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Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains . . . , and to Oregon and North California . . . , by John C. Frémont et al., 1845

To expand its knowledge of the West, the U.S. Senate commissioned a report on John C. Frémont’s expeditions. The publication aided Congress and became a handbook for western settlers. Its popularity was partly due to the literary contributions of Frémont’s wife, Jessie Benton Frémont, daughter of Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri.

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains . . . , and to Oregon and North California . . . , by John C. Frémont et al., 1845 Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains . . . , and to Oregon and North California . . . , by John C. Frémont et al., 1845
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John C. Frémont

As an explorer, Army officer, and politician, John C. Frémont was a key figure in the nation’s westward growth. His expeditions charted previously little known territory for Congress and settlers migrating west. His father-in-law, the expansionist-minded Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, was instrumental in obtaining congressional funding for the expeditions and report that furnished Congress with facts for legislation on western territories. Frémont served as California’s first U.S. senator from 1850 to 1851. He ran unsuccessfully as the antislavery Republican Party’s first presidential candidate in 1856.