Thank you very much for coming. [applause] thanks, everyone and good day. Delighted you can comthe way ths afternoon. Im delighted to be here in San Francisco and specifically to taktalk to jessie and john fremt who had so much to do with california as we know it and is so much to do with the creation of San Francisco as we know it. I got into San Francisco about 210230 this morning on a delayed for flight from los angeles, a couple hours of sleep and then woke up again because i was to be picked up by a car to do a te radio thing on the radio. The thing is that begins at the very exact time. The thing about going for San Francisco traffic at is you are not going to make your exact time. I was supposed to be 8 a. M. Specific time i would be there and im still on the road of keeping up the freeway and i dont know, 7 miles an hour, 9 miles, whatever it wa was plan looking out the side of the car and San Francisco bay is out there and the Southern Suburbs of and i am missing my deadline which is a horrifying thing for the journalist to do but im thinking to myself this is the world fremons fremont made. After for better and sometimes for worse but its one of the most wonderful cities and i would seize any opportunity to be here. I was delighted to be researching the book because i knew that it would give me the excuse to do research and around San Francisco. Its the story of two people. Its the story of a marriage and their ambitions and adventures in the time when the United States was deeply divided and seemed to be in danger of coming apart. Imperfect union refers to the union ounion of american statese time when some have outlawed slavery and others embraced it and also refers to this marriage of this very unusual couple who strove to accomplish and achieve all that thover the code and noy divisive time. John Charles Fremont was an explorer. Who in the 1840s and 50s and expeditions started in st. Louis missouri which was the westernmost city of any consequence to the United States and went out of the u. S. Army officer, hired skilled civilians to go on and about the oregon trail, went out west again and again and then returned a couple of years later to the territory of a party at 60 gunmen and of d began the process of taking over california from mexico and making it part of the United States. As an explorer he didnt discover that much that was new. He was traveling across the land that had been traversed by the native nations for centuries and by spaniards that had been explored by fur trappers. She didnt find all that much that was actually new, but he codified and made it accessible to. He was coming back east to washington and writin the writig account of his adventures. His job wasnt to explore the wt to promote the west and entice american settlers to move to the best because that was part of the process of taking over the territory and ensuring that it would become a part of the United States. In the process of promoting a big the 1840s and 50s, he also promoted themselves. He would write these accounts of his adventures that were just virtual army reports that he would write them like ride himd describe the landscape and the great basin that he named those that encompass most of nevada and utah and parts of several other states. Hhe would also describe california very beautifully and very evocatively. And he became such an extraordinarily famous and admired individual through his writings and the apparent achievements that in 1850 there was a magazine that named him one of the three most important world historical figures since jesus christ. [laughter] it was kind of an american centric list. First of the three figures was Christopher Columbus discovered america as they would have said then established was a better way to phrase it i guess. Second was George Washington the founder of the country into the desert was john c. Fremont whose greatest achievement and got him on the list was his role, his reputation as the conqueror of california ending older brother with the magazine described to the union, to the United States. He had real talent and courage and fortitude and accomplishments. But as i write here the most important factor may have been the person who made it possible for him to take full advantage of talent and time. The board when women were allowed to make choices for themselves he found a way to chart the course. The daughter of a senator that was deeply involved in the west she provided her previously unknown husband with entree to the highest levels of the government and the media. It is no coincidence that the career began to sort a few months after they eloped when he was 28 and she was 17. I thought as many others did that one of their critics jesse was the better man of the two. The she hoped to write his report into some of his letters serving as the writing partner and occasional ghost writer. She amplified as with a talentr selfpromotion working with news editors to publicize the journeys. An attractive men to the circles and lashed out at enemies. She carry on conversations with senators twice her age, offered her opinion to present even when they did not agree with her and was gradually recognized as a Political Force in her own right. Her timing was as perfect as her husband. She was pushing the boundaries of the womens assigned roles just as women were beginning to demand a better place in national life. In the 1840s and 50s, women were Holding Convention conventk over the Voting Rights and also campaigning against slavery. The party was founded to and captured some of their energy. In 1856, the republicans for the first time a nominated a president ial candidate and was seeking someone heroic and famous and also the short political record to bind the Party Together they nominated john Charles Fremont, the first nominee to run on the ticket. And when john was nominated for president , jesse became part of the campaign in ways no woman had. Her husbands Campaign Literature featured songs of praise. It seemed like they were running for president. The women attend Campaign Rallies even though they couldnt vote. Thousands of republicans flocked for a glimpse and refused to leave until they saw jesse, too. The newspaper said she could have been elected queen. Jessie fremont achieved a celebrity much like her husband would seem out of proportion to the accomplishments. Unless we count her husbands fame among those accomplishments. This to me is a very modern story. Because it is a story about wilderness challenges but also about the same and what you make of the work you do and reputation. Its when the news media were expanding into democracy is flourishing and issues were being debated and they put themselves at the center of it all. The first thing that has to happen is the actual exploration of map making in the west. John fremont had a reputation within utterly fearless adventure poster mounted one difficulty after another office he was also in reality a rather erratic leader he would hire sometimes more in st. Louis and head out into the wilderness. In 1842 and the expedition that he commanded, he went up the oregon trail as far as what is now wyoming and went to the divide which was supposed to be his endpoint and at that point his mission was effectively a gun and he was supposed to go on the other map making along the way. Buthe preaching the Continental Divide for him turned out to be kind of anti, but. It was a little boring. It was the pass when it is hard to figure out when the Continental Divide was and he decided what he ought to do is climb the tallest mountain that he could see. They decided to abandon the mules they had been taken because the ground was getting rough and it seemed like it was right there so they left behind most of the other supplies and even their coats. It was the summer but they are getting some altitude. It didnt take long to understand they misread the ground ahead of them. What looked like a direct ascent can yield more values than they can navigate. Snowcovered ground even in august and one of them nearly slid off of a slope and over a precipice to his death. He saved himself only by dropping flat on the surface today traction. Exhausted, the party stopped for the night just below the tree line around 10,000 feet above sea level. They tried to hunt a mounted good for dinner and failed. They tried to sleep without their blankets on a slab of granite. Lieutenant fremont began to experience severe headaches and vomit. His leadership grew erratic. He was his party lose cohesion as they clambered up hill acrose lacrosse broken ground. They split taking divergent routes through the rocks and snow which meant they could not easily help one another. The mac maker on the expedition, a german immigrant was walking alone at the top of the slope and he lost his footing and began sliding. There was no way to stop. He continued some 200 feet before he crashed into the rocks at the bottom and was lucky to somersault over the first walk in a way that no bones. Afterwards he was found by johnny auguste, a black man who was a member of the expedition who brought the word that within three to five was vomiting again as were others and they sent a message they should try to reach the summit. Jimmys had brought a barometer to measure the altitude of the mountain. Not being an idiot, he refused to go on, went back to camp and assumed this meant the effor the effort to reach the summit was done. In camp they managed to bring up a little bit of food so they had the firstheir first meal in neao days than the the heady nights p and awoke in the morning expecting everyone would descend the mountain but discovered otherwise. John reminded him that they brought along a bottle of brandy. Well, i hope we shall after all empty glass on top of the mountain, which was the lieutenants way of saying he intended to keep climbing. Fremont took extraordinary risks to well beyond what seemed necessary for the mission at hand and gained a certain rewards. Eventually by the way they did reach the top of that mountain, planted an American Flag and john and a brilliant bit of Public Relations in the mountains around and decided without any evidence whatsoever that he just climbed the highest peak in all of north america. [laughter] later exploration revealed it wasnt among the top 100. In the Rocky Mountains but its a long time to realize this. This was 1842. 14 years later when he ran for president there were still images being published a of him surmounting the highest point in the Rocky Mountains. It was part of his campaign, part of why he was nominated for president. In spreading the word of his accomplishments, jesse was crucial. His editor for the first person who would hear the story when he came back and take dictations of the stories he had to tell another person that would receive his letters he would occasionally manage to send by various means, they would take them to newspaper editors and have them published to publicize the achievements. He seemed to know that this was going to be the case and some of them read like press releases. They were in an perfect union. An imperfect union. But they took advantage of the fact there was a National Conversation and it was symbolic and a very good for this moment so dont feel embarrassed by that at all because this is the pure code that the weekly newspapers which have been around in america for a long time were becoming daily newspapers. There have always been a few of them, but there were more and more daily newspapers and the information was accelerated more and more because of the invention of the telegraph. In 1844 from the United States capitol all the way up to baltimore where the convention was being held and he had a telegrapher at the end sending word of each development of the convention back to washington and morris was deciphering his own code that bears his name reading the latest news developments us like he wa up le latest news anchor. There are remarkable accounts of people marveling at this idea of the instant communication. The annihilation of space. Who could imagine the possibilities once people could learn about any evidence anywhere instantly. The correspondent for the New York Herald has originated in the mind of the new species of consciousness never before did they know that passing in the distant city 40, 100, or 5 miles off. In reading that paragraph, we realized we were witnessing the dawn of the era that we are living in today. That we are swamped by today and that they are struggling with today and it is instructive to see how people struggled with it at the very beginning. Because there was this development but seemed as if she were really to hold up the possibility of bringing the world closer together. By improving our understanding of each other and leila did that in many ways, there were also many ways in which it drove the world apart. This became a peer and by the president ial campaign of 1856, the campaign in which john Charles Fremont was nominated by the republicans as an antislavery candidate in the first election where there was a party that was supposed to the spread of human slavery. Always before then add the necessary for any National Party to appeal for the southern votes to have any chance of winning and so they tried to remain silent or to be actively proslavery. This party was different. Northerners have realized that there was a demographic change going on in america. But the northern population had grown more rapidly than the south and that created an opportunity to elect a president with northern votes alone which made it a very dangerous time because the south viewed that as an effort to profoundly threaten the institution around which they structured their economy and society and many said they were able to win that they would leavwouldlead the union leave the union and secede from the union. There was a battle over whether slavery should be allowed to spread in the western states. There was violence in kansas that was supposed to be a New Territory the forces were fighting over. And the dispute over kansas triggered Political Violence in washington itself. Republican senator Charles Sumner of massachusetts delivered a talk in may 1856 in what he called the crime of kansas and in a withering passage he mocked a senator for his incoherent phrases and the expectoration of his speech while opposing the free state. There was no possible deviation from truth which he did not make a. Can you imagine the idea of a politician [laughter] deviating from the truth . He wasnt present for the tirade but he learned of this afterword and considered it an insult to his family. He was a member of the house of representatives and rom roamed o the chamber and found sumner right in at his desk and beat him again and again with a heavy cane until he was unconscious. He kept thrashing him even after it broke to pieces over his head. Now that it reached one of the Principal Media centers, the country learned of every detail. The telegraph and daily newspapers allow people across the vast differences to read about this almost simultaneously and read daily updates as the facts became known. Nothing like this would have been possible the decade earlier. Of course it is northerners and southerners were reading different versions of the same event. It was misquoted in a chicago paper and said some nervous and pushed and beaten until the desk was torn from its fastenings and then he pitched forward on the floor. A correspondent for South Carolina all but rolled his eyes. The telegraph has already spread 100 stories of the transaction, he wrote. Many of them are incorrect. It was very irritating to southern man. People in the South Reading this description celebrated in food prices for the congressman. It spread of southern reaction across the north. For beating a senator of senatof massachusetts and this was a new phenomenon in itself. But also that other americans celebrated the very event that horrified them. It changed th change the politis in 1856. This became the way that americans were driven apart rather than together by the southern speed and force of this information. The. We struggle with that phenomenon now. Its one of the great challenges of our time. The campaign of 1856 is to be profoundly revealing and if the again and again to today because of the environment and the issues. Who gets to be equal. There was a debate over slavery that not only slavery there was a debate over time of immigration. They had arisen in the country. The people at the heart of the movement referred to themselves as native americans by which they meant nativeborn white people, not indians. They were aware the immigrants could sway elections and endorsed various proposals. They would often organize rallies, provocative rallies moving into immigrant neighborhoods in places like new york city knowing they would do it again and again until they got the reaction that they wanted. Some americans were actually pushing against a dangerous and alien religion, catholicism. The pope was described as wanting to use immigrants to take control of the United States and change it from what it had always been come a protestant nation and all of this became a part of the president ial campaign. John Charles Fremont had been born to be the illegitimate son immigrant, a french immigrant named Charles Fremont with a slightly different spelling food fallen in love with a virginia aristocrat. Even though the divorce was never granted he was the son of an immigrant but in the newspapers in the 1856 campaign in hospital newspapers in the 1856 campaign, they changed and from the son of an immigrant to an immigrant who had been born outside of the United States and therefore was ineligible for the presidency. There were birdfeeder birthers. He was a foreigner born somewhere else and adherents to this alien religion. This was part of the campaign against john Charles Fremont and incredibly bitter nasty election was a great deal at stake. A fight to restrict slavery in the United States. A fight over who got to be counted as americans. They threatened to break up the union if it came the wrong way and the threats to destroy the system. And there were no Public Opinion polls so you look through the documents at the times of ansi publications trying to calculate the different pieces of evidence, who would win, who would lose and they didnt truly know all the things were beginning to look desperate for the republican side against the democrat, James Buchanan in late october. Friday night october 31, republicans plan a mass gathering in new york city for mechanics and workmen. A Republican Club rented the performance of the academy of music. Horace greeleys new york tribune called it one of the most enthusiastic advocates ever seen in a large number of ladies graced the meeting by their presence. Women were involved in this president ial campaign because they had been involved in the campaign against slavery and the new party captured some of their energy even though they could not vote. They have seized as we heard a symbol of. They made her as famous as him so they were running for president in a way and they are gracing the meeting by their presence. The group that called itself the Rocky Mountain of the club saying a song for fremont. There should still be a Rocky Mountain creek club. And when the crowd looked up at one of the private boxes in the theater, they spotted their candidate. This is the time when the candidatecandidates defend campy the way. They didnt go out in public. That was considered undignified. They would avoid making speeches. If they had to make a speech they would avoid saying anything meaningful. They were forced to Say Something meaningful, they would write it in a letter to a friend that would be to the newspapers. They stayed out of sight. There is no record of even a single tweet. [laughter] but on this evening in the theater in new york city, people look up and display their candidates who di did the piecen the normal practice have chosen to attend the event with his wife. John Charles Fremont, the illegitimate son of an immigrant, inventor of his own name, young man on the make, survivor of snowstorms and hunger famed bond measure, wounded by his experiences and often lost inside his own head was granted one evening to take the applause. Beside him in the theater box just he had chosen her husband she eloped with him born in hiss absences and his children and exalted him and protected him from which she could not bear. Jesse wanted nothing more than to be her fathers assistant who made an mark on the world even when the wish was denied in fosterfather when she stood up for what she believed was right because her father, the united stateunitedstates senator wouldt their campaign for president. One of the speakers at the academy of music that evening was henry p. Stanton. A reformer and abolitionist married to Elizabeth Cady stanton one of the womens rights activists who attended a convention in seneca falls urging the right to vote and on this night offered his vision of the stakes of the election whether or not the territories would be ruined by what he called the curse of human slavery. But he also said it didnt matter. I would rather be ruled over for the next four years by the liberty loving catholic true to the union then by a slavery loving protestant falls. The crowd applauded. Stanton said we wont touch those that will vibrate down the vista of the future an and what seems to reverberate until good or evil the republic shall cease that weekend it was a sunday, november 2. Jesse wrote a letter to a best friend and remained so certain the democratic postmasters were reading her mail and like a hack in the dnc or something that she ferociously wrote on the inside of the letter, postmaster please send as soon as red to mrs. Lee. A northerner with Southern Connections and the union had been saved and only one election even manipulated in the courts he lobbied to the Supreme Court what is now known as the dred scott petition declaring africanamericans were not citizens and the declaration of independence where its at all men are created equal did not actually mean that. And in the effort to codify slavery for all time but something happened. I told you about that demographic change in america the northern states are more populous than the Southern States and the effort was made to win the presidency that fell narrowly short in 1856. But four years later republicans tried again with a candidate named Abraham Lincoln who had campaigned for fremont in 1856 by the way. The south follow through on a threat to destroy the system and fire the first shot on in the civil war but then shortly after the end of the wa war, lincoln in the last days of his life pushed through a constitutional amendment outlawing slavery. Which was a leap in Human Progress that relatively few political leaders were even willing to contemplate at the time of the story in 1856. A leap in Human Progress that builds on the story that is told in the imperfect union in this imperfect couple struggling imperfectly to pursue their own ambitions often wrong, often biased and harmful to others sometimes helpful to each other but ultimately thrashing as we all hope to do toward the light. Thank you for taking time to listen today i appreciated the book is called imperfect union and im happy to take questions. I want to hear from women. Are there women here . Really . Right back there. No discrimination against you. Please say your name. My name is joy thank you for your talk and your book. It was fascinating. I am curious how do you think californias history then to shape the Union Overall . Sometimes the more progressive state and if there are threads. It was an amazingly diverse state from the very beginning of through the goldrush the majority of the population was native then a few thousand mexicans and a few thousand settlers and other chinese here very early although not in the numbers that would come later but it was at the beginning of reactionary Political Leadership california became a state in 1850 and one of the first things fremont did was propose a bill to regulate the goldrush which was the Silicon Valley of its time people were making ridiculous amounts of money and transforming the wider economy and fremont was a part of this and had come back to california in 1849 after the conquest of california, he happen to acquire land during the war and ran into mexican migrants and he sent them to his land to prospect and they got rich with very little effort on his part so he benefited from the gold rush and from mexicans and then as United States senator proposed a goldmining regulation bill you must buy a permit to prospect for gold and it shall be limited to United States citizens. I am a citizen and in favor but a debate on the senate made it explicit the purpose of this legislation was to shove aside nationalities of people. Fremont himself and wanting to get reelected and picking up the desires of his white constituents said the mexicans attracted north were really bad class of people and we didnt want any more of it. So those people made him ridiculously rich. Nobody wanted chinese i mean the white men who were debate this in the senate but then other Lawmakers Said wait there are some immigrants who are good. The european ones. [laughter] this is not purely a matter of racism but also practicality. Some states that were settled by european immigrants like wisconsin and iowa were brandnew states where immigrants not yet citizens but residents were allowed to vote. In a surprising turn of events they depended on the votes of the immigrants became pro immigrant. [laughter] and they decided to amend the bill so permits are for us citizens and european immigrants of good character. They all agreed nobody wanted mexicans. A lot of things were driving this a relatively limited number of white men taking over this area from another country they wanted to control it they didnt want more than a handful of indians to vote or no africanamericans california was profoundly influential with the free and slave slates were part of the reason it did that because there were White Californians who did not want to compete against some guy with african slaves after banning slavery the Constitutional Convention came very close to banning black people at all from coming to california. It was a profoundly racist time but yet it was a profoundly diverse place at that time which is a vital thing to understand about our history we have a debate now whos included in history who participates in who stories we are telling and its a wonderful moment where we hear more stories told from the perspective of slaves and other africanamericans and immigrant immigrants. What i want to do in a narrative like this is you hear from the white to guy but also his wife or an africanamerican like Frederick Douglass is very influential to encounter those indians when you have the opportunity to see those different perspectives and understand how different kinds of people. The push and pull in this democracy made this nation toda today. In a simple answer, california was hugely significant. Another question . How do you think things would have developed if fremont became president . One possibility had he won the civil war would have come that. The southern leader said this will destroy the union we will succeed if republicans win and we know they werent to bluffing because four years later one lincoln one they seceded it could have happened then and i want to note when the civil war did come fremont was a general on the union side and it turned out a much more radical leader than people thought and many of his former supporters concluded that while they favored his election passionately in 1856 they think god he did not actually win. [laughter] they thought the results could be more terrible for this guy who was not a political thinker in the way lincoln had been. I am wondering while all of these significant things are going on was jesse working with the groups of women to earn their vote . No. Its interesting she was picked up as a symbol. Jesse, i dont know she would have embrace the word feminist i think of her like a do dolly parton i know if you have heard the amazing series of podcast the last few months but there is a lot of discussion that has interviews with her because she not only saying and she became her own boss and chartered her own course and incredibly talented songwriter and businessperson as well as a singer and performer but feminist is not a label she wanted to embrace she did that and her own life but did not want to be ideologically there. I think of Jesse Fremont the same way. She grew up with the boys nam name, got her self educated like a boy come ultimately forced back into gender roles and did not reject it she was a wife and mother and dealt with the grief of losing children in infancy which was common then and did all of those things while her husband was across the world but yet she also wanted to be politically engaged and active and have something to say to the president of the United States and was one of the managers of her husbands president ial campaign in every way in that respect to feminist. But some years after the election of 1856 Elizabeth Cady stanton said you are very rich would you mind making a contribution to the Womens Suffrage Movement . Are original response was im not sure i want to do that women in their present condition management better. [laughter] later she changed her mind. But that is another of many things that is profoundly modern about the story if you think about the complicated relationship that a great number of people have with the word feminist you see jesse rustling with those same issues well more than a century ago. Good afternoon. Welcome to our little town for full disclosure im a retired professor of studies. So my intrigue is with the public expressions of peoples persona to help us understand them in a public way and if we could close the gap a little bit in your profile that in your presentation she is assertive and active person with Many Political and social interest from feminism to suffrage but what remains of representation of her rarely published are these appreciation for wild animals and enjoyment of the grizzly bear and enjoyment of the great outdoors. And there does seem to be a space of what remains her presentation of self. So how could that be narrowed just a little bit . You need to go through her writings and find information to understand what she really says. The epigraph of this book which i will flip two to make sure i get it exactly correct is a vote for Jesse Benton Fremont that it would hardly do to tell the whole truth about everything. [laughter] one of the ways. [laughter] one of the ways she shaped her husbands image why suppressing embarrassing and promotion information but promoting things that were positive and she wrote the same way there is a wonderful memoir of hers which describes that ends here in San Francisco and i command that as it was then she finally gets there and describes it as a collection of shacks rapidly growing up the hills it is a nightmare city. People finally got there on the ship they go down and they finally see San Francisco it so horrifying they dont want to get off the ship. [laughter] but the beginning of the book is filled with references to her depression, her despair, the nightmares she was havin having, steeply provocative material but if you just pick up the book and didnt know much about her you would not know what she was saying because she left something out 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 west. She doesnt mention the death. Once you understand that, you understand what she says with all the references and descriptions and you understand her frame of mind she would develop vital bits of information out of privacy and a victorian sense of propriety that you needed to be tough because a lot of women lost children in infancy in childbirth or dialed thems on tied themselves she left out that vital fact. But there is enough of those writings to find a wider context to understand what is going on. Also at the very end of her life she wrote a fascinating unpublished memoir which is full of anecdotes about her life, not entirely reliable some of it is definitely untrue but even if she got the facts along the way she got the wrong is revealing you just have to read closely and go for context which is true for a lot of things including peoples tweets. [laughter] you alluded at the beginning of your talk to jesses conversation with president s and the famous confrontation at the white house with her and Abraham Lincoln could you talk about the couples relationship with lincoln . Absolutely my book focuses on the forties and fifties but there is an epilogue that is some of the most fascinating parts of their lives is the civil war. John Charles Fremont appointed a Union General by president lincoln and phasing insurrection he took the extreme measure to free the slaves of people who were disloyal. President lincoln was not yet ready to be free of slaves they wanted to keep the men. He did not want to directly order fremont to change his policy because that would be embarrassing but he made it clear he wanted fremont himself to withdraw the order. Fremont who was also stubborn refused lincolns order and this went on for weeks and weeks 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 a train and goes back to washington in checks into a hotel and sends a note over to the white house that she would like to see the president that any time is convenient and the letter comes back from lincoln and the single word is no. So she starts to talk to lincoln who has very little to say she explains why freeing of the slaves is good and will help them keep control of missouri and finally lincoln says you are quite the female politician. This is according to a letter written not too much afterwards by jesse. She felt lincoln wasnt listening. Lincoln felt he understood the strategic situation what was necessary at the time and he did not need to lose the state of kentucky which was one of the slave states still in the union. He did not need to lose slave states in a way that might cause him then you dont free any slaves. He had a different point of vie view. Ultimately he fired general fremont. He was still very famous it was a big deal on the Republican Party so he gave me a second assignment as a general in another part of the country where he quickly lost a battle and turned out to be a brilliant explorer but not a very good general. And he was sidelined again. In 1864, lincolns reelection fremont allowed himself to be put forward as a candidate against Abraham Lincoln a more radical version. Ultimately he backed off but not until september of 1864 there was a danger had he stayed in the race he may have split the republican vote causing lincoln to lose reelection. I think this is part of the reason the fremonts are not as well known today as they might be nobody has ever gone up against lincoln and fared well in history think of Jefferson Davis not really well. [laughter] Lincoln Douglas you kind of remember douglas but not nearly as much as lincoln and the fremonts were also diminished by that experience but it is a fascinating story and it is really amazing if you choose to buy the book there is an account of a speech that lincoln gave on behalf of john Charles Fremont that is deeply moving. Which includes the line by lincoln come to the rescue of the great principle of quality. One of the things i felt was fascinating about your talk is the parallel between fremont is there any more you want to share with us . Demographic changes a big one. We are at a time of great demographic change which makes people nervous because they see a change of power and the groups are growing more rapidly in this country. Younger people and people of color, immigrants, we can name a bunch of different people and that has allowed some democrats to think confidently they can win elections without compromising with conservatives and has caused republicans to feel they are unfairly shut out of power. Republicans havent always spoken explicitly about this for President Trump is known for speaking explicitly and in the 2016 campaign he told reporters this is your last chance to save the country. The last chance for your side to win. He was suggesting that as the country continue to change if there side did not do something they would be out of power. I think that fear is still there for his supporters. We now have democrats who are conservatives about being forever shut out of power by a president giving Lifetime Appointments and is constantly talked about ill the goals voting in the way it seems to encourage efforts to limit certain peoples voting participation and said he has the right to do whatever he wants as president and democrats look at all that as someone who was poised to wipe out the system. And that is part of the reason why this is such a tense time. People are not nearly fearful of losing an election but losing forever. Which means to keep our perspective. Are there women who want any more questions . Thank you for your presentation. Can you give a timeline of the arrival that has controversial points to it from north to south from the Mexican American war and then they settled over by yosemite but at one point he was courtmartialed for his role in his activities and how he navigated that and viewed by californians. He first arrived in 1844 and arrived by mice on by mistake one of the expedition needed supplies so they went to the sierra nevadas and the guy who could supply them with food and horses and then returned with the 60 gunmen and began the process to take over the future state. He was a part of what evolved into the california part of the mexican more but was involved in a conflict between an army general who both said they were in charge and fremont chose the wrong guy to support. He was granted clemency because he was a National Hero returned to california in 1849 in time for the gold rush. That is the moment he encountered the group of mexicans and had his land prospected for gold and made himself very rich and to continuously go back and forth they spend 1849 in california and then by the end of the year california has approved the state constitution and on new years day, 1850 they get on the ship to go back toward the east. By the end of 1850 he is in back in california again. He is bicoastal and is not a sixhour flight. [laughter] and he continues going back and forth after the defeat of the election of 1856. Jesse decided to remain in new york and john who had difficulty staying in one place returned to california. So he went back and forth again. Later in life he blew their money and railroad investments. They were really broke. One of the ways they supported themselves that jesse wrote memoirs of their experiences which is part of the reason we have the lovely writing of hers that we have. In 1887 with Childrens Health failing, jesse decided his health would be better in the climate of los angeles. They went across the country, lived in los angeles for a little while but john could not remain in one place. The man so that left his wife so often to travel west now he left his wife and traveled east pursuing a business in new york and looking for pension and jesse remained in los angeles. And was penniless and was understood to have contributed something significant to california in the country. And women in los angeles raised money to buy her a house where she lived until her death in 19 oh two. [laughter] the episode is murky, even today. They had just been elected, wanted t california, wanted to y california, was in the process of provoking the war against mexico that it hadnt started yet nevertheless he was going in that direction and according to the documentary evidence they knew fremont was going there. Its unclear if he had told him take over if you get a chance. It seems a little more likely that they were a little more vague. He thought he was going to get california one way or another and wanted to make sure some power didnt capture it first so he was going to be out there to be available and could be useful if he possibly could. And fremont when he got to california didnt act like anybody with any great strategic purpose. He thrashed around the state. He should have left california to go to oregon which is what he told them he was going to do. He gave explanations for why. Later in life the explanation he gave was that he was shopping for the beachfront real estate. [laughter] as one does when one comes to california. And he thought that it would be a great place to live and he could bring his mom out and he went to look at santa cruz and it was close to the capital and was part of the reason he had a conflict with mexican authorities which escalated and led to the takeover of california so that real estate transaction is part of the reason that we are all standing or sitting here in the united dates. Instead of mexico. Thank you very much. Ive really enjoyed this discussion. Thank you. Moscow so ends another event in the history of the commonwealth club. Thank you very much