John C. Fremont was an abolitionist politician and later Union soldier. He was the first Republican candidate for President during the election of 1856. Douglass supported his candidacy and followed his career. Douglass was very supportive of Fremont’s attempt to enact military emancipation during the Civil War.
“Douglass struck with rhetorical vengeance against Lincoln’s revocation of Fremont’s emancipation edict. Throughout the autumn, joining a chorus of abolitionists, he made a heroic figure out of the inept Fremont, and a symbol of the emancipation edict. He argued that the general had been sacrificed to appease the proslavery sentiment of the border states and because of Lincoln’s constitutional conservatism.”[1]
John C. Fremont died on July 13, 1890 at the age of 77. He was buried in Rockland Cemetery in Orangeburg, New York.
Exact Grave GPS coordinates: 41.046345, -73.923869
[1] David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018), 352.