BOLDLY INSCRIBED BY SAM HOUSTON, EXCEEDINGLY RARE ASSOCIATION FIRST EDITION OF A CORNERSTONE IN WESTERN EXPLORATION, REPORT OF THE EXPLORING EXPEDITION TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS BY FRÉMONT, “THE SAM HOUSTON OF THE PACIFIC,” CONTAINING THE MONUMENTAL PREUSS MAP OF THE NORTHWEST, INSCRIBED BY HOUSTON ONLY MONTHS AFTER TAKING HIS PLACE IN THE U.S. SENATE TO REPRESENT THE NEW STATE OF TEXAS

(HOUSTON, Samuel) FRÉMONT, John Charles. Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842, and To Oregon and North California in the Years 1843-44… Printed by Order of the Senate of the United States. Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1845. Octavo, original blind-stamped brown cloth gilt, large separate folding map (30 by 50-1/2 inches) in rear compartment. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition, Senate issue, of “one of the most important accounts in the history of the exploration of the Rockies,” an exceptional association copy that unites two Western icons—J.C. Frémont and Sam Houston—inscribed in ink by Houston, "Presented to Miss E.D. Burnside, by her friend and obt. servant, Sam Houston [with his bold flourish] Washington, 19th June [1846]." Illustrated with 22 lithographic plates and five maps, in original gilt-lettered cloth with the monumental large folding 1845 map of “the wilderness which lies between the Missouri and the shores of the Pacific” by Charles Preuss.

A cornerstone of early western exploration, this volume documents Frémont's two great expeditions. An outstanding association first edition, it brings together two of the West's greatest legends—J.C. Frémont and Sam Houston—and is inscribed by Houston only months after he took his place to represent the new State of Texas in the U.S. Senate. With America poised for war with Mexico, "Washington was crackling with excited anticipation… In this unfolding scenario, the imperial visionary, Senator Houston, was influential, and he was immediately drafted into the Senate Committee on Military Affairs… described by a Senate staffer as 'a magnificent barbarian'… Houston moved among giants of American history" (Williams, Sam Houston, 252). Among those monumental figures was Houston's good friend, Thomas Hart Benton, whose son-in-law, J. C. Frémont, was then in the Sacramento Valley, having heard war with Mexico was imminent. "What better way for Frémont to don a hero's garb than by winning California for the United States? He would be the Sam Houston of the Pacific" (Billington & Ridge, Westward Expansion, 214). Frémont famously "encouraged and then joined American settlers in the Bear Flag Revolt… When confirmed reports of war with Mexico reached the Pacific, the U.S. Navy seized California ports. Commodore Stockton named Frémont commander of the California Battalion, which helped to occupy the province" (ANB). This Report, "by the son-in-law of his old friend Benton, would interest Houston" above all, and he would have proudly expressed his admiration for Frémont.

Frémont's notably covers his first expedition, in which he explored the country between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains in 1842, following the Kansas and Great Platte Rivers. It further includes his 1843-44 second expedition: moving to Oregon and Northern California, traveling from the Great Salt Lake to Vancouver, then south to San Francisco, and finally east over the California desert. Frémont's expeditions were largely responsible for opening the West. "He saved the Union nearly 500,000 square miles of territory— vaster in extent than that possessed by the thirteen colonies at the close of the Revolutionary War— and placed the Pacific coast beyond British rule" (Barbara Bayne). Of special importance is the very large folding map by Charles Preuss, a map which made 1845 "one of the towering years in the story of Western cartography" (Wheat II:194). Preuss was perhaps the greatest topographer in the history of American map-making, and his accurate Frémont map was of primary importance to those hoping to undertake the difficult journey west. "It represented trustworthy direct observation, a new, welcome, and long overdue development in the myth-encrusted cartography of the West" (Wheat II: 200). "The year 1846 was destined to bring a veritable explosion of national expansion, with the outbreak of war with Mexico, settlement of the Oregon question, and immense overland emigration to both Oregon and California— in which emigration Frémont's report and map was of great significance" (Wheat). The year after Houston inscribed this copy, in the summer of 1847, Frémont marched east from California. "He had the great satisfaction, he wrote to Pierson B. Reading, 'to meet in all the great emigration many strong and warm friends. They were using my maps on the road, traveling by them, and you may judge how gratified I was" (Lamar, 401). Senate issue (the preferred issue), with 22 lithographic plates and five maps, including the important Preuss map. Howes F370. Wagner-Camp 115:1. Graff 1436. Field 565. Sabin 25845. Soliday I:861. Streeter 3131. Rosenbach 32:146. Wheat 497. With the date of Houston's inscription partially eroded by the imprint of his pen.

Interior fresh with occasional light scattered foxing, spotting to one leaf (483), minor expert archival repair to verso of Preuss map, Fort Laramie plate expertly reattached, mild edge-wear to original cloth.