Since I have been in California I have frequently met with statements that the Germans in the East were moving in favor of the nomination of Fremont for the Presidency but presuming that these generally grew out of the mischief-making reports of the Herald, they have not given me much concern. Lately they seem to have taken a more definite form and I have heard you spoken of as one of the leaders of the movement, and I think it a duty of friendship to write you on the subject.

[220]

John Charles Fremont

You know what my business relation to Fremont is and you know that I have been a zealous political friend of his. He did me a kindness before I had any personal acquaintance with him and since then my little intercourse with him has been of an agreeable character and calculated to impress me altogether favorably with regard to him. Indeed, I can appreciate the fascinating power he is reputed to have over many who are intimate with him.

Here at Mariposa I stand in his shoes and am paying his debts. I live in a community which he founded. Several of my lieutenants are men of his appointment, who came here as his followers and who have stood by him in his difficulties here, with great faithfulness, at the peril of their lives. They have been intimately associated with him and I think must know him well. Some of them show evidences of strong personal attachment to him; seldom speak of him; never speak of him without pain. But of his character there is only one opinion; that is, that he is a selfish, treacherous, unmitigated scoundrel. He is credited with but one manly virtue, courage or audacity; with but one talent, persuasiveness. Since I have been in California I have not found a man to speak well of him. With the few exceptions, such as I have referred to above, who speak more in sorrow than in anger, he is universally despised, detested, [221] execrated. So, at least, I am informed by all parties, and such is my experience. His reputation at the East is regarded with amazement. Although a majority of the voting population of California is intensely loyal, I am told and I believe that it would be much easier to carry the State for Vallandingham or Fernando Wood than for Fremont. Chase is not very popular here, partly because his friends in the East are supposed to be also the friends of Fremont, but the State will doubtlessly go enthusiastically for Chase if he should be nominated though Lincoln is the personal choice of nine men out of ten.

Of the knowledge which I have myself obtained of Fremont from my position as Manager of what was formerly his estate, I do not speak at all. I will simply say that certain reports that have been circulated publicly to his advantage and which I had credited, I now know to have been false. I have said nothing which is not publicly said every day here. I think it right simply to call your attention to the unquestionable fact of this local reputation of Fremont, as a matter of private friendship. If you should have occasion to make use of the facts in a manner which, knowing my relation to Fremont, you could not do, receiving them from me, I do not think it would be difficult for you to obtain them from other sources. I can at this moment think of but one man in New York in whose integrity I have perfect confidence who can speak from personal knowledge of Fremont’s California reputation, having no reason to be personally prejudiced against him; this is George Gibbs, a member of the Loyal League Club, a brother of Professor Gibbs of Harvard University (late of the Free Academy) and an ardently loyal man. If you should have occasion to do so, you can call upon him with this letter to introduce yourself and the subject. I think it probable that he would have no objection to be made responsible publicly for substantially the same statement. If not, he would be able to find you some respectable person who would. I do not wish to be on account of my private obligations, unless for a clear and unavoidable public duty.

Mrs. Olmsted and the children have arrived and are settled here safely and comfortably. Mrs. Olmsted will write to Mrs. Kapp soon. The girl Margaret has proved invaluable. It is the greatest possible good fortune to have such an excellent girl in California. She desires that you will be good enough to say to her friends that she is well and she sends her respects to Mrs. Kapp, to whom also Mrs. Olmsted and myself beg to be kindly remembered.

I have been greatly disappointed in the Estate, but do not think that I was more deceived about it than those who employed me. We are living more pleasantly than you might suppose we could in such a wilderness and amidst such a population as surrounds us. The climate seems to be very healthful: and as my health has become very poor and the Doctor informs me must always remain so, I consider myself rather fortunate [222]than otherwise in having been placed here, master in a great measure of my own time and able to accommodate my business habits to the necessities of my infirmities, although in a business point of view I shall not be as able to do as well as I had reason to expect when I left New York. The mines had been almost completely run out before I arrived here and it will yet be several months before I shall be able to fully reopen and test them. There is a fair chance that they may then prove rich and the Estate profitable but there is also great danger that this will not be the case and that a large amount of capital will be required for explorations which may never give any adequate reward. I think the stock of the Company is held at about its just value in the New York market, the indications of the mines varying a good deal from month to month. If I had a very large capital I should not be unwilling to venture a part of it here, but it is not the stock for men of small investments and who should sail close to the wind. This is true of all mining stocks with which I have any acquaintance.

I enclose some observations which may be useful to you. They were written in answer to the request of a friend for advice about perfectly safe moderate investments in California.