ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses John C. Fremont and his bid for the presidency in 1856 as the first Republican candidate for the office, citing commentary from The New York Tribune and leading Republican newspapers as voices of the newly formed party. Young Fremont worked in a law office and then studied at the College of Charleston from 1829 until his expulsion in 1831, shortly before graduation, for “incorrigible negligence.” According to the Tribune, “Free Men, Free Speech, Free Press, Free Territory, and Fremont ” produced “prodigious results,” and Fremont was “the man of the hour.” In 1847, Captain Fremont was appointed to serve as the military governor of the territory of California. The war that ensued after Lincoln’s election brought a new role for Fremont , as the new president appointed the would-be president to a position of General in the Union Army.
