By Alice Smith
Investigative historian and author Sally Denton addressed the Los Altos Morning Forum March 4, describing her literary approach to historical accounts as “pretending to be the first reporter on the scene.”
Denton honed her skills as an investigative reporter in the office of Pulitzer Prize-winning muckraker Jack Anderson. In her newest book, “Passion and Principle: John and Jessie Fremont, the Couple Whose Power, Politics, and Love Shaped Nineteenth-Century America” (Bloomsbury, 2007), Denton writes about the hidden history of the American West.
While researching another book, Denton came across an old letter from a boarding school criticizing the behavior of 14-year-old Jessie Benton. When asked to do her homework, Jessie retorted that she would take the matter under consideration. From that fragment of the letter, Denton was intrigued, and she determined to research further the life of Jessie Benton Fremont. The result is a portrait of her marriage to John C. Fremont – explorer, military officer and the first Republican Party candidate for U.S. president – set against a backdrop of 19th-century love, betrayal, politics and principles.
Jessie Benton was a privileged and accomplished young woman. The daughter of a Missouri senator, Thomas Hart Benton, she was well educated and spoke four languages. Her father whisked the headstrong, spirited girl off to boarding school.
In 1838 Benton, obsessed with India and trade, met Fremont. Fremont was poor, left fatherless at 5, half French, gifted with a photographic memory and educated by a local philanthropist. After their scandalous elopement, Benton and Fremont headed West to explore the frontier. Their adventures included meeting legendary explorer Kit Carson on a Missouri steamboat.
Fremont left Benton to explore. Benton, while home pregnant, wrote a national bestseller on her husband’s explorations of the West and continued to chronicle his expeditions, including his mapping of the Oregon Trail.
At the tender age of 21, Benton became President James Polk’s official Spanish translator. In 1856 Fremont launched a run for U.S. president, becoming the nascent Republican Party’s antislavery candidate. Refusing to state publicly, on principle, that he was not a Catholic – he was an Episcopalian and wildly popular – Fremont lost the election to James Buchanan due to anti-Catholic sentiment. He ran again in 1860, but withdrew from the race, enabling Abraham Lincoln to secure the Republican nomination.
During their adventure-filled life together, Fremont conducted several expeditions, became California’s first senator, was a Civil War general and served as governor of the Arizona Territory.
The Fremonts made a fortune during the Gold Rush, but the money was poorly invested and ultimately squandered. Fremont died a pauper in New York in 1890.
Morning Forum is a members-only lecture series held at Los Altos United Methodist Church. To join the waiting list for membership, write to: Morning Forum, PO Box 274, Los Altos 94023-0274.
