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Explorer John C. Fremont became one of America's biggest heroes because of his journeys west along the Oregon Trail in 1842 and 1843. He got the job largely because his wife's father was the powerful Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton. Benton believed America had an innate right to all the lands of the west, an idea that came to be called "Manifest Destiny." And so Fremont was under strict orders to make the west seem attractive--worth settling. That he did. Fremont's reports on his journeys were decidedly upbeat. They made the trip west seem easy--enjoyable. The reports were widely read in the east, stirring up excitement and encouraging pioneers to head west.
However, even though the reports bear his name, Fremont didn't write them. He gave up and left the work to his wife--the intelligent and articulate Jesse Benton Fremont. It was she--as much as anyone--who lit the spark of America's big move west.
RELATED LINKS
Jesse Benton Fremont: Far West Sketches
The full text of Mrs. Fremont's reminiscence about her earlier stay in California.
The Life of Col. John Charles Fremont, and His Narrative of Explorations and Adventures, in Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon and California
Full text of John Fremont's masterwork (actually written by his wife Jesse).
Lewis and Clark
PBS' site on the early explorers
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