Nominated for president
He now took up his residence in New York City and became a member of the party opposed to the extension of slavery. The new party, the Republican, nominated him as its first candidate for president (1856). He was defeated after a most exciting time, yet he carried all the northern states but four.
A major-general in the Civil War
During the Civil War he was made a major-general, but after a year or two he resigned. He was talked of for president in 1864, but did not make the race.
After the war was over he was interested in a great continental railroad. From 1878 to 1881 he was governor of Arizona. Congress voted him a pension just before he died in 1890.
SPANISH MISSIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST
Spanish missionaries baptize Indians
149. How the Franciscans Ruled the Southwest. Centuries before Fremont or Kit Carson or any other American had seen the wonders of our western country, Spaniards made their homes there. Before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth, Spanish missionaries had built many churches in the Southwest and had baptized thousands of Indians into the Christian faith.