Passion and Principle: John and Jessie Fr駑ont, the Couple Whose Power, Politics, and Love Shaped Nineteenth-Century America (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780803213685)

John Charles Fr駑ont was the illegitimate child of a Virginia aristocrat and a working-class French immigrant; Jessie Benton was the daughter of the most powerful pre-Civil War U.S. senator, Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, and, her gender notwithstanding, had been groomed as much as any young man to be president. Senator Benton unwittingly brought the two together, never imagining that his daughter would fall in love with Fr駑ont. Despite their disparate backgrounds, however, John and Jessie's marriage was one of the most storied events of the nineteenth century.
And indeed, Jessie and John made a formidable couple. Both together and apart they contributed significantly to shaping the United States. He was a key figure in western expansion and the first presidential candidate for the Republican Party. She was a savvy political operator who played confidante and adviser to the highest political powers in the country. Despite their great efforts on behalf of their country, however, their reputations did not survive a Washington smear campaign led by none other than Jessie's father.
Written with an investigative journalist's eye for detail and a novelist's flair, this biography of explorer, politician, and gold-mine owner John C. Fr駑ont and his intellectual wife, Jessie Benton Fr駑ont, also casts light on the tumultuous period that forms the backdrop for their lives, from the abolition of slavery to the building of the railroad.


Author: Sally Denton
ISBN-10: 0803213689
ISBN-13: 9780803213685
Publisher: Bison Books
Language: English
Published: 05/01/2009
Pages: 496
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 1.00d