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Major
General Frémont's Emancipation
Proclamation
In a proclamation issued by General John C.
Frémont, dated Hqs. of the Western Dept., in
command of the Dept. of Missouri at St. Louis,
August 31, 1861: Fremont, instituted martial law in
Missouri, and declared that slaves of all
Missourians taking up arms against the United
States would be freed.
The hour has come, and the man.
Harriet Beecher
Stowe
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Medallion by René de
Quélin in 1913.
De Quélin worked for a while as an assistant
to Saint-Gaudens, and later designed for
Tiffanys.
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The proclamation in part:
"The property, real and personal, of all persons
in the state of Missouri who shall take up arms against
the United States, or who shall be directly proven to
have taken an active part with their enemies in the
field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use,
and their slaves, if any they have, are
hearby declared freemen."
See in full.
 This
sent a shock wave throughout the country and in England.
Northerners took to the streets cheering. However, Lincoln,
to avoid the loss of border states, ordered Frémont
to rescind the order.
A clipping from the Boston Daily Evening Transcript,
dated August 31, 1861.
One of the deeds of Manumission given by General
Frémont which the government forbade him any longer
to issue.
DEED OF
MANUMISSION
Whereas T. L. S. of the city and county of St.
Louis, Mo., has been taking active part with the enemies
of the United States in the present insurrectionary
movement against the Government of the United States,
Now, therefore, I, John Charles Frémont,
Major-General, commanding the Western Department of the
army of the United States, by authority of law, and the
power vested in me, as such Commanding General, declare
Frank Lewis, heretofore 'held to service' or labor, by
said T. L. S. to be Free and
forever discharged from the bonds of servitude; giving
him full right and authority to have, use and control his
own labor or service as to him may seem proper, without
any accountability whatever to said T. L. S., or any one
to claim by, through or under him. And this
Deed of Manumission, shall be
respected and treated, by all persons and in all courts
of justice, as the full and complete evidence of the
freedom of said Frank Lewis.
In testimony whereof this act is done at St. Louis, Mo.,
this 1st day of September, 1861, as is evidenced by
departmental Seal hereto affixed by my order.
(signed) John C. Frémont
Frémont's letter of response to Lincoln's request
that he modify his order.
If your better judgment decides that I was
wrong in the article respecting the liberation of slaves,
I have to ask that you will openly direct me to make the
correction. The implied censure will be received as a
soldier always should receive the reprimand of his chief.
If I were to retract on my own accord it would imply that
I myself thought it wrong, and that I had acted without
the reflection which the gravity of the point demanded.
But I did not. I acted with full deliberation, and the
certain conviction that it was a measure right and
necessary, and I still think so.
The President accordingly issued an order modifying that
of General Frémont. On October 24th, Lincoln removed
him from command of the Army of the West.
Thy error, Frémont, was to
act
The brave man's part, without the statesman's
tact,
And taking council but of common sense,
To strike at cause as well as consequence.
John Greenleaf
Whittier
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Which is why Lincoln is on the $5 instead of
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PATHFINDER: John C. Frémont and
the Course of American Empire
by Tom Chaffin
Hill & Wang--Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, New York, 2002
Order online at Barnes
& Noble or
amazon.com
There in no connection
between this website and the publisher or any
bookseller
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Indeed, his emancipation proclamation of
1861, liberating slaves owned by rebel sympathizers
in Missouri--which led President Lincoln to fire
him as major general--also arguably paved the way
for Lincoln's own broader Emancipation Proclamation
two years later
Frémont's performance as major general in
the Department of the West has been similarly
underrated. In 1861 in Missouri, he inherited a
dire military situation: outside St. Louis,
guerilla warfare flared throughout the state; and
just outside Missouri, Confederates were massing
for an invasion. Though lacking adequate troops and
matériel, Frémont managed to hold St.
Louis and Missouri for the Union. Before his
dismissal by Lincoln, he also devised the Saratoga,
began the construction of the armada, and installed
the general--Ulysses S. Grant--that made possible
the later run of victories which won the Union
control of the Mississippi, thus fatally dividing
the Confederacy into two weakened eastern and
western sections.
Tom Chaffin, Pathfinder:
John C. Frémont and the Course of
American Empire
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