Two campaign advertising envelopes promoting the candidacy of the first Republican to run for President; one cover showing John Fremont and the second showing his wife, Jessie
Hartford, Connecticut and East Randolph, Massachusetts: 1856. Envelope or Cover. Two campaign advertising envelopes promoting the candidacy of the first Republican to run for President; one cover showing John Fremont and the second showing his wife, Jessie. Hartford, Connecticut and East Randolph, Massachusetts: 1856.
John Fremont cover – Franked with a 3c dull red Washington stamp with outer frame lines (Scott #11). Margins at top and sides; in a little at the bottom. Tied by a circular Hartford, Connecticut postmark dated Oct 13 on yellow cover. Addressed to Uxbridge, Massachusetts. Cover features a three-quarter portrait and has a Putnam Brothers imprint (Weiss JF-23). Docketing on the left margin. Backflap torn upon opening. Very attractive.
Jesse Fremont cover – Franked with a 3c dull red Washington stamp with outer frame lines (Scott #11). Margins all around; wide on the left. Manuscript cancel with faint blue circular East Randolph, Massachusetts postmark dated October 18. Addressed to Newark, New Jersey. Cover features a three-quarter portrait titled “Our Jessie” (Weiss JF-8). Sound and very attractive.
. Very good. Item #009442John “The Pathfinder” Fremont was an American explorer, politician, and Army officer who, in 1856, became the first candidate of the Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, he led five expeditions into the American West. During the Mexican–American War, Commodore Robert F. Stockton appointed him to be California’s military governor. He was subsequently found guilty of mutiny in a farcical court-martial initiated by General Stephen Kearny, who was embarrassingly humiliated as a liar during the proceedings. Although Fremont was found guilty by a board of Kearny associates, his sentence was immediately commuted by President Polk. Disgusted by the process, Fremont resigned from the army, settled in Monterey, and began to purchase cheap land in the Sierra foothills. When gold was found on his Mariposa ranch, Frémont became a wealthy man.
Fremont’s explorations had brought him in contact with the powerful Democratic Senator from Missouri, Thomas Hart Benton. After he married Benton’s daughter, Jessie, the senator became his patron. Fremont, a Free Soil Democrat, was elected as one of California’s first senators in 1850, and as the 1856 election approached he was asked by both the Democrats and newly organizing Republicans to run for President. Finding his “free soil” position more in tune, with the Republicans, he cast his lot with them, becoming their first-ever presidential candidate.
The Democrats ran a brutal campaign against Fremont that included illegally naturalizing thousands of alien immigrants in Pennsylvania, ridiculing his illegitimate birth, alleging that he was a Roman Catholic, attacking his military record, and claiming that if elected, he would assuredly initiate a civil war. Fremont lost the election, coming in second to James Buchanan in a three-way contest.
Jessie Benton Fremont was even more politically-minded than her husband. An outspoken opponent of slavery, she was not afraid to enter the political fray and actively campaigned for her husband. One of the Republican’s campaign slogans was “Fremont and Jessie too,” and party members referred to her as “the first lady of the land” and "Our Jessie" during the campaign and for the rest of her life. When the Fremonts returned to California after the election, Jessie became a leader in the state’s anti-secession movement.
A nice pair of scarce and important presidential campaign advertising covers.
Price: $900.00