in fairness to him immediately went out and contacted the reporter but what was surprising to me is how it went like, it was a simple moment of me defending myself. Now it went viral across the country and tshirts and on bugs and on everything. I goes to show so many people have been in a moment. And i hope the lesson you take from that is no one is going to protect your integrity but you