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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from General Stephen W. Kearny and the Conquest of California (1846-7): A Paper Read Before the Historical Society of Southern California, February 6, 1911 Who was the conqueror Of California? The question appears to be Simple enough to admit of a ready answer, but in reality it is a poser - at least for any one who is not satisfied to accept tradi tion unsupported by historic facts. The title rests, it may be said safely, among three men: John C. Fremont, Robert F. Stockton, and Stephen W. Kearny, all of whom contributed by their services, in varying degrees, to add the domain to the United States. Which one most nearly deserves the title, or whether it can be justly bestowed On one to the exclusion Of the other two, presents an interesting problem. F remont, with probably the least merit, made the deepest impression on the public. His name became a household word throughout the country as well as in California. To this day, indeed, the chief historic feature in the Old-time California town is invariably Fremont's Headquarters. Only Washington Seems to have had more abiding places, but then of course he had many more campaigns and battles to his credit. 'fremont was an active campaigner, in the sense that he covered much ground, but he did not happen to do much fighting. It may be news to many that he was never in a single battle on California soil. Yet on the strength of his claim to be regarded as the conqueror he was the first United States senator elected by the new State of Cali fornia, and the first candidate for president nominated by the new Republican Party. It has been Said, perhaps too harshly, that in most ways he was a man of no great ability, but he seems to have approached genius in his faculty for self-advancement. Commodore Stockton, whose claim to the title was asserted with equal vigor, and who sought to monopolize all the credit for the conquest, was only partially successful in his efforts. He, too, became a senator, for a short while, but his party chose Buchanan instead of him to run for president against Fremont. Although the Commodore has almost passed out of the popular mind he has remained in the histories. The writers thereof took him pretty much at his own estimation and have handed him down as the chief figure in the conquest. In California, of course, where an important city bears his name, he is by no means forgotten. A11 in all, he may be said to have fared reasonably well. Neither popular tradition, however. 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."