By Bob Cornett

The western half of the North American continent contained a million square miles in 1800, all unknown to the U.S. citizens in the eastern half. For expansion westward, maps and handbooks were needed. We know there were more than 40 major surveys and mapping reports from the time of Lewis and Clark (1804-1806) up to the General Land Office surveys of the late 1850s. Americans believed that it was their God-given right to settle the West (Manifest Destiny), and the path had to be cleared.

In a secret meeting in 1845, President Polk, Democratic Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri and Secretary of the Navy Bancroft planned a $50,000 expedition for John Fremont (Benton’s son-in-law) to map more routes to the Pacific. This two-year expedition remains controversial even today as to what was expected of Fremont and his 60-man ragtag civilian force, and how they were to go about their work. They carried out westward expansion notions that Senator Benton had envisioned his entire senatorial career. One result of the expedition was that Fremont’s forces seized Alta, Calif., from Mexico. Another was the detailed Oregon-California map of which, in 1848, the Senate ordered 20,000 copies. It was another bestseller for the Fremonts, though wife Jessie’s invaluable assistance was, again, not credited in print.

By now the overriding issue for any new territory or state was slavery. Senator Benton argued for California’s admission as a “free soil” state. “The disunionists are trying to dig a slave tunnel through to the coast,” he said. For example, at California’s Monterey constitutional convention in 1849, there was much talk of compromise, dividing California so the lower half could be a slave state. Such ideas never progressed to a vote.

With regard to slavery, Republican Fremont was outspokenly for abolition (a factor in his losing the presidential race later to Buchanan in 1856, in which his father-in-law, Senator Benton, a staunch Democrat, voted for Buchanan!). Buchanan was believed to be more predictable and less likely to foment a civil war. A southerner, Benton was a past slave-owner, previously freeing his slaves and pushing hard to keep Missouri from joining with secessionist states, costing him re-election, thus ending his 30-year senate career (1821-1851).

So we see how this huge New Mexico Territory in 1850 provided the first land link of expansion of the U.S. from sea to sea. Only two years after the Butterfield 1859 map, we were embroiled in civil war. Soon people in Tucson voted for the Confederacy, with the military governor declaring Arizona a new territory of the South. Rather quickly, Texas cavalry occupiers were pushed back to Texas, followed in 1863 by the U.S. Congress establishing Arizona Territory much the same as we know it today as a state. Prescott was named capital for this newly established territory because Tucson, a larger and older town, was still a hotbed of confederates.

John Charles Fremont, “Pathfinder of the West,” was the fifth Arizona Territorial Governor from 1878 to 1881 and, when in Prescott, stayed in a small house on Gurley Street. This house, named the Fremont House, was moved to the Sharlot Hall Museum grounds in 1972. To know that principal players in the western expansion drama lived for a time in our town makes it even more relevant to us.

The famous and unique Butterfield map, likely the first detailed sea-to sea-map, is available for purchase in two ways: an original issue for $5,800 or a beautiful reproduction for $10. The Sharlot Hall Museum store also offers many books on the history of this area.

Bob Cornett is a volunteer at Sharlot Hall Museum and a local resident.

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