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 30th CONGRESS, [SENATE. ] REP. COM., 
 
 1st Session. No. 226. 
 
 
 IN SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 AUGUST 1, 1848. 
 
 Submitted, and ordered tD be printed. 
 
 Mr. BREESE made the following 
 
 REPORT : 
 
 The. select committee, to whom was referred the resolution of the 
 Senate to inquire into the expediency of providing for the publi- 
 cation of the result of the late exploring expedition of J. C. Fre- 
 mont to Calif or nia and Oregon, to be published as a national work, 
 free from copy-right and subject to the disposition of Congress ; and 
 also to inquire into the expediency of providing for the continuation 
 and completion of the surveys and exploration of the said J. C. Fre- 
 mont, with a view to develop the geographical character 'of the 
 country, and the practicability of establishing railroads or other 
 communications between the valley of the Mississippi and the Pa- 
 cific ocean, the result of said further surveys and explorations to 
 be also published as a national work, free from copy-right and 
 subject to the disposition of Congress, respectfully ask leave to 
 report: 
 
 That it is a ma ( tter of great public interest, the committee be- 
 lieve, for the government and for the people of the United States, 
 to become accurately acquainted with the value of the large pos- 
 sessions now belonging to the United States beyond the Rocky 
 mountains, and also with the means of communicating with those 
 possessions and with the Pacific ocean, on which they border, by 
 railroads or other modes of travel and conveyance; and the com- 
 mittee believe, from the knowledge they have of the inclination of 
 Mr. Fremont's mind, his habits and pursuits, and his already great 
 acquaintance with the countries in question, acquired through ex- 
 traordinary perseverance, to be peculiarly well fitted to give to the 
 government and to the people the information it is so desirable for 
 them to possess in relation to the value of California and Oregon^ 
 and the means of communicating with them. 
 
 From the early age of seventeen, as the committee are informed, 
 Mr. Fremont has been almost constantly engaged in astronomical 
 and geographical pursuits, and nearly the whole time in the open 
 field, and the last six years in the country beyond the Mississippi 
 and the Rocky mountains. " He has made three expeditions to those 
 
[ 226 ] 2 
 
 remote and interesting regions. The results of the two first were 
 published by order of Congress, and commanded general applause 
 both in this country and in Europe. The celebrated Baron Hum- 
 boldt, and the president of the Royal Geological and Royal Geo- 
 graphical Societies, London, have spoken of them in most favora- 
 ble terms, and eminent scientific men and journals of our own 
 country have yielded equal commendation. [See appendix to this 
 Report.] Ah assistant of the celebrated Nicollet, who was* a distin- 
 guished member of the French National Institute, he has reached a 
 most commanding position as a scientific explorer, and achieved for 
 himself the designation of the American Humboldt. 
 
 The first question with the committee was to inquire into the ex- 
 pediency of publishing, as a national work, free of copy-right, and 
 subject to the disposition of Congress, the results of this last, or 
 third expedition of Mr. Fremont; and, although favorably impressed 
 with the value of these results, from the previous labors and char- 
 acter of the author, it was deemed proper to inquire into the real 
 character of the proposed publication; means for forming some 
 judgment on this point being already at hand in the manuscript map 
 of Oregon and California, (now in the hands of the lithographer, 
 and which several of the committee have examined,) and also in the 
 geographical memoir to illustrate that map, published by order 
 of the Senate, and which, it is presumed, all have read. This map 
 and memoir, in the judgment of the committee, not only sustain 
 the previous reputation of the author, but enhance it; as might 
 well be expected from a more ripened intellect, from a more ex- 
 perienced explorer, and from a spirit ardent in the pursuit of 
 science, and excited by applause to higher exertions. This map 
 and memoir, though hastily prepared, and as a mere preliminary to 
 a full work, increase the reputation of their author, and giv"e valua- 
 ble information to the statesman and to the farmer, to the astrono- 
 mer and geographer, to the man of science in the walks of botany 
 and meteorology. But they must be regarded only as a sample of 
 the results of that expedition, from the view of which the value of 
 the whole may be judged. As far as the exploration has been car- 
 ried, everything necessary to show climate, soil, and productions, 
 has been collected. More than one thousand specimens in botany, 
 a great number in geology and mineralogy, with drawings of birds 
 and animals, and remarkable scenery, and a large collection of the 
 skins' of birds, with the plumage preserved, have been, as the com- 
 mittee are informed, brought home, to enrich the stores and add to 
 the sum of human knowledge. Thebotanical specimens, examined 
 by Dr. Torrey, are deemed by him of great value, and worthy of 
 the expense of European engraving, if not done by our own gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 The committee, upon this view of the results of the last expedi- 
 tion of Mr. Fremont, deem them of great national importance, 
 giving just ideas of Oregon and California, .and such as ought to 
 be published in thejnanner suggested in the resolution under con- 
 sideration. 
 
 The continuation of the surveys and explorations by Mr, Fre- 
 
3 [ 226 ] 
 
 montj with a view to complete our knowledge of the great country 
 between the Mississippi and the Pacific ocean, is the remaining in- 
 quiry referred to this committee, and of the expediency of pro- 
 viding for such continuation, they entertain no doubt. It is, in 
 their judgment, but carrying out the plain suggestion of reason, and 
 the plan of Mr. Jefferson, when he sent Lewis and Clark to the 
 Pacific ocean. 
 
 Reason tells a nation, as it does an individual, that when it has 
 acquired a new and distant possession, the first thing to be done is, 
 to learn its value, and the means of getting to it. The instruc- 
 tions of Mr. Jefferson to Lewis and Clark, drawn up by his own 
 hand, embraced inquiries under both these heads, in relation to 
 Oregon; they now become still more important in relation to Ore- 
 gon and California united and the intervening region of the Rocky 
 mountains, which lies as a barrier to be crossed, or turned, be- 
 tween those territories and the valley of the Mississippi 
 
 The committee think they do not err when they assume it as an 
 indisputable position, that the public interest and the wishes of the 
 people require further examinations into the character of the soil, 
 climate, and productions; the geology, botany, and mineralogy of 
 Oregon and California; and also, iLto the practicability of rail- 
 road and other communications between those countries and the 
 valley of the Mississippi, to which the public attention has been 
 lately, and is now, so much excited; and they do not hesitate to 
 say, that Mr. Fremont is one of the most, if not the most, suitable 
 person to make these examinations, and a publication of the re- 
 sults, under the direction of Congress, and without copy-right, as 
 the most judicious and advantageous mode of publication. Mr. 
 Fremont has spent six years of his life in explorations to these dis- 
 tant regions, and in that time has crossed the Rocky mountains, 
 as the committee are informed, at seven different points; has trav- 
 ersed the country from the Mississippi on several different lines, 
 and has made about twenty thousand miles of explorations in wil- 
 derness countries, and understands thoroughly, there is no doubt, 
 the general structure and configuration of the country, and knows 
 where to go and what to do to complete his examinations. He has 
 shown himself to be possessed of all the qualifications for such an 
 enterprize, with resources to supply wants, to conquer difficulties, 
 and to command success; and talent to execute his task to the sat- 
 isfaction and admiration of his own countrymen, and of the first 
 men of Europe. 
 
 The committee learn with pleasure that it is Mr. Fremont's own 
 desire to finish up the great work in which he was so unexpectedly 
 interrupted in the course of the last year. No other person pro- 
 bably could, for the reasons stated, do the work so well, or in so 
 short a time, or at so small an expense. No other person could be 
 employed in the work without appropriating to himself the fruits 
 of his long and arduous labors, and building upon foundations 
 which he has laid, and taking the credit of operations which only 
 want the finishing hand of their author to erect a monument of 
 honor to himself and of utility to his country. It therefore seems 
 
[ 226 ] 4 
 
 but an act of justice to this individual that he should be continued 
 in a work which he commenced, and has thus far so successfully 
 prosecuted. 
 
 In his geographical memoir, printed by order of the Senate, Mr. 
 Fremont proposes to continue and complete his explorations in Ore- 
 gon and California, and to publish the results, under the direction 
 of Congress, as a national work, and without copy-right. It is the 
 mode in which the results of his previous expeditions have been 
 published, and with great advantage to the public, as all w r ill ac- 
 knowledge, his journals and maps being immediately reprinted and 
 multiplied in cheap editions, as well in Europe as in this country; 
 and thus all his discoveries, and all the information he acquired, 
 passing at once into the mass of general knowledge. It is deemed, 
 by the committee, the proper mode of disseminating useful infor- 
 mation obtained at the expense of the government, and which 
 should be diffused at once without the impediment of copy-rights, 
 and the author, where deserving it, compensated in some other 
 form for any extraordinary service which he has rendered. 
 
 The policy and expediency of ascertaining the value of our new 
 and distant acquisitions was early felt and enforced by our govern- 
 ment. It commenced with the acquisition of Louisiana. The ex- 
 pedition of Lewis and Clark was the offspring of that policy. The 
 cotemporaneous expeditions of Major Freeman, on the Red river, 
 and of Lieutenant Pike to the source of the Mississippi, were parts 
 of the same policy. Mr. Jefferson, at the same time, recommended 
 annual appropriations for the purpose of continuing geographical 
 researches in Louisiana. In the years 1804 and 1806, during his 
 Presidency, and under the recommendation of that illustrious friend 
 and patron of science, reports were made by committees of the 
 House of Representatives in favor of the annual appropriations for 
 explorations, but they did not ripen into laws. At a later date, and 
 but recently, provision has been made for promoting geological 
 discoveries on the upper Mississippi and Lake Superior, with a view 
 to understand the value of the public lands there situate; and the 
 sum of forty thousand dollars is inserted in the general appropria- 
 tion bill of the present session to defray the expenses of the pre- 
 sent year of that survey. 
 
 The committee do but advert to the large expenditure for explo- 
 rations upon the water to distant islands of the ocean, gathering in 
 its progress rich spoils to add to the treasury of science, and open- 
 ing to the knowledge of our country all that is remarkable in the 
 animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms of countries whose re- 
 sources our enterprise has mainly contributed to unfold to the 
 world. 
 
 These distant but interesting countries are not our own, and are 
 not to be settled and cultivated by our race, and if it was good 
 policy to traverse the deep to visit them, and to publish the re- 
 sults of the hazardous exploit as a national work, the committee 
 cannot hesitate to believe that the policy of the explorations pro- 
 posed to be followed by their publication as a national work, the 
 development of the resources of a country soon to be filled by peo- 
 
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5 
 
 [ 226 ] 
 
 pie of our own lineage, is much more apparent, and commends 
 itself more strongly to the general approbation. 
 
 The committee, therefore, feeling all the reasons in favor of such 
 explorations to be greatly increased by the recent acquisition of 
 California, and the exclusive possession of Oregon, and wh'en so 
 much has already been done towards exploring them, deem it ex- 
 pedient that further provision be, made for exploring Oregon and 
 California, and ascertaining practicable routes for a railroad or 
 other communications between the valley of the Mississippi and 
 the Pacific ocean, and for publishing the results as a national work 
 under the direction of Congress, and without copy-right; and they 
 have with one accord directed their chairman to move the neces- 
 sary appropriation, to wit: $30,000,. being the amount usually ap- 
 propriated for topographical surveys beyond the Mississippi. 
 
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[226] 6 
 
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 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Extract from a letter from the Hon. Edward Everett. 
 
 "CAMBRIDGE, MASS., March 20, 1846. 
 
 DEAR SIR: A short time since, I sent two copies of the Con- 
 gressional documents containing Captain Fremont's two reports to 
 London; one to Dr. Holland, (who spoke of you with great kind- 
 ness on his return to Boston,) and one to Sir R. J. Murchison, late 
 president both of the Geological and Geographical societies, and 
 one of the most eminent British geologists. In a letter received 
 from the last named gentleman, by the steamer of the 4th March, 
 he speaks in the following manner of Captain Fremont's report: 
 1 The work of Captain Fremont so deeply interested me, (it is 
 really the most romantic, as well as instructive survey,) that I 
 wrote out a little analysis of it for the president of our geological 
 society, Mr. Homer,* and if he has not space enough to do it jus- 
 tice in his anniversary discourse, I will take care that the excellent 
 services of your countryman are duly noticed in the speech of Lord 
 Colchester, my suecessor-as president of the Royal Geographical 
 Society. 7 Knowing your connexion with Captain Fremont, I have 
 thought it might be some satisfaction to you to learn that his labors 
 were appreciated by good judges abroad. I should long since have 
 made him my personal acknowledgements for the gratification and 
 instruction which I have derived from his reports, had I had the 
 honor of his acquaintance. I should have sent more copies to Eng- 
 land could I have procured them." 
 
 B. 
 
 Extract from a letter from Dr. Letter, of Columbia College, South 
 
 Carolina. 
 
 "You recollect that last year I sent Colonel Fremont's report, 
 &c., to Europe. My son, who is now studying mining in Europe, 
 to prepare himself for your west, and to aid, one of these days, in 
 the development of the mineral wealth of our country, lately wrote 
 me that the papers I sent had been studied with the deepest inter- 
 est by the mineralogists and geologists in Berlin, to whom Baron 
 Humboldt had communicated them after a careful perusal by him- 
 self." 
 
 'Mr. LyelFs father-in-law. 
 
^ ' V [226] 
 
 c. 
 
 Extract from a letter from the United States consul, Edward War- 
 ren, Trieste. 
 
 " I travelled, not as I first intended, over Hamburg and Berlin to 
 this city, but took a passage to Leghorn, from which place I pro- 
 ceeded t-o Trieste. I availed myself of a. favorable opportunity to 
 forward the books which you entrusted to my care to Baron Von 
 Humboldt. During the month of July I obtained a short leave of 
 absence from my post, and proceeded to the north of Germany. 
 Whilst at Berlin I had an interview with Baron Von Humboldt, 
 He bade me thank you for the present with which you had favored 
 him. He had already in his possession " Fremont's report," but hot 
 Nicollet's work. He put some questions to me in relation to your- 
 self, your political career, your age, and so forth, to which I gave 
 full replies. He then inquired in relation to Colonel Fremont, 
 whose work he said had been read by him with great interest, as the 
 work of "a man of talent, courage, industry, and enterprise." 
 These were the words literally used by Mr. Von Humboldt. 
 
 "Extracts from the\reports which have made their appearance in 
 many of the German papers and the scientific world, (through the 
 republication of the work by Wiley & Putnam, in London,) has be- 
 come generally acquainted with it; and I can say truly, from the 
 conversation which I have had upon the subject with many men 
 entitled to a judgment, it is appreciated as a very able work." 
 
 D. 
 
 Extract from a letter from Dr. John Torrey, of Princeton, JV. J. 
 
 "After incessant working on the CaHfornian plants, from the time 
 they were received till this moment, I have secured all that were 
 not decomposed, and have the entire collection in clean, dry paper. 
 The loss of one or two boxes, and the partial injury of some others, 
 we can well bear, when the rest are so valuable. Of those that were 
 spoiled, I trust there were duplicates of the greater part in the rest 
 of the herbarium. No doubt there are many new species among 
 your discoveries. The pines are well represented, and most of them 
 can be drawn so as to show all the essential parts. As soon as I 
 get Captain Wilkes's plants off my hands I shall attack these with 
 vigor. How much I regret not having a botanical artist at my 
 elbo\v, as my friend Dr. Gray has. Now that the doctor has under- 
 taken the great bulk of the exploring expedition botany, he will, I 
 fear, need the whole of Mr. Sprague's (his artist's) time. 
 
 "The only way to have our work properly executed is, either to 
 import an artist (and one could be got at a very moderate salary) 
 or to send the specimens, from .time to time, to Europe, where they 
 might be drawn and put at once upon the stoire," 
 
[826] 8 
 
 
 "Please let me know what I am to do about drawings of your 
 new and rare plants. They ought to be put in hand soon, as it will 
 take a long time to get them properly done. At any rate I will 
 send a few to France immediately, and have them drawn under the 
 eye of Professors Jussieu and Decaisne. We can then find exactly 
 what they will cost. Do you not think that the forest trees ought 
 to be done in a style and size with Michaux's Sylva? A supplemen- 
 tary volume, or distinct work, rather, on the trees of California and 
 Oregon, would be a most acceptable gift, not only to botanists, but 
 to men of taste and lovers of nature generally. 
 
 " Was I right in supposing that Taxodium sempervirens to be 
 your great cedar? The Thuya does not grow to the. enormous size 
 that you mention; but the Taxodium does. What a pity there was 
 not time to get a figure of it ready for your report." 
 
 
 Extract from the report of a committee of the House of Representa- 
 tives^ March 8, 1804, of which Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell was chair- 
 man^ OTi the resolve of the House, directing them to inquire into 
 * the expediency of authorising the President of the United States 
 to cause certain remote and unknown points of Louisiana to be 
 
 explored. 
 
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 <e By a series of remarkable events, the United States have lately 
 acquired a large addition of soil and jurisdiction. This is believed, 
 besides the tracts on the east side of the Mississippi, to include all 
 the country which lies to the westward, between that river and 
 the great chain of mountains that stretch from north to south, and 
 divide the waters running into the Atlantic from those which emp- 
 ty into the Pacific ocean; and beyond that chain, between the ter- 
 ritories claimed by Great Britain on one side, and by Spain on the 
 other, quite to the South sea. It is highly desirable that this ex- 
 tensive region should be visited, in some parts at least, by intelligent 
 men. Important additions might thereby be made to the science 
 of geography. Various materials might thence be derived to aug-. 
 ment our knowledge of natural history. The government would 
 thence acquire correct information of the situation, extent, and 
 worth of its own dominions; and individuals of research and curi- 
 osity would receive ample gratification, as to the works of art, and 
 the productions of nature, which exist in those boundless tracts. J> 
 
Hollinger Corp. 
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