Encounters
''torpor'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜_encounter｜ENC｜20260904161329-33-•
After conferring with Frémont, Montgomery Blair recommended his removal, explaining that the Pathfinder seemed “stupified & almost unconscious, & is doing absolutely nothing. I find but one opinion prevailing among the Union men of the State (many of whom are here) & among the officers, & that is that Fremont is unequal to the task of organizing the defences of the State.” (Blair’s sister heard from a member of the Pathfinder’s staff that his “seclusion & torpor” resulted from “the fact of his being an opium eater.”) Meigs discovered that Frémont was “living in state with bodyguards sentinels” and “building fortifications about the City at extravagant cost. He has built more gun-boats than directed. He is buying tents of bad patterns … at prices fixed by himself—not by the purchasing officers. The impression among the regular officers is that he is incapable, and that he is looking not to the Country but to the Presidency; he is thought to be a man of no principle. The rebels are killing and ravaging the Union men throughout the state; great distress and alarm prevail; in St. Louis the leading people of the state complain that they cannot see him; he does not encourage them to form regiments of defence, but keeps his eye fixed upon Cairo and the expedition down the Mississippi, while he leaves the state unprotected. Some talk of his intending to set off—like Aaron Burr—for himself with an independent empire. He lives in great style in a fine house. … A general atmosphere of distrust and suspicion pervades the place; none of the regular officers seemed to think him honest.” The Pathfinder ignored Hunter, whose military expertise could have helped him.
Source: Abraham Lincoln∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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