LEWIS AND CLARK
EXPEDITION
In 1792 Jefferson proposed to the American
Philosophic Society that a subscription be
raised to send some one to ascend the
Missouri, cross the mountains, and descend
to the Pacific. It was
decided that the expedition should consist
of two men. Meriwether
Lewis, then only eighteen years old, begged
to have charge of the commission. Andrew
Michaux, a French botanist, was to be his
companion. The expedition
was really begun, when it was found out that
Michaux was residing in the United States as
a spy, and with this the plan was deferred.
In 1803 the act for establishing trading
houses with Indian tribes had almost
expired, and some changes in the treaty were
recommended to
Congress. Accordingly, it
was proposed that an exploring party be sent
to trace the Missouri to its source, to
cross the Highlands, and follow the best
water communication from that point to the
Pacific ocean, in order to prepare the way
for the changes.
Congress approved of the proposition, and
voted a sum of money for its
execution. Captain Lewis
had been the private secretary of Mr.
Jefferson for nearly two
years. He again begged to
have charge of the
expedition. Mr. Jefferson
was naturally inclined to intrust the work
to his friend Lewis, for he had had time to
test the character of the young
man. Moreover, Lewis'
confidential position made him acquainted
with the inner details of the plan, of its
broadest significance, and the political
obstacles to be overcome in carrying it into
effect. His public service
had strengthened his national interests, and
he was enthusiastic for adventure. The
expedition, both in its organization and
execution, required considerable skill and
tact on the part of the promoters of the
enterprise, especially in their dealing with
foreign nations. Our nation
was beset and harassed north, south and west
as it sought to expand and take
form. At this time the
United States did not have cordial relations
with any of the strong nations of the
world. The internal
machinery of the government was not yet in
perfect working order, and permanence of
democratic forms and methods was not by any
means assured. Russia was
the only nation that was even considered
friendly. The English
wanted to get control of the Indian traffic
of the Northwest, and their prestige was
already firmly fixed. Our
government knew if the object of the
expedition should be known, England would
not take kindly to it. The
opposition of the Spanish would be even
stronger. Bitterly hostile
to the growth of American ideas, they would
do all in their power to oppose the
expedition. But it was with
France that our government would have to
deal most directly. In 1800
Napoleon had acquired the title to Louisiana
by trading with Spain, but so busily engaged
was he at home, he had found no time to
reduce his property to possessions, and he
had no adequate means for defending his new
domains, which would likely fall into the
hands of the English. He
was getting anxious to be rid of the load,
and negotiations were pending for its
transfer to the United States.
When Jefferson first thought of this
expedition to the West negotiations with
France for Louisiana were being
made. Jefferson thought
this the proper time for discovering what
the land held, and this was the primary
purpose of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
For all these reasons, and more, it was
necessary to keep from the general view the
real character of the enterprise.
The appropriation by Congress was made for
the purpose of "extending the external
commerce of the United States." June 30,
1803, Jefferson gave Captain Lewis the
detailed instructions for the conduct of his
work. In the meantime
treaties had been signed at Paris ceding
Louisiana to the United States for
$15,000,000. Not until the
first part of July were the formal
notifications of the transfer received, when
active preparations for the exploration were
being made. But the receipt of this
information did not change the character of
the expedition, although the work in most of
its aspects was now purely domestic.
Some happy-go-lucky Frenchmen in the
earlier years had advanced for a little way
up the Missouri to carry on a fur trade with
the Indians. But, so far as
sure knowledge of it was concerned, the land
was virgin, and Lewis and Clark were to be
its discoverers. Lewis and Clark were
directed to blaze a path through the
wilderness, explore the land, noting its
physical peculiarities, its streams and
mountains, the nature of the soil; to make a
careful study of the Indian tribes
inhabiting the land, their attitude to the
United States and each other; to study the
conditions of trade, and the best points for
the establishment of trading posts--"and, in
short, not to neglect anything which might
contribute to the success or security of
later enterprise."
Captain Lewis started from Washington, July,
1803, and was joined by Captain Clark at St.
Louis. William R. Lighton says the party at
first consisted of twenty-nine members: the
two officers, nine young Kentuckians,
fourteen soldiers of the regular army, two
French watermen, an interpreter and hunter
and a negro servant of Captain Clark's. At
St. Louis there were sixteen additional
recruits--an Indian hunter and interpreter
and fifteen boatmen. This
brought the
total to forty-five. Of
this number only one deserted and one died
on the way to the
Pacific. The two leaders of
the expedition were to be soldiers, sailors,
explorers, botanists, chemists, shoemakers,
herders, etc. The total
amount of money furnished for the expedition
was $2,500-"only $87 for the contingencies
of a twenty-eight months' journey, more than
eight thousand miles in length, with a
company of forty-five men, and through a
land literally
unknown." However, the
government, to provide for any contingency
that might arise on the way, supplied them
with letters of credit. Mr. Jefferson wrote:
"As you will be without money, clothes or
provisions, you must endeavor to use the
credit of the United States to obtain them,
for which purpose open letters of credit
shall be furnished you authorizing you to
draw on the executive of the United States
or any of its officers, in any part of the
world in which drafts can be disposed of;
and to apply with our recommendations to the
consuls, agents, merchants or citizens of
any nation with which we have intercourse,
assuring them in our name that any aid they
may furnish you shall be honorably repaid,
and on demand. As events transpired,
that paragraph was almost
ironical. A letter of credit
directed to the Man in the Moon would have
served quite as well. By the last of October
the camp of the Mandams was reached. This
was 1,600 miles from St. Louis, and here the
company prepared for winter-quarters by
building log cabins and
fortifications. The Mandams had once
been a powerful
nation. Lewis and Clark
soon established peace with them, and the
winter was passed busily but
quietly. Game was
plentiful, and one of the men setup a
blacksmith-shop, where he made a variety of
tools and trinkets which he traded to the
Indians for corn. Here they
were visited by two Indian
squaws. One of them,
Sacajawea, the "Bird Woman," had been taken
prisoner when a child by the Mandams in a
war with the Snake
Indians. She had been taken
to a Mandam village and sold to a Frenchman,
who kept her until she was grown and
afterwards married
her. Sacajawea joined the
expedition and was of great service to the
leaders in their dealings with the
Indians. She led them to
the home of her tribe, the Snake Indians,
and was again reunited to the friends of her
childhood.
In
March, 1804, the men began to build boats
for the westward
journey. The cottonwood was
the only lumber that could be
gotten. In some way six
canoes were made to hang together. From Fort
Mandam fourteen of the men returned to St.
Louis carrying documents, collections and
trophies. Captain Lewis wrote in his
journal: "This little fleet, altho' not
quite as respectable as those of Columbus or
Capt. Cook, was still viewed by us with as
much pleasure as those deservedly famed
adventurers ever beheld theirs, and I dare
say with quite as much anxiety for their
safety and preservation. We
were now about to penetrate a country at
least two thousand miles in width, on which
the foot of civilized man had never trodden;
the good or evil it had in store for us was
for experiment yet to determine, and these
little vessels contained every article by
which we were expected to subsist or defend
ourselves. However, as the state of mind in
which we are generally gives the coloring to
events, when the imagination is suffered to
wander into futurity, the picture which now
presents itself to me is a most pleasing
one, entertaining as I do the most confident
hope of succeeding in a voyage which had
formed a daring project of mine for the last
ten years, I could but esteem this moment of
our departure as the most happy of my life."
Progress from this point grew increasingly
hard; in many places rapids were so numerous
that the boats could not be urged with oars,
and the men were compelled to walk along the
banks and draw the boats with tow
lines. Often there was a
great scarcity of
food. November 7, 1804, the
company caught a glimpse of the
Pacific. After months of
unparalleled perseverance the westward
journey was done and the Pacific coast
reached. Here they remained until January,
1805, collecting data for a report upon the
natural history, ethnology and trade of the
coast. Before the end of
January plans were being made for the
journey home. On July 6 the party re-crossed
the Great Divide that separates the Atlantic
from the
Pacific. Occasionally there
was a meeting with a party from St. Louis or
elsewhere, exchanging news and
gossip. On September 23,
the Mississippi was descended and the party
arrived at St. Louis at 12 o'clock. Here the
guns were fired as a salute to the town.
The people of the United States had
generally given them up as lost, but still
the President had hopes of their return and
received them with great
kindness. The undertaking
was not one primarily of adventure; it was
an exploration in the broadest sense of the
word. "And they took of the fruit of the
land in their hands, and brought it down
unto us, and brought us word again, and said
it is a
good land which the Lord our God doth give
us."
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