JOHN C. FREMONT.

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In March, 1852, he went with his family to Europe, where he remained, and most of the time in Paris, about a year and a half. Whilst in London, in April, soon after his arrival, and as he was leaving the Clarendon hotel to attend a dinner party, he was arrested for an obligation incurred by him in so clothing his battalion as to enable them to return home, whilst he was acting as governor of California. As this was a common trick in Europe, (Horace Greeley first saw the inside of a jail there,) he bore the annoyance with composure, furnishing the requisite bail and obtaining his release. Learning of the appropriation by congress, in March, 1852, for the survey of three routes to the Pacific ocean, with the view of obtaining such further information as would form the basis of legislation for a national highway, he resolved to return home, fit out an expedition on his own account, and complete the survey of the route pursued in part by him in his last be the best, if not the only practicable one, for a national road. With this view, he left Paris in June, 1853, and set out upon his fifth and last expedition, overland, to the Pacific ocean, in the month of August.

In this expedition he took with him, as one of his artists, S. N. Cavalho, Esq., of Baltimore. After making up his party of white men, at Washington, St. Louis, and Kansas, he engaged the services of ten Delaware braves to accompany him, under the charge of the celebrated Captain Wolf, and started from the latter place on the 20th of September, with the intention of crossing the continent near the parallel of thirty-eight degrees. He supplied the expedition with necessary provisions, including seventy-two barrels of Alden's preserved milk, cream, and Java coffee-enough to sustain seventy men a month. At Shawnee Mission Colonel Fremont became ill, and was compelled to return to St. Louis for advice, leaving his party to proceed to the Smoky Hills without him, under guide of the Delawares. On the 30th he rejoined his party again, after riding more than thirty miles through a burning prairie. Then assuming the command, he dashed out beyond the blazing element. About this time they were robbed of five of their horses and mules, 1

regained them at an Indian village. They then proceeded by way of Bent's fort, the San Luis valley, and the Sand Hill Pass, to the country of the hostile Utahs, where their hunters brought in the quarters of a fat wild horse for food. Here they were greatly annoyed and menaced by Indians, and straitened for food, being often required to slay their own horses for that purpose; and here, also, Colonel Fremont exacted from them a solemn oath, that in no event would they do as his men had done on a former occasion-eat one another.

Their sufferings now became very great, as well from the snow and cold as from hunger, and some of the party actually expired in their saddles. For fifty consecutive days they were obliged to subsist on horse flesh, and yet they continued the survey. At length they issued upon the other side of the mountains, having found safe and easy passes all the way to California, upon the straight lines of parallels thirty-eight and thirty-nine.

For the purpose of availing himself of certain facilities not elsewhere accessible, for bringing out an illustrated report of his last expedition, he removed, in the spring of 1855, to the city of New York. Whilst thus employed, and living in that quiet seclusion which best comported with his scientific occupation, his name soon began to be mentioned in political circles in connection with the pres idency. As it was known that he was sound on the slavery question, with antecedents to guarantee an inflexible opposition to the further extension of slavery in the future, the suggestion increased in the public favor. And as the Honorable Nathaniel P. Banks, with known preferences for his nomination, was elected to the speakership of the 34th congress, there was a significance in that circumstance which reached beyond the house of represen tatives. The prostitution of the national flag by the president, and the assault on Senator Sumner, ripened the Republican sentiment of the country, when it became more obvious than before, that he of all others was the man for the great emergency. He was unanimously nominated for president of the United States, by a Republican national convention, on the 18th day of June, 1856.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

WILLIAM LEWIS DAYTON.

JUDGE DAYTON'S NATIVITY, ANCESTRY, EARLY HABITS AND CHARACTER— STUDIES WITH DOCTOR BROWNLEE-ENTERS AND GRADUATES AT PRINCETON COLLEGE-STUDIES LAW WITH GOVERNOR VROOM-ADMISSION TO THE BAR IN 1830-COMMENCES PRACTICE IN FREEHOLD-ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF NEW JERSEY-HIS PROJECTS OF REFORM-IS APPOINTED JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT-RESIGNS AFTER THREE YEARS SUCCEEDS SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES---WAS OPPOSED TO THE WAR WITH MEXICO, BUT VOTED TO CONFIRM THE TREATY OF PEACE-SUPPORTS THE WILMOT PROVISO-HIS SPEECHES-IS SUPERSEDED BY COMODORE STOCKTON-RESUMES THE PRACTICE OF LAWIS A DELEGATE TO THE BALTIMORE CONVENTION OF 1852, AND SUPPORTS GENERAL SCOTT-AFTERWARD, UNTIL THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE, NOT ENGAGED IN POLITICS-IS OPPOSED TO THE FURTHER EXTENSION OF SLAVERY.

WILLIAM LEWIS DAYTON, the Republican candidate for vice president, is an eminent jurist and statesman. He was born at Baskenridge, in the county of Somerset, in the state of New Jersey, on the 17th of February, 1807 His ancestors for many generations were also native Jerseymen. His great-grandfather, Jonathan Dayton, who was of English descent, settled at Elizabethtown, in Essex county, as early as 1725, and about the same time his mother's grandfather removed to Baskenridge, Somerset county, where he erected the first frame dwelling in that section of the country. His ancestry on both the father's and mother's side, took an honorable part in the revolu tionary struggle, and some of the family distinguished

themselves; Elias Dayton, the brother of his grandfather, became a brigadier general, and his son Jonathan Dayton, became eminent as the speaker of the house of represen tatives in the fourth congress. His maternal grandfather, Edward Lewis, was a comissary in the revolutionary army, and served as such during the entire war. The mother of the late Samuel L. Southard, (who died while the presiding officer of the senate,) was the sister of this grandfather.

Robert Dayton, the grandfather of the candidate for the vice-presidency, removed his family shortly after the revolutionary war, from Elizabethtown, to a farm near Baskenridge, and here he afterward continued to reside. William L. was the eldest of the family, and was placed, while in his twelfth year, under the care of the celebrated Doctor Brownlee, afterward of New York, who prepared him for the college of New Jersey, at Princeton, from which institution he graduated in 1825. His health had suffered severely in college. He afterward commenced reading law with Governor Vroom, and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1830. He settled in Monmouth county, opening an office in Freehold, where he continued to reside for about seven years.

At the age of thirty he entered political life, being elected to the upper house of the legislature-the legis lative council-from the strong Democratic county of Monmouth. He was placed at the head of the committee on the judiciary. Here he aided to effect a most salutary reform in the constitution of courts of his state, which has been carried still further by the revision of 1855. He brought forward a proposal to add two more justices to the bench of the supreme court, increasing the number of circuits, and giving to the circuit court original jurisdiction in all cases at common law. This plan was generally approved, as it removed the embarassments that previously existed by the defective organization of the common pleas and circuit courts. It presented to suitors and counsel a choice of courts, and the legal business of the state naturally found its way into the court where it was most promptly and intelligently disposed of.

At the close of this session, Mr. Dayton was appointed

WILLIAM L. DAYTON.

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one of the justices of the supreme court; and though one of the youngest, he was yet one of the most eminent of the learned and distinguished legal gentlemen who have filled similar honorable positions. After serving three. years on the bench, he resigned his seat, and returned to the practice of his profession, where his splendid abilities as an advocate soon placed him in the front rank of the New Jersey bar.

In June, 1842, Mr. Southard, who had held for some time the presidency of the senate, died at Fredericksburg, Virginia, and left a vacancy in the senatorial delegation of New Jersey. Governor Pennington, the executive of New Jersey, tendered the place to Judge Dayton, and he took his seat on the 6th of July. During the following winter, he was elected by the legislature for the unexpired term of Mr. Southard. In 1845 he was reëlected. for a full term of six years; and on both these occasions he had no competitor among the Whigs of his native

state.

When Judge Dayton entered the highest council-chamber of the nation, he had barely reached the age of thirty-five, and had no junior, we believe, among the eminent men who sat around him. Among those men were many of the most brilliant orators and statesmen of our era. Mr. Clay had, indeed, just retired from the scene of his fiercest conflicts and his most splendid triumphs. Webster and Calhoun were temporarily withdrawn to the superintendence of executive departments. But they had left behind them Berrien, Benton, Crittenden, Wright, Evans, and Choate.

Even amid this distinguished concourse, the young senator from New Jersey was not lost sight of. He never rose without commanding the fixed attention of his compeers; and in the memorable contests on Texan annexation and the Mexican war, his arm dealt some of the heaviest blows. Whilst he did not seek the empty repu tation of a mere speech-maker, he did not permit any important question of national policy to pass a discussion, without giving a frank utterance of his own sentiments upon it. His commanding manner and graceful oratory threw a charm about themes the most abstruse and pro