WHO DISCOVERED THE SOUTH PASS?
The Detroit Advertiser having asserted that Col. Fremont was the discoverer of the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains, a correspondent of the Detroit Free Press denies the truth of statement and the editor of that journal publishes the follow- ing letter from Ramsay Crooks, Esq., of New York:
"New York, June 28, 1856.
My Dear Sir : Just as I was about closing my letter to you of yesterday's date, I received the Detroit Free Press of the 21st inst, containing a laudation of Col. John C. Fremont taken from the Detroit Advertiser of the previous day and which (if it had been true) is not, in my humble opinion, a very important item in making up the essentials of such a man as should become President of this glorious confederacy.
I, however, presume it is intended to exhibit him as endowed with uncommon intrepidity and daring in exploring so wide a region, surrounded by savages and grizzly bears, thereby proving great firmness of character, so very desirable, but unfortunately so very rare in the head of a great nation.
But even if the Colonel had discovered the 'South Pass,' it does not show any more fitness for the exalted station he covets than the numerous beaver hunters and traders who passed and repassed through that noted place full twenty years before Col. Fremont had attained a legal right to vote, and were fully his equals in enterprise, energy, and indomitable perseverance, with this somewhat important difference, that he was backed by the United States treasury, while other ex- plorers had to rely on their own resources.
The perils of the 'South Pass,' therefore, confer on the Colonel no greater claim to distinction than the trapper is entitled to, and his party must be pressed very hard when they had to drag in a circumstance so very unimportant as who discovered the 'South Pass/
Although the Free Press conclusively proves that the Colonel could not be the discoverer of the 'South Pass/ the details are not accurate and in order that history (if it ever gets there) may be correctly vindicated, I will tell you how it was.
