tude to San Francisco; and the pictures taken of the passes by a daguerrean artist, carried along for the purpose, confirm his narrative and instrumental observations, and are almost of themselves sufficient to expose the positions of the adversaries of the road.

A complete and beautifully-illustrated account of all of Colonel Frémont's expeditions has been for some time in preparation, and will be published by Childs & Peterson, of Philadelphia, during the year 1860. The résumé of the first and second expeditions will be prepared by Hon. George S. Hillard. The scientific portion of the work will contain articles from the pens of Professors Torrey, Blake, Cassin, and Hubbard, compiled from material furnished by Colonel Frémont. In the prospectus of the publishers, it is stated that

"The work is being prepared with great care by Colonel J. C. Frémont, and will contain a résumé of the First and Second Expeditions in the years 1842, '43, and '44, and a detailed account of the Third Expedition during the years 1845, '46, and '47, across the Rocky Mountains through Oregon into California, covering the conquest and settlement of that country; the Fourth Expedition, of 1848-49, up the Kansas and Arkansas Rivers into the Rocky Mountains of Mexico, down the Del Norte, through Sonora into California; the Fifth Expedition, of 1853 and '54, across the Rocky Mountains at the heads of the Arkansas and Colorado Rivers, through the Mormon settlements and the Great Basin into California. The whole will embrace a period of ten years passed among the wilds of America."

Though decided and ardent in his political sympathies, and of unceasing activity respecting the measures which a large forecast taught him were most effectual to work out his policy, he took little part in the public discussion of current political topics; and it was not until the outrages in Kansas called for a man of courage and judgment that the politicians thought of him for the Presidency. His private letter of counsel to Governor Robinson, of Kansas, urging him to a cautious but resolute resistance, and cheering him by the expression of his own sympathy and determination to support him,-believing that, in the end, the nation would also sustain him,-fixed the attention of the Republican party on him as a suitable person for the Presidency.

In April, 1856, he was waited on by a committee from a political meeting in New York, to obtain an expression of sentiment

on the question of the day. In his brief and prompt reply, written at the moment in a public room amid a crowd, he said,—

"I heartily concur in all movements which have for their object to repair the mischief arising from the violation of good faith in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. I am opposed to slavery in the abstract and open principle, sustained and made habitual by long-settled convictions. While I feel inflexible in the belief that it ought not to be interfered with where it exists under the shield of State sovereignty, I am as inflexibly opposed to its extension on this continent beyond its present limits."

The Republican National Convention, which assembled at Philadelphia on the 17th of June, 1856, nominated him unanimously for the Presidency, it being ascertained informally that he was preferred by more than two-thirds of the body. William L. Dayton was nominated for the Vice-Presidency.

The platform adopted by the convention asserts the settled principles of the Republican party founded by Jefferson; denounces the crimes committed by those controlling the Government to establish slavery in Kansas; maintains the power, and deems it the duty, of the Government to exclude slavery from the Territories; declares the Ostend Circular infamous; and favors the construction of the Pacific Railroad. In his reply to the committee notifying him of his nomination, after saying that the resolutions of the convention express the sentiments in which he had been educated, and which have ripened into convictions by personal observation and experience, he remarks more particularly upon the two forms of abuse of the Government by the slave-power, then engaging public attention,-one, the seizure of Cuba, proposed in the Ostend Circular; the other, the seizure of Kansas,—and deprecates both in the strongest terms. The characteristic feature in the letter, and that which marks it as the production of an efficient leader, is that it points to the means by which the victory may be won and its advantages secured,-telling his partisans how to bring home to the people, whose suffrages were sought, their interest in the contest.

"The great body of the non-slaveholding freemen, including those of the South," he says, "upon whose welfare slavery is an oppression, will discover that the power of the General Government over the public lands may be beneficially exerted to advance their interests and secure their independence. Knowing this, their suffrages will not be wanting to maintain that authority in the Union which is absolutely essential to the

maintenance of their own liberties, and which has more than once indicated the purpose of disposing of the public lands in such a way as would make every settler a freeholder." Lands for the landless was his battlecry.

The Republicans were defeated in the Presidential election of 1856 by the October election in Philadelphia. It was conceded that the success of the Union State ticket in Pennsylvania would be decisive of the Presidential contest in November, and scarcely a doubt was entertained of its success.

Frémont's friends say that "at the last moment a bargain was made between the Fillmore organization and the Democratic managers, and 15,000 naturalization-papers were forged."

Colonel Frémont has been closely occupied of late years with the management of the Mariposas estate. After suffering much from intrusting its management to others, he determined to be his own manager.

"In the spirit of that determination," says Mr. Greeley, writing from San Francisco, after a recent visit to Colonel Frémont, "he has lived and labored, rising with the lark, and striving to obtain a complete knowledge and mastery of the entire business; taking more and more labor and responsibility on his own shoulders, as he felt himself able to bear it, until he is now Manager, Chief Engineer, Cashier, Accountant, and at the head of every other department but that of Law, for which he still finds it necessary to rely on professional aid. And his mines are at length becoming productive and profitable. His first (steam) mill, near his dwelling, runs eight stamps night and day; his second (water) mill, three miles distant, on the Merced, at the north end of his estate, runs twelve stamps, also constantly; and the two are producing gold at the rate of at least $250,000 per annum, at an absolute cost, I am confident, of not more than $150,000. Of course, he needs all the profits, if not more, to extend and perfect his works, having already a much larger water-mill nearly ready to go into operation, besides that on the Merced, in which he expects, I believe, to run fifty-six stamps; and he hopes to have one hundred in all running before the close of 1860. With that number I believe he would be able, by giving his constant personal attention to the business, aided by faithful and capable assistants, to realize a net profit of $10,000 per week, which would very soon clear him of debt, and leave him unencumbered in the ownership of perhaps the finest mining-country in the world."

The latest mention of Frémont was the record of his having headed the subscription-list for a monument to the brave and lamented Senator Broderick with five hundred dollars.

JAMES GUTHRIE,

OF KENTUCKY.

JAMES GUTHRIE, Secretary of the Treasury in the Cabinet cf President Pierce, was born near Bardstown, Nelson County, Kentucky, in the year 1795. Remotely, he has Scottish blood in his veins, but his more immediate ancestors emigrated to this country from Ireland. His father, General Adam Guthrie, was ⚫ an early pioneer westward from Virginia. A man of energy and activity, he participated with distinction in the struggle with the Indians for the region now embracing six or seven States and as many millions of inhabitants. Among other fights, he was in the memorable battle of the Saline, fought some ten miles west of Shawneetown, Illinois, in which General William Hardin was seriously wounded. After the peace with the Indians, General Guthrie entered upon civil pursuits, and represented his county in the Kentucky Legislature for eight or ten years.

The son, James, was educated chiefly at Bardstown, in the academy presided over by a Scotchman named McAlister," by no means an ordinary man."

When about twenty years old, he engaged in the enterprisecommon in those days-of sending produce to New Orleans, and made two voyages on his own flatboats, returning home by land through the Indian country with the profits of his venture. Becoming dissatisfied with this business, he determined to embrace the profession of the law, which he did under the instruction of Judge Rowan, of Bardstown, one of the most high-toned gentlemen as well as profound and acute lawyers in Kentucky. Mr. Guthrie's manner of study is worthy of attention from the young candidate for distinction and fortune in these days. He studied as much daily as his physical capacity would admit; and, the more fully to discipline and perfect his mind, it was a regular practice with him, in reading reports, to carefully consider

the facts, weigh the arguments of counsel on both sides, and then, before looking at the decision, to write out one of his own.

At the end of two years he was admitted to the bar. Not being of a disposition to rest satisfied with the reputation to be gained in a provincial town, he removed in 1820 to Louisville, then, as now, the commercial capital of the State. It was not long before he "made his mark," and was appointed by the Governor prosecuting attorney for the county, the duties of which office he fulfilled with great zeal and ability. An incident will serve to illustrate his firmness of character about this period. Uncommonly slender in appearance, he was what might have been called "a gawky young man." He had prosecuted a noted bully with such explicit force for some offence that, notwithstanding great ability on the opposite side, the jury convicted the culprit. Passing to dinner, after the adjournment, through the courtyard, in which, owing to a fall of rain, but a narrow pathway was left, he encountered the bully, armed with a bludgeon, who, raising it, thus accosted him:-"Mr. Guthrie, in your speech this morning you took the most unwarrantable liberties with my character, and now, sir, you have got to answer for it." To this Mr. Guthrie replied, "Why, look here, my friend; I got twenty dollars for convicting you: I don't think I should get a cent for putting you to death. Get out of my way." The fellow, either struck by the philosophy of the remark,-for vagabonds are generally shrewd philosophers,-or awed by Mr. Guthrie's undaunted eye, slunk away.

Of Mr. Guthrie's forensic history it is unnecessary to say much. He continued in the profession until he entered the Treasury Department. It is known to the whole country that he acquired great wealth. A large portion of it is unquestionably due to his great sagacity and sound judgment in his investments in property, for which, however, the profits of his profession furnished the original means. His success at the bar sprung from two causes: first, his remarkable legal acumen and sagacity, which were largely availed of in the adjustment of a vast proportion of the most occult and complex land and other causes in the State; secondly, the explicitness of his statements and the universal confidence in his veracity. In criminal cases, it was a common remark that the jury placed more reliance on Mr.