Excerpt from The Life of Col. John Charles Fremont: And His Narrative of Explorations and Adventures, in Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon and California John Chaeles Fremont was the heir of poverty. His inheritance, however, was the richest of all legacies - "a sound mind in a sound body." The love and care of a widowed mother, and the responsibility, as the eldest of the group, attendant upon the protection and maintenance of an orphaned brother and sister, were the chief means of his early discipline. Though destitute of the adventitious aids of wealth or influential connections, his own sterling qualities were more than a compensation. He possessed, in an eminent degree, what alone constitute the basis of true greatness, and of certain and continuous success vigorous powers of mind and body, entire self-reliance, and persevering application to wisely-chosen pursuits. That he should have risen from a position so humble, by the unaided influence of his own powers, to one so conspicuous as that which he now occupies, is at once a gratifying tribute to his genius and worth, and an example full of encouragement to American youth. In the first great civil contest between freedom and slavery, he has been selected as the standard-bearer of the former. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.