Address of welcome to General John C. Fremont, governor of Arizona territory, upon the occasion of his reception by his associates of the Association Pioneers of the Territorial Days of California, at their headquarters, Sturtevant House, New York, on ... August 1st, 1878

GENERAL JOHN P, FREMONT,

GOVERNOR OF ARIZONA TERRITORY,

UPON THL CEPTION BY HIS ASSOCIATES OF

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AT THEIR HEADQUARTERS,

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NEW YORK,

, August

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,§Eiuor Uic£-|)ttsi:beixt of tbe

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THE &S39@BAT Si

OF THE

HEADQUARTERS IN NEW YORK.

OFFICER OF THE SOCIETY,

— :o: — l^ocrott Ubnwj

Gen'l JOHN A. SUTTER,

Liliz. Pa.

Gen'l H. G. GIBSON, U. 8. A.

Fort Wadsworth, iV. Y.

JOHN SICKELS,

New York City.

GEORGE HOWES,

New York City.

JOHN J. HAGER,

Rhinebeck, N. Y.

Hon. DEMAS STRONG,

Brooklyn, N. Y.

SAM'L C. UPHAM, »

Philadelphia, Pa.

GILMOR MEREDITH,

Baltimore, Md.

Qen'l EDW. F. BEALE,

Washington, D. C.

Hon. ROBERT H. McKUNE,

Scranton, Pa.

WM. M. WALTON,

Newark,.N. J.

Gen. THOS. W. SWEENY, U. S. A. Hon. C. LYDECKER. EDW. B. ANTHONY.
Gen. THOS. D. JOHNS. GEO. F. SNIFFEN. E. W. CROWELL.

Col. EDW. F. BURTON. JAMES A. SPERRY. WM. C. ANNAN.

FRANCIS D. CLARK.

Hon. JEREMIAH SHERWOOD.

ADDRESS OF WELCOME :

Delivered by General H. G. Gibson, U. S. A., to General John
C. Fremont, Governor of Arizona Territory, upon the occasion
of his Reception by "The Associated Pioneers of the Territorial
Days of California," at the Sturtevant House, New York, on
Thursday evening, August ist, 1878. Bancroft Library

FELLOW CALIFORNIANS : —

IN the absence of our grand old Patriarch and beloved/ellow
Pioneer and President, the duty devolves upon me of welcoming
"our distinguished guest. I regret that he is not here to-night
to express, though only in his tremulous and embarrassed
utterances, the same cordial greeting which he gave to his
worthy compeer and compadre on the banks of the Sacramento
thirty-four years ago. Though his speech might have been
only silver, the welcome of his heart would have been golden.

We have met this evening to do honor to an eminent
citizen of the Republic and a renowned pioneer, who, as
the great Pathfinder of Empire, first disclosed to the nation
a knowledge of the rich and attractive country bordering the
Pacific, and whose name will, through all coming time, be
identified with the exploration of a continent, and with the
American occupation and development of the Golden Land.
Traversing with his little band the trackless wastes, forbidding

mountains, and dense forests, lying between the mighty Father
of Waters and that magnificent region whose

" snow-sierras liido

Huge crystalled rocks of virgin gold,

Adown abrading torrents rolled,

In lucid streams, by summer shoaled,

A golden tide ; "

the youthful explorer in his first enterprise determined the
physical geography of a vast, unknown territory, and contributed
to science the wealth of his felicitous and valuable discoveries.
Wending his way a second time to the then foreign provinces of
the Californias, he inspired and aided the raising of the standard
of revolt against the rule of the Mexican — on the oak-orchard
plain of Sonoma, and thus made the initiatory step which led
to the acquisition — consummated by the war with Mexico, of
that beautiful and opulent domain, and which FREMONT and
destiny had determined should be ours thenceforth and forever.
Discovering, also, in his first expedition, a practicable route by
the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada, from the valley of the
Sacramento to the grand forest-crowned region " along the lone
Columbia," his foot-prints became the unerring guide to all
who followed after. For as to the fidelity and accuracy of his
descriptions and observations, as he spied out the land, your
chairman can testify from personal experience; that the
itinerary ©f each day's journey, as we pursued the rough tenor
of our way through the vast wilderness of lava bed, forest,
plain, mountain and canon — through '; a land of fracture,
violence, and fire " — was pictured on the mental vision before
as clearly defined as the actual vision beheld it thereafter. A
portion of the country traversed by FREMONT had been im
perfectly explored by the previous expeditions of Lewis, Clark,
and Long, as well as by Bonneville, whose crude narrative,
enriched and embellished by the graceful pen of Washington
Irving, charmed our childhood, and yet delights our mature
years. These gave, however, but a faint idea of its magnifi
cent character, and it remained for FREMONT to impart to us a
full knowledge of its grand and peculiar features, its wonderful
beauties and resources.

For his great and distinguished service to the State, the
Government at Washington awarded him promotion in the
army, and the new-born Golden State of California a seat in
the Senate of the United States. In later years, bearing the

-t

standard of a great political party, he with knightly courage,
courtesy, and modesty, led it nigh unto victory, and opened
the path to its subsequent success; and, at a critical period of
its fortunes, contributed to its overwhelming triumph and
continuance of power, by his graceful and opportune retire
ment from the field as the nominee — a second time — for the
Presidency of a great convention of his fellow-citizens.

In his military career as an officer of engineers, he displayed
rare ability and remarkable fertility of resources and expedients ;
and as a field officer of the line, added to his fame by the joint
conquest with the gallant Stockton, of the territory of the
Californias ; and how far the crimes and blunders at Washington
affected his usefulness, success and renown, as a leader and
commander of our armies in the late civil war, as of other true
and loyal soldiers who bore the heat and burden of the day, and
stood among their fellows high in reputation for wisdom and
honor, impartial history must determine. It suffices us,
however, to know that his services came fully up to the official
standard of " gallant, faithful and meritorius." But as an
explorer, his name must ever be classed with those noble
and illustrious names on that brilliant scroll which embraces
Marco Polo and de Soto, Mungo Park and Livingstone ; with
those who " in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of
robbers, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the wilderness.; in
weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and
thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness," have exposed
or sacrificed their lives in the cause of science and humanity ;
and whose marvellous sagacity, indomitable courage, patience
and fortitude, have reflected glory on our race.

But the full measure of reward for his brilliant, and eminent
services whose

" records half-effaced,
Which with the hand of youth he traced
On history's page,"

has never been conceded nor bestowed. It is an inherent, and
perhaps, ineradicable vice of all republics that their great
benefactors and heroes are seldom duly honored or rewarded
while living — soon neglected or forgotten when dead ; and our
own Republic can claim no immunity from the vice. That it may
cease to be its reproach and shame should be the fervent prayer
of every true patriot; and that when we have done with honoring

with " storied urn and animated bust " the genius and heroism
of antiquity and of other lands, we may find time and means to
demonstrate to the world that there are those of our own land
who have "won a mural crown of towering glory." May the
time yet come when as the golden orb of day sinks to his rest in
the bosom of the mighty ocean beyond the portals of the Golden
Gate, his parting rays shall shed their golden light on its
pinnacles, whereon shall stand the sculptured forms of FREMONT
and SUTTER, with the inscription on the one, " The path he trod
was the Path to Empire;" and on the other, "The golden
heart that enriched the Golden Land ! "

General FREMONT, you are about to depart for the vicinity
of the scenes of your former labors and signal deeds, and we
come as fellow Pioneers and Californians, to offer to you our
earnest congratulations and cordial good wishes. May health
and happiness attend you, and in your new field of employment,
may you ever enjoy the approving smiles and favor of a grateful,
appreciative people. As your youth was adorned with fame,
may your age be crowned with glory and honor. For myself,
in the remembrance of a pleasant journey together in years gone
by, through the beautiful valley of the San Joaquin, " on fields
with dasies pied," and "gorgeous .flowerets in the sunlight
shining," through arid waste and cooling mountain grove — in
the remembrance of a kindness done, but as soon forgotten by
you, I tender to you the kindliest greeting and most earnest
prayer that heart can feel, or voice or hand express.

ADMISSION DAY, 1877.

Extract from the Address of Welcome, delivered by Gen I H. G.
Gibson, U. S. A., at Long Branch, N. /., September 8, 1877.

Twenty-seven years ago " the morrow morn," after a long
and bitter political contest in the Halls of Congress, the State
which the Pioneers of California had founded and organized
became " a bright particular star " — wedded to the Union.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo terminating the war with
Mexico had extended our dominion on the remote Pacific
over a vast region to the south of

" the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregon and hears no sound
Save its own lashings"—

to us and the world at large a terra incognita. Beyond a
narrow fringe of settlements — missions and presidios — on its
line of coast from Cape Mendocino to Cape San Lucas but
little was known of the geography, character and resources of
the territory of the Californias. To the commerce of the
world it was but a land of hides and tallow. The expeditions
of the renowned Pioneer and Path-finder, JOHN C. FREMONT,
opened to our people and to the world a knowledge of its
beauty, fertility and wealth. Though the mighty river rising
in the great Cordillerian chain, and cleaving in its course to
the ocean, the majestic Sierras that shut out California from
the rest of the continent, and which the explorer's glowing
fancy fondly pictured as freighted in the future with the
argosies of a rich commerce — was never found ; yet from the
summit of the Sierras the proud Pioneer gazed upon a region
which, although in its native primeval wilderness, gave a
glorious promise of future opulence and greatness. Distance
had not lent enchantment to the view, for on nearer approach
it was found to be a land of wondrous fertility and surpassing
loveliness.

• •»-

t

I

MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY.

TERRITORIAL.

1833.

JACOB P. LEESE.

183O.

Gen. JOHN A. SUTTER.

184,3.

Gen. JOHN C. FREMONT.

184,6.

Hon. RODMAN M. PRICE.
Gen. EDW. F. BE ALE.
Gen. JOSEPH W. REVERE.
WILLIAM COLLIGAN.
JOHN DOLMAN.
EDWARD C. KEMBLE.
Dr. GEO. McKINSTRY.

184, 7.

FRANCIS D. CLARK.
JOSEPH EVANS.
RUSSELL MYERS.
CHARLES J. McPHERSON.
JAMES E. NUTTMAN.
WILLIAM H. ROGERS.
Judge THERON R. PER LEE.
Hon. JEREMIAH SHERWOOD.
JOHN WOLFE.

184,8.
Hon. JAMES S. WETHERED.

184,0.

WM. C. ANNAN.
EDW. R. ANTHONY.
Col. EDW. F. BURTON.
RUSSELL W. BENEDICT.
MARK BRUMAG1M.
STEPHEN M. BARBOUR.
E. W'. CROWELL.
DAVID M. CHAUNCEY.
HENRY K. CUMMINGS.
ROBERT W. DOWLING.
JOHN S. ELLIS.
WILLARD B. FARWELL.
JOHN H. FISHER.

1853.

JAMES H. BUTLER.
CHARLES W. SCHUMANN.
Ca'pt. JAMES H. MERRYMAN.

1853.

Hon. C. K. GARRISON.
WILLIAM R. GARRISON.

184,9.

JOHN GAULT.

Gen. H. G. GIBSON, U.S.A.

A. T. GOODELL.

R. R. GRIFFITH, Ja.

Gen. JOSEPH HOOKER, U.S.A.

H. B. HAWKINS.

JOHN J. IIAGER.

JOHN H. HARRIS.

JOHN G. HODGE.

JOSEPH B. HILL.

GEORGE H. JOHNSON.

BENJ. W. JENNESS.

JOHN LAIMBEER.

Hon. CORNELIUS LYDECKER.

Hon. ROBT. H. McKUNE.

GILMOR MEREDITH.

Com'r RICHARD. W. MEADE, U.S.N.

JAMES J. McCLOSKEY.

Gen. FRANCIS E. PINTO.

OLIVER H. PIERSON.

JOSEPH M. PRAY.

SILAS H. QUINT.

JOHN SICKELS.

JOSEPH S. SPINNEY.

A. A. SELOVER.

GEO. F. SNIFFEN.

JAMES A. SPERRY.

Gen. THOS. W. SWEENY, U.S.A.

Hon. DEMAS STRONG.

ROBERT J. TIFFANY.

SAMUEL C. UPHAM.

WM. M. WALTON.

185O.

Gen. JAMES F. CURTIS.
GEORGE HOWES.
C. C. HASTINGS.
Gen. THOMAS D. JOHNS.
Gen. CHARLES S. MERCHANT.
STEPHEN L. MERCHANT.
BEVERLY C. SANDERS.
Capt. JOSEPH SPINNEY.
CHARLES R. THOMPSON.

STATE

185O.

GEORGE W. GILBERT.
LEWIS LELAND.

Honorary.

REUBEN LORD.
EFFINGHAM B. SUTTON.