BY DR. COUES.

WE possess a genealogy of that Clark family of which William is the most illustrious member, from about the beginning of the last century to the present day. In the early part of the eighteenth century, John Clark 1st and Miss or Mrs. Burd resided in King and Queen Co., Va. They married, and were William’s grandparents. Their children were John 2d, Benjamin, and Elizabeth.

John Clark 2d, b. K. and Q. Co., Va., Oct. 20th, 1724, d. Mulberry Hill, Ky., Aug. —, 1799, aged 75 years; and Ann Rogers, b. K. and Q. Co., Va., Oct. 20th, 1734, d. at Mulberry Hill, Ky., Dec. 24th, 1798, aged 64 years; were married in K. and Q. Co. Va., in 1749, lived together 49 years, and were William’s parents. They had the following six sons and four daughters:

1. Jonathan: b. Albemarle Co., Va., Aug. 1st, 1750; d. Mulberry Hill, Ky., in 1816. He married Sarah Hite, by whom he had four sons and two daughters.

2. George Rogers 1st: b. Albemarle Co., Va., Nov. 19th, 1752; d. Locust Grove, Ky., Feb. 13th, 1818, aged 66 years, and was buried there. He never married. He was the most distinguished member of his family until his fame was shaded by the greater renown to which William attained. George Rogers and William held several positions of the same military or civic title, and hence have been sometimes confused. When “the brother” of William is mentioned in annals, etc., George Rogers is generally meant.

3. Ann: b. Caroline Co., Va. July 14th, 1755; married Owen Gwathmey, Oct. 25th, 1773; had five sons and five daughters; d. in 1822, aged 66 years, at Locust Grove, Ky.

4. John 3d: b. Caroline Co., Va., Sept. 15th, 1757; d. Oct. 17th, 1783, aged 26; never married; was “imprisoned by British during war five years on Long Island.” (So family bible: but see next paragraph.)

5. Richard: b. Caroline Co., Va., July 6th, 1760; never married; lost in Feb. or Mar., 1785, aged 25 years; “supposed to have been killed by Indians at Little Wabash.” (So family bible; some obscurity and confusion of record regarding Richard and John 3d. Another account, furnished to Mr. Jefferson K. Clark by his cousin, Mrs. Caroline O’Fallon Pope, states that Richard, a lieutenant in the Continental army, was captured at Germantown, Pa., and died in a prison-ship at New York, in 1783; and that John, a captain in the army, was killed by Indians on the Wabash in 1785.)

6. Edmund 1st: b. Caroline Co., Va., Sept. 25th, 1762; d. Louisville, Ky., in 1817, aged 55 years; never married; was an army officer with rank of captain, left out when the army was reduced.

7. Lucy: b. Caroline Co., Va., Sept. 15th, 1765; married William Croghan; had five sons and two daughters; d. at Locust Grove, near Louisville, Ky., Mar. 4th, 1837 or 1838.

8. Elizabeth: b. Caroline Co., Va., Feb. 11th, 1768; married Colonel Richard Clough Anderson; had one son and three daughters; died in 1795, aged 27 years.

9. William: b. Caroline Co., Va., Aug. 1st, 1770; married (1) Julia Hancock, at Fincastle, Va., Jan. 5th, 1808; she died at Fotheringay, Va., June 27th, 1820, leaving four sons and one daughter; he married (2) Harriet Kennerly (b. Fincastle, July 25th, 1788, widow of Dr. John Radford), at St. Louis, Mo., Nov. 28th, 1821; she died there Dec. 25th, 1831, leaving two sons and one daughter by Dr. Radford, and one son living (one having died) by William Clark; he died at St. Louis, Mo., at the residence of his son, Meriwether Lewis 1st, Sept. 1st, 1838, and was buried at Athlone, from the residence of Colonel J. O’Fallon, near St. Louis.

10. Frances, commonly called Fanny: b. Caroline Co., Va., Jan. 20th, 1773; married (1) in 1790, Dr. James O’Fallon (b. Athlone, Ireland; d. Louisville, Ky., 1793), (2) Charles M. Thruston, (3) Dennis Fitzhugh; had (1) two children, John and Benjamin; (2) four children; (3) one child; died at St. Louis, Mo. Her eldest son, John, acquired the title of colonel in the military service, from which he resigned in July, 1818; he survived till Dec. 17th, 1865, in business in St. Louis.

Regarding William’s first wife’s family, we have the following genealogy:

Robert Hancock (son of Robert Hancock), b. Mar. 22d, 1711; Edward 1st, b. June 30th, 1713; Dinah or Diana, b. Jan. 14th, 1717, married; Patterson, b. ——, had no heirs; William, b. May 30th, 1720; George 1st, b. July 22d, 1724, married Mary Jones; Thomas, b. Oct. 15th, 1727, lost at sea; Joshua, b. Feb. 9th, 1729, lost at sea. In the next generation: Edward 2d, son of George Hancock 1st and Mary Jones his wife, b. Mar. 8, 1752, in Montgomery Co., Va.; George 2d, b. June 13th, 1754, d. at Fotheringay, Va., July 18th, 1820; Augustus, b. Oct. 14th, 1756, d. in the army; Mary, b. Nov. 4th, 1789, married (1) Mr. Rayford, (2) Samuel Kennerly.

George 2d, above, married at Fincastle, Va., Sept. 18th, 1781, Peggy Strother (dau. of Mary Kennerly Strother, b. Sept. 10th, 1746, married (1) George Strother of Culpeper Co., Va., (2) Patrick Lockhart, who d. at Fincastle, Va., in 1809; d. at Fotheringay, Va., June 2d, 1830), who was b. Sept. 16th, 1763.

The children of George 2d and Peggy Strother his wife, were:

1. Mary, b. Friday, Feb. 14th, 1783; married J. D. Griffin; d. Apr. 26th, 1826, leaving three sons and one daughter. 2. Caroline, b. Saturday, Mar. 26th, 1785; married Wm. Preston; d. at Louisville, Ky. 3. John Strother, b. Sunday, Mar. 25th, 1787; d. Aug. 2d, 1795. 4. Julia, also called Judith, b. Monday, Nov. 21st, 1791; married William Clark, Jan. 5th, 1808, at Fincastle, Va.; d. at Fotheringay, Va., June 27th, 1820, leaving four sons and one daughter. 5. George 3d, b. Good Friday, Apr. 6th, 1798; married (1) E. Croghan (dau. of Wm. Croghan and Lucy Clark, of Locust Grove), (2) Mary Davidson, of New Orleans, Miss.

The children of William Clark and Julia Hancock his first wife, were:

1. Meriwether Lewis 1st: b. St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 10th, 1809; married (1) Abby Churchill, Louisville, Ky., Jan. 9th, 1834; he died at Frankfort, Ky., Oct. 28th, 1881. His first wife was b. Louisville, Ky., Mar. 9th, 1817; d. St. Louis, Jan. 14th, 1852. Their children were: William Hancock, b. St. Louis, Mo., Dec. 25th, 1839, now living; Samuel Churchill, b. St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 12th, 1843, killed in battle of Elk Horn, at Pea Ridge, Ark., com’d’g the Clark battery, 10 a.m., Mar. 8th, 1862, buried at Fort Smith, Ark.; Mary Eliza, b. St. Louis, Mo., May 31st, 1845, d. Spring Grove, Ky., May, 1847; Meriwether Lewis 2d, b. Louisville, Ky., Jan. 27th, 1846, living; John O’Fallon 2d, b. St. Louis, Mo., July 7th, 1848, d. Frankfort, Ky., Feb., 1863, killed by accidental discharge of a pistol in hands of a schoolmate at Sayre Institute; George Rogers 2d, b. St. Louis, Mo., Apr. 19th, 1850, d. of yellow fever at Greenville, Miss.; Charles Jefferson, b. St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 10th, 1852, living. Meriwether Lewis 1st married (2) Julia Davidson, at Louisville, Ky., Dec. 30th, 1865; she was b. in New Orleans, La., July 8th, 1826, and is living; they had no issue.

2. William Preston: b. St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 5th, 1811; never married; d. there, suddenly, of heart disease, May 16th, 1840; buried at Athlone.

3. Mary Margaret: b. St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 1st, 1814; d. at Mrs. Preston’s, near Middletown, Ky., Oct. 15th, 1821; buried at Mulberry Hill, near Louisville, Ky.

4. George Rogers Hancock: b. St. Louis, Mo., May 6th, 1816; married there Eleanor Ann Glasgow, Tuesday, Mar. 30th, 1841. Their children were: Julia, b. St. Louis, 3 a.m., Friday, Mar. 6th, 1842; Sarah, Sadie, or Seddie Leonida, b. there 2 a.m., Oct. 6th, 1843, d. Dec. 18th, 1864; John O’Fallon 1st, b. there 3 p.m., Dec. 17th, 1844; Ellen Glasgow, b. there 3 p.m., Jan. 22d, 1846. He died Sept. 29th, 1858, at the residence of his half-brother, Jefferson K. Clark, at Minoma, St. Louis Co., Mo., in his 43d year, and was buried Oct. 2d, 1858, in Bellefontaine cemetery.

5. John Julius: b. St. Louis, July 6th, 1818; d. there Sept. 5th, 1831.

The children of William Clark and his second wife, Mrs. Harriet Kennerly Radford (widow of Dr. John Radford), who were married at St. Louis, Nov. 28th, 1821, were:

1. Thomas Jefferson or Jefferson Kearny, b. St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 29th, 1824; married Mary Susan Glasgow (dau. of William Glasgow, Sr.) there, May 8th, 1849: both are living there now (1893).

2. Edmund 2d, b. St. Louis, Sept. 9th, 1826; d. there, Aug. 12th, 1827.

The foregoing data for five generations are derived in part from records in the family bible of George Rogers Hancock Clark, copied Oct. 1st, 1881, by Frederick L. Billon, of St. Louis, and lately secured from him: in part from William Hancock Clark, who at my request obligingly prepared and furnished a tabular statement of the lineal issue of William Clark, living and dead at the present date of July, 1893. This genealogical chart, including two more generations, is published on a separate folding sheet with this work.

William Clark’s parents resided in Albemarle Co., Va., until their two eldest children had been born; when, in 1754, they removed to the vicinity of Charlottesville, Caroline Co., in the same State, where all their other children first saw the light. In 1784, or about that year, when William was 14 years old, they moved again to what was then called the Falls of the Ohio, now Louisville, Ky. Their place of residence was known as Mulberry Hill. Louisville at that time consisted merely of a few cabins clustered about a fortification which had been erected by his elder brother, George Rogers Clark.

William received his first title or distinction of any sort while yet a mere lad, being made a member of the Society of the Cincinnati on March 1st, 1787, before he had completed his seventeenth year. His original certificate of membership is extant; it bears the signatures of George Washington, President, and General Henry Knox, Secretary. His first military title was that of Ensign U.S.A., to which grade he was appointed in 1788. On the 8th of January, 1790, he received the following commission, which is curious enough to be presented in full. I copy from a careful copy of the original:

Territory of the UNITED STATES North West of the River Ohio

By HIS EXCELLENCY ARTHUR ST. CLAIR ESQ.

Governor and Commander in Chief of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio

To William Clark Esquire Greeting

You being appointed a Captain of Militia in the Town & vicinity of Clarksville—By Virtue of the Power vested in me, I do by these presents (reposing Special Trust and Confidence in your Loyalty, Courage and Good Conduct) commission you accordingly—You are therefore carefully and diligently to discharge the Duty of a Captain in leading, ordering and exercising said Militia in Arms, both Inferior Officers and Soldiers: and to keep them in good Order and Discipline. And they are hereby commanded to obey you as their Captain, and you are yourself to observe and follow such Orders and Instructions as you shall from Time to Time receive from me or your Superior Officers—

Given under my Hand, and the Seal of the Said Territory of the United States, the eighth day of January in the Year of our Lord 1790 and of the Independence of the United States of America, the fourteenth

At. St. Clair
By His Excellency’s Command
Winthrop Sargent Secretary

Captain Clark was commissioned as a lieutenant of infantry, March 7th, 1791, and assigned to the fourth Sub-Legion, Sept. 4th, 1792. While holding this rank, at the date of March 10th, 1793, he acted as adjutant and quartermaster. We find him on sick-leave in 1793, and July 1st, 1796, he resigned from the army on account of ill-health.

The year 1803 saw the beginning of Captain Clark’s real career, to which previous events of his life merely led up. His friend, Meriwether Lewis, at this time President Jefferson’s private secretary, who as an ensign had at one time served under Captain Clark’s orders, desired his association on equal terms in the conduct of the Expedition then about to be set on foot. Captain Clark assented, and the two young officers entered into those relations which linked their names forever. It is commonly said that Captain Clark re-entered the regular army under these circumstances in 1803. It is also said in Jefferson’s Memoir of Lewis, ante, that he was commissioned as a captain. These are mistakes. The commission he received was that of second lieutenant, Corps of Artillerists, and not the captaincy of Engineers he had been led to expect. The date of this commission was March 26th, 1804; his routine promotion to a first lieutenantcy came Jan. 31st, 1806. It will be recollected that his title was already that of captain, from prior military service; but during that Expedition, which was to convert all possible titles into sounding brass, his actual rank in the army was that of a subaltern. On this point, once a matter of some delicacy, now simply a question of historical accuracy, I am fortunately able to sink the biographer in the autobiographer. We will hear what Captain Clark once had to say on the subject himself.

In the extensive unpublished Clark-Biddle correspondence, mainly relating to the History of the Expedition, obligingly placed in my hands by Judge Craig Biddle, of Philadelphia, son of Nicholas Biddle, Esq., I find the following two letters:

Phila, July 8. 1814

Dr Sir,

[A page about engraving, etc., and then:] There is one and only one more thing about which I wish you would give me information. It is the exact relative situation in point of rank and command between Captain Lewis and yourself. I think you mentioned to me that your commission was that of Lieutenant of Engineers [read of Artillerists], which placed you completely on an equality with Captain Lewis who was a Captain of Infantry or Artillery [the former], and that in all other respects you were equal in command. I am desirous of being correct and I will get you to state to me whether I have understood you precisely, so as to avoid all errors on that subject. With my Compts to Mrs. Clarke [sic] I remain yrs sincerely

N[icholas]. B[iddle].
Gen’l William Clarke [sic]
St. Louis
Upper Louisiana

St. Louis 15th August 1811

Dear Sir,

By the last mail I had the honor of receiving your letter of the 8th of July, which I do assure you gave me much pleasure; as well to hear from you as to learn that you had got thro’ the work, and had it ready for the press as soon as Mr. Conrad pleased. I hope Mr. C. is getting it in a state of forwardness.—I feel convinced that your arrangement of the Map is a good one, I wish it was engraved and out.

You express a desire to know the exact relation which I stood in point of Rank and Command with Captain Lewis—equal in every point of view—(I did not think myself very well treated as I did not get the appointment which was promised me, as I was not disposed to make any noise about the business have never mentioned the particulars to anyone, and must request you not to mention my disappointment and the cause to anyone.—

In March [Mar. 7th] 1791 I was appointed a Lieut. in Wayne’s army and was kept on command about 18 months before I joined the main army [Sept. 9th, 1792]. When I joined I was annexed to a Chosen Rifle Company, of which I had the command, and received a Staff appointment, both of which I retained until after the Treaty at Greenville and at the time of taking possession of the Western posts, resigned [July 1st, 1796] and returned to a Farm in Kentucky on which I lived several years in bad health (Capt. Lewis was appointed an Ensign and arranged to the company which I commanded a few months before I resigned). During the time I [was] living on my Farm in Kent’y. I had frequent occasions to visit the Eastern States & Washington where I became acquainted with the Presid’t, Mr. Jefferson. In [July] 1803 I was applied to by Captain Lewis by Letter, who was then Private Sec’ty to the President, to accompany him on an Expedition to the Pacific, stating the gen’l plan and objects, and offered by the apprb’n of the President to place me in a situation in every respect equal to himself, in rank pretentions &c &c. On those conditions I agreed to undertake the expedition made my arrangements and set out, and proceeded on with Capt. Lewis to the mouth of the Missouri where we remained the winter 1803 made every necessary arrangement to set out early in spring 1804 every thing arranged I waited with some anxiety for the commission which I had reason to expect (Capt. of Engineers) a few days before I set out I received a Commission of 2nd Lieutenant of Artillerists [dated Mar. 26th, 1804], my feelings on this occasion was as might be expected. I wished the expedition success, and from the assurance of Capt. Lewis that in every respect my situation command &c &c. should be equal to his; viewing the Commission as merely calculated to authorize punishment to the soldiers if necessary, I proceeded. No difficulty took place on our rout relative to this point—On my return to this town, I inclosed the Commission to the Sec’ty of War and wrote to him that the Commission had answered the purpose for which it was intended &c

I do not wish that anything relative to this Com’n or appointment should be inserted in my Book, or made known, for very particular reasons, and I assure you that I have never related as much on the subject to any person before. Be so good as to place me on equal footing with Capt. Lewis in every point of view without exposing anything which might have taken place or even mentioning the Commission at all.

I hope you will do me the honor to write to me often and without reserve—Accept the acknowledgements of Mrs. Clark and myself for the friendly sentiments expressed in the latter part of your letter and accept of our warmest wishes for your health and happiness.

I remain your &c
Mr. Nichs. Biddle
Att’y at Law Phila.    Wm. Clark

No question concerning the relations of the two noble young officers during the Expedition is possible. On the one hand, it is certain that Captain Lewis was absolutely in command of the Expedition, taking official precedence over his lieutenant, Captain Clark, whom he outranked, and who was as fully subject to his lawful orders as any enlisted man of the party. On the other hand, it is not less certain that in their mutual relations the technical point was never raised between the two captains, and that the actual command and conduct of the Expedition devolved upon each in exactly equal degree.

It would appear from the foregoing letter that Captain Clark tendered his resignation in 1806, immediately upon his return to St. Louis. The official date of his resignation is Feb. 27th, 1807, and thus but a few days before that of the next commission which he received, a copy of a copy of which is as follows:

President of the United States of America

To all who shall see these Presents, Greeting

Know Ye, that reposing special trust and confidence in the patriotism, valour, fidelity and abilities of William Clark, I do by these presents appoint him the said William Clark, Brigadier General of the Militia of the Territory of Louisiana: He is therefore diligently to discharge the duty of Brigadier General—And he is to observe and follow such orders and directions from time to time as he shall receive from the President of the United States of America for the time being, or superior officer set over him according to the laws for regulating the Militia of said Territory—And I do strictly charge and require all officers and soldiers under his command to be obedient to his orders—This commission to continue in force until the end of the next Session of the Senate of the United States and no longer——

Given under my hand at the City of Washington the Twelfth day of March in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seven, and in the thirty-fourth year of the Independence of said States

By the President    Tho’s. Jefferson
[Seal]    H. Dearborn

With this commission General Clark was also made Indian Agent for Louisiana. In those days this title was not synonymous with “thief,” and the position was one of honor, not to be sought or used for dishonest purposes. I have examined much official correspondence (on file in the War Department) between General Clark and General Henry Dearborn, then Secretary of War. The official signature of the former is usually “Wm. Clark, I. A. L.”—sometimes written in full, as “Indian Agent for Louisiana.” Most of these letters bear dates of the first year of his agency, and their contents show that Agent Clark had his hands full at this time. I revert to some of his Indian affairs beyond.

General Clark was reappointed Brigadier General of the Militia of Louisiana, Feb. 27th, 1811, by President James Madison, William Eustis being Secretary of War.

Meanwhile he married Miss Julia Hancock, Jan. 5th, 1808, at Fincastle, Va. In that year also, the Grand Lodge of Ancient York Masons of Pennsylvania, having chartered St. Louis Lodge No. 111, William Clark was entered, passed, and raised therein, as witness his diploma of Sept. 18th, 1809, signed by Frederick Bates. On the 16th of November, 1810, he was appointed Inspector General of the Militia of Missouri, by Governor Benjamin Howard.

It will be convenient to continue with the list of official honors and dignities of which General Clark was the recipient. Governor Lewis had met his untimely fate in 1809. Governor Benjamin Howard, his successor, in 1810 (April 17th) was himself succeeded by General Clark, July 1st, 1813, as Governor of Missouri Territory, by virtue of the following appointment (copied from a copy of the original):

James Madison, President of the United States of America
To all who shall see these presents, Greeting

Know Ye, that reposing special Trust and Confidence in the Integrity, Patriotism and Ability of William Clark, of St. Louis—I do appoint him Governor in and near the Missouri Territory, and do authorize and empower him to execute and fulfil the duties of that office according to Law; and to Have and to Hold the said office with all the powers, privileges and emoluments to the same of right appertaining until the end of the next session of the Senate of the United States and no longer, unless the President of the United States for the time being should be pleased sooner to revoke and determine this Commission. In Testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be made patent and the Seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed—Given under my hand at the City of Washington the first day of July A. D. 1813; and of the Independence of the United States the Thirty Seventh.

James Madison
By the President:
James Monroe
Sec. of State.

Governor Clark was recommissioned as such, by the same, June 16th, 1816; as such, by the same, Jan. 21st, 1817; and as such, by James Monroe, President of the United States, John Quincy Adams being Secretary of State, Jan. 24th, 1820. The latter year determined his gubernatorial functions; for on the first election of a governor for the State of Missouri he was defeated by Alexander McNair. Nevertheless, he was soon placed in other important official positions. In May, 1822, President Monroe appointed him Superintendent of Indian Affairs; in October, 1824, he was commissioned by the same as Surveyor General of the States of Illinois and Missouri, and of the Territory of Arkansas; and on March 4th, 1825, he was recommissioned by President John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay being Secretary of State. He laid out the town of Paducah, Ky., in 1828, and in 1830 effected the important treaty of Prairie du Chien.

Meanwhile, the first Mrs. Clark having died, June 27th, 1820, General Clark married Mrs. Harriet Kennerly Radford, Nov. 28th, 1821. At the latter date he had had five children; the four sons were growing up; the only daughter, Mary, had died a few weeks before. Of the two children of the second marriage, the elder is still living (1893); the younger died in infancy. General Clark himself paid the debt of nature on the 1st of September, 1838, on the first day of the second month of his sixty-ninth year, at the residence of his eldest son. The Missouri Saturday News of Sept. 8th, 1838, appeared in mourning, and had a feeling and appreciative obituary, by the editor, Chas. Keemle, together with a poem to his memory, by Mr. Field. His funeral was the most impressive that had ever taken place in St. Louis; it was a public demonstration of the profound respect and warm affection of the community in which he had resided for more than thirty years, during the whole of which period he had been prominently identified with the administration of public affairs, both civil and military.

It is simply impossible, within the limits of a mere sketch like the present article, to do anything like justice to the full-rounded life of a man of William Clark’s remarkable personal character, versatile accomplishments, and brilliant achievements. What has preceded merely points to some of the milestones of his long journey; to fill in the details would require a volume, and that is a labor which must be left to his future biographer. Should it ever fall to my share, it would be assuredly a labor of love; for the study of a single episode in his career has filled me with the most vivid admiration for the man himself, aside from his exploits. The few bare facts which I have already presented will be found more numerous and more accurate than those which have hitherto appeared in any single article—so little does the world really know of some of our greatest men! I am tempted to desist at this point from any further presentation of a subject my treatment of which must necessarily be inadequate, and, therefore, in a case where personal name and fame are concerned, unjust. But since I am in possession of some datum-points of Clark’s career which are either entirely unknown or inaccurately known, these may be appropriately placed on record here and now, with the understanding that they shall be taken as materials only, and not as a finished work. I will first present some items touching the man of business: next give some illustrations of what the Indians thought of this friend; and finish with various particulars pertinent to any history of that exploration which immortalized twin names.

Mr. Clark was eminently a man of affairs, who could turn a trade as well as he did various other things. Some of his transactions are of record. On Aug. 18th, 1808, Peter Chouteau and wife transferred to him, for $800, 1,400 arpents of land in St. Louis Co., 2½ leagues N.W. of St. Louis, bounded on the north by a tract belonging to Meriwether Lewis. On Jan. 7th, 1811, he bought of Alexander McNair, for $1500, the north half of block No. 9, 120 French feet on Main Street, St. Louis, running east to the river, with the old French house built of posts by Rene Kiersereau, and the three small stone stores of Alexis Marie. He lived here for a time, and had his Indian office in one of these stores, where is now the corner of Main and Pine streets. On Oct. 7th, 1814, he purchased from Jno. G. Comegys, for $1,000, 47 feet front on Main street, back east to the river, in block 10, between Pine and Olive streets. Here he built, in 1816, on the south, 21 feet front, a two-story brick house, when only about half a dozen structures of that material existed in St. Louis. The lower story was used as a store; the upper was first occupied by the Missouri Masonic Lodge No. 12 for a couple of years; from 1823 to 1827 it was occupied by Mr. Frederick L. Billon, the noted annalist of St. Louis (b. Apr. 23d, 1801, and still living, 1893). The north 26 feet front was sold to James Kennerly, for $3,500, July 19th, 1821. On Dec. 13th, 1815, Mr. Clark bought from Antoine Flandrin, for $1,300, the N.E. quarter of block 39, on the S.W. corner of Main and Almond streets, with the house built of posts by N. Beaugenou in 1765. The first marriage ever recorded in St. Louis, that of B.’s daughter, in April, 1766, took place in this house. Mr. Clark occupied it for two or three years, and after him Captain M. Wherry for several more. On April 2d, 1816, Mr. Clark purchased of Col. A. Chouteau, for $4,500, the north half of block 12, on the S.E. corner of Main and Vine streets, with the old stone house built by Louis Chancellier in 1767. This structure was removed; in 1818-19 Mr. Clark erected here his large brick mansion, and afterward his brick row south of it for his Indian council-house and museum of Indian curiosities. But after these and other dealings in real estate, Mr. Clark died in the house which had been the year before bought from George Atchison by Meriwether Lewis Clark.

Almost throughout the History of the Expedition we read of fur-bearing animals, and of the fur-trade. It does not surprise us to learn that Captain Clark became pecuniarily interested in this then remunerative and flourishing industry, in which many thousands of men were engaged and a vast amount of capital was invested. One of the earliest if not the first indications of activity on his part in this direction is of record at the date March 7th, 1809, when were associated, for the purposes of a trading-camp on the Missouri, Benjamin Wilkinson, Pierre Chouteau, Sr., Auguste Chouteau, Jr., Manuel Lisa, Reuben Lewis, William Clark, and Sylvestre Labbadie, all of St. Louis; Pierre Menard, and William Morrison, of Kaskaskia; Andrew Henry, of Louisiana, and Dennis Fitzhugh, of Kentucky. The Louisiana Gazette of Feb. 1st, 1812, prints the following advertisement: “Missouri Fur Company. Capital $50,000; 50 shares at $1,000. Sylvestre Labbadie, Wm. Clark, and Manuel Lisa, the old Company, hold $27,000 in goods, &c., up the Missouri River. Subscriptions desired for the remaining $23,000.”

We have every reason to believe that a fair share of profit accrued from most if not all of William Clark’s business ventures. The same cannot be said of the only literary enterprise with which his name ever was or ever will be associated. The inside history of Lewis and Clark’s immortal book is a yawning chasm between cash and glory. Lewis was dead; Clark pushed the work to publication. His total receipts from this business were no dollars and no cents; but the assignees of his insolvent publishers, who had failed while the book was in press, generously gave him the copper-plates, as likewise permission to try it again, if he liked to be literary. These old coppers are serviceable at present writing as paper-weights on my desk; but Captain Clark never ventured to avail himself of the copyright thus made over to him.

General and Governor Clark was known far and wide to the Indians as the “Red-head.” It is significant of his repute among them that St. Louis was for them simply the Red-head’s town—as we should say, “Clarksville.” The pith of this whole matter is in the words of a Sac chief who had been called in council by Major Benjamin O’Fallon at St. Louis, April 3d, 1821, on the subject of certain hostilities which were to be suppressed: “American chief! We have opened our ears to your words and those of the Red-head. Brother! We receive you as the son of the Red-head; inasmuch as we love him, we will love you and do not wish to offend you.” General Clark possessed in an eminent degree those personal qualities which commanded the respect of Indians as well as of all other persons whose privilege it was to know him; they recognized in him a great chief, whether friend or foe. They saw he preferred to be the former; and they found this to be to their own advantage. They compared his fair and honorable dealings with the lying and cheating which to them were no novel elements in the character of many whites with whom they were brought in contact; they discovered him to be a man of his word; and they reposed unbounded confidence in all that he said. Probably no officer of the government ever made his personal influence more widely and deeply felt; his superintendency grew to be a sort of lawful autocracy, wielded in the best interests of all concerned, on the strong principle of even-handed justice; his word became Indian law, from the Mississippi to the Pacific. Thousands of Indians had made his personal acquaintance when he traveled among them; and in later years there could have been few who did not regard his signature as “medicine” of the most salutary sort.

We sometimes hear of persons who are credited with great insight into what is called “the Indian character.” Granting that Indians have all the defects of their qualities, and that some of these are peculiar to this remarkably picturesque race of men, it does not follow that there is not as much human nature in an Indian as in any other person. No professional secret is violated in saying that to treat an Indian as if he were a human being is to encourage him to return the compliment. General Clark received back from the Indians only what he gave out to them; reciprocity in fair dealing was established; for the rest, they recognized his superiority in mental and material resources; they felt and feared his power. Had he not been at heart their sincere friend and well-wisher—had the moral element been eliminated from the equation—had he only made terms with them with the idea that it is cheaper to feed than to fight Indians—he never could have acquired that ascendency which enabled him to exercise perfect control. During his long administration of Indian affairs, beginning soon after his return from the Expedition, and ending only with his life, he was instrumental in bringing about many important treaties, not only between his government and the Indians, but also between different tribes of the latter. He was master of a situation whose possibilities, both for good and evil, were enormous; in his hands, possible evil turned to certain good. This man was a large factor in the civilization of that great West which Lewis and Clark discovered. It may be said of him with special pertinence, stat magni nominis umbra—for the explorer stands in the shadow of his own great name as such, obscuring that of the soldier, statesman, diplomat, and patriot. The world is slow to concede the greatness of any man in more than one thing.

We will now turn to the light another facet in the complex of this many-sided man, namely, his instrumentality in the publication of that History of the Expedition which was rewritten for the press by Nicholas Biddle from the manuscript journals and field notebooks of Lewis and Clark. Captain Lewis is believed, no doubt rightly, to have been on his way East to attend to this matter when he met his fate; whereupon, that duty devolved upon his comrade, and was almost immediately assumed by him. My information upon this score is not less accurate than extensive, and will be found almost entirely novel, as it is derived mainly from the never published Clark-Biddle correspondence, now in my hands. These letters speak autobiographically for themselves, and I will therefore select a few for presentation. The one of earliest date is as follows:

Near Fincastle Virga, 20th, Feby 1810
Dear Sir

I expected to have had the pleasure of hereing from you previous to my setting out from Philadelphia but as I did not receve a note from you at that time calculated on receeving a letter from you at this place on the Subject of writing my Western Tour &c, as I have been disappointed in hereing from you on this Subject feel my self much at a loss to adress you—I shall not employ the gentleman in Richmond to write the Book whom I mentioned haveing in view, from his offer made previous to my seeing you. I have calculated on your writing for me, and if you will undertake this work; cant you come to this place, where I have my books and memorandoms and stay with me a week or two; read over & make yourself thereby acquainted with everything which may not be explained in the Journals? if you will come it may enable me to give you a more full view of those parts which may not be thereby explained and inable you to proceed without deficuilty, Such parts as may not be full, I can explain, and add such additional matter as I may recollect—

I brought the Books with me to Copy such parts as are intended for the Botanical work which I shall send to Doctr. Barton, and will deliver the Books to you if you will engage to write the naritive &c, I mentioned to Mr John Conrad of Philadelphia to request you to come on here if possible and spend a short time. I am at present with Col. Hancock my father in Law who is on a retired and plesently situated [place] in view of the Town of Fincastle—should you Come on to this place, I would advise the rout by Hagerstown Winchester & Staunton in the Stage which passes this place once a week.—

Please to write me on the subject of this letter, your intentions and accept my Highest respect & esteem

Your Obe Servt
Wm Clark

Mr. Nicholis Biddle
Phila.

This letter is folded, sealed without envelop, superscribed “Nicholis Biddle esquire Atty at Law Philadelphia,” marked by postmaster, in MS., “Fincastle Feb’y 25th 20” [cents], and indorsed by Mr. Biddle, “From Genl W. Clarke 20 Feby. 1810.”

Philada, March 3. 1810
Sir,

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 20th Feby which reached me yesterday—Before you receive this my brother’s note will have apprized you that it will be out of my power to undertake what you had the politeness to offer, and the only object of the present is to renew my regret at being obliged to decline complying with your wishes. My occupations necessarily confine me to Phila, and I have neither health nor leisure to do sufficient justice to the fruits of your enterprize and ingenuity—You cannot be long however without making a more fortunate selection, but if I can be of any assistance to you here in the proposed publication it shall be very cheerfully given,

Being with high respect
Yr obt s
N. Biddle

Genl Wm Clark.
FinCastle
Virginia

Before Mr. Biddle could have heard from General Clark again he changed his mind and wrote as follows:

Philadelphia
Saturday March 17, 1810.

Sir,

I had the pleasure of writing to you on the 3d inst. upon the subject of your intended publication—Being unwilling to disappoint you, I was afraid of undertaking a work which I feared I might not be able to execute to my own and your satisfaction. Having since then seen Mr. Conrad, & Dr Barton, what I learnt from them, joined with a prospect of better health & more time than I had originally expected induced me to consent provided you had not in the mean time, as I thought probable, made a better choice. Mr Conrad mentioned to me to day that your last letter of the 9th inst. represents you as under no engagements of that sort. I will therefore very readily agree to do all that is in my power for the advancement of the work; and I think I can promise with some confidence that it shall be ready as soon as the publisher [Mr. John Conrad] is prepared to print it. Having made up my mind to devote myself to it, I am desirous that no delay should occur on my part. As therefore you express a wish that I should see you, I am arranging my business so as to leave this on Wednesday next, & take the route by Hagerstown Winchester &c. In this way I hope to make you a short visit very soon after the receipt of my letter. In the mean time I remain with high respect Yrs &c N. Biddle

Genl Wm Clark.
Fincastle
Virginia

But before General Clark received the above he wrote:

Fin Castle Vga March 25th, 1810
Dear Sir

I was extreamly sorry to find by your letter of the 3rd, inst. that your health was bad, and that your Occupation would confine you to Philadelphia, and would not afford your leasure to Comply with my wishes of writing my Journals &c. The proffered assistance in the later part of your letter, creates much solicitude and my most sincere acknowledgements for the friendly sentiments it contains.

I am much gratified by Mr. Conrads letter of the 13th inst. to learn the state of your health; and that you are willing to undertake the writing of my Journal, and to have it ready for publication in 12 months &c.

Mr Conrad also informs me that you will comply with my request to see me at this place before I set out to the westward. The roads are now fine and I hope your health may have permitted you to have set out before this time. I must request you to Come on, as soon as possible, as my business call me to Louisiana; and nothing detains me, but the business I wish with you

With the highest respect & esteem
I am yr ob Sert.
Mr. N. Biddle                                                          Wm Clark

Mr. Biddle, having made his visit, returned home, and began to write the book. Mr. George Shannon, who was one of the members of the Expedition, next appears on the scene:

Louisville, May 22nd. 1810

Dear Sir

This will be handed to you by Mr. George Shannon the young man I spoke to you about, who was with me on the N W expedition; he has agreed to go to Philadelphia and give such information rilitive to that Tour as may be in his power. This young gentleman possesses a sincere and undisguised heart, he is highly spoken of by all his acquaintance and much respected at the Lexington University where he has been for the last two years. Any advice and friendly attentions which you may show to this young man will be greatfully acknowledged by him, and confur an additional obligation on me.

Mr. S connections are respectable. Since the misfortune of loseing his leg, he has been studeously employed in persute of an edducation to enable him to acquire a profession by which he can make an honorable and respectable liveing—he wishes to study Law, and practice in the Western Country.

May I request of you to give him such advice or assistance as may be agreeable & convenient to you to enable him to prosue those studies while in Phila.

Accept my highest respect & Friendship
Mr. N. Biddle                                                          Wm Clark

The History of the Expedition having been thus launched, Mr. Biddle was already navigating the Missouri, en route to the Pacific and back. We have a glimpse of his progress in the following extract of an eight-page letter:

Philadelphia July 7. 1810

My Dear Sir,

ever since my return to Philadelphia I have been engaged seven or eight and even more hours a day on our work, . . . the map was immediately forwarded to Mr. Hassler, and Dr Barton received all his papers. On consulting with Mr Conrad he agreed with me in opinion that it was much better to have a large connected map of the whole route & the adjacent country than to form an atlas of detached parts. The map can embrace as many degrees of latitude as you think your Indian information will authorize. . . The portages of the Columbia & Missouri we have already & they will form very interesting charts which may be put into the work opposite to the pages which contain a description of them [which was done]. The only other part which I think it would be well to have on a larger scale than is contained in the general map is the passage across the Rock mountains—that is, the country comprized between the head of Jefferson’s river northward to the point where you struck the Kooskooskee and extending eastward to the falls [of the Missouri]. As that square is so important a part of your route it should be shown very distinctly. In all other respects your present map, on a scale rather larger, and diminished or increased as to degrees of latitude [i. e., taking in less or more country north and south of the route] as you may judge best, will be quite sufficient. [But the map as published was on a scale much reduced from the original.]

On my arrival I found that proposals were circulating here for a second edition of Gass’s journal [of which three Philadelphia editions did appear—1810, 1811, 1812], which I thought it best to stop by announcing immediately our work & therefore published the Prospectus. I see also by the English journals that some man in England has printed a sort of account of the Expedition, compiled from Gass chiefly, and from the documents which you and Captain Lewis sent to Congress. The work seems to have met with a favorable reception in England, which is a good sign for our own. . .

Today I have sent you and ten men up into a bottom to look for wood to make canoes after the unhappy failure of your iron boat; so that you see how far I am [on July 7th, 1805—above Great Falls of the Missouri: see p. 407]. . .

I find that Gass’s journal in the original manuscript is also deposited in our library [of the Philosophical Society], and at my service. Ordway’s, which is much better than Gass’s, is really very useful; and as these two as well as your’s and Captain Lewis’s and my own notes are all to be examined, in order to leave nothing omitted, the labor is by no means light. . . Shannon has not yet arrived. . .

I must now begin my catechism of inquiries with which you remember I importuned you not a little when I had the pleasure of seeing you [cf p. 31]. . .

In the mean time I remain with my best respects to Mrs. Clarke, & my very warmest wishes for your fine little son [Meriwether Lewis Clark].

Your’s very sincerely

Gen William Clarke                                                          Nicholas Biddle
St Louis
Upper Louisiana

The next letter in point of date is a long one from Mr. F. R. Hassler, who was getting up the map, dated Schenectady, Aug. 12th, 1810, full of astronomical calculations for longitude, etc. It is addressed to Mr. Biddle. The next on my file is from General Clark:

St. Louis Decr. 20th, 1810

Dear Sir

I herewith Inclose to you a map which I have drawn for my Book, it is much more correct than any which has been before published, it is made on the same scale of the one you have, containing more Country, I wish you to anex as much of it to the book as you think best, you will observe that I have not inclosed it in lines,—The Ohio is not correct, mearly shows the rivers as they mouth—I am sorry that I could not get the calculations from Mr. Hosler [Hassler] to correct the map, but I hope it will doe without. This package is inclosed to the Secty of War to be fowarded.—

I have not collected any information since my last letter to you.

I think I mentioned having heard a rumbling noise at the falls of Missouri, which was not accounted for, and you accounted for them by simelating them to Avelanchers of the Alps.

Please to give my compliments to Geo Shannon and accept my sincere friendship. I shall write you again soon.

Wm Clark
Mr. Biddle

The above-mentioned map is doubtless that one of which the draughtsman’s (Mr. Samuel Lewis’) copy was finally engraved and published with the work.

St Louis Januy 29th, 1811

Dear Sir

I hope you have received my several letters my new map, and sundery other papers relative to such information as I could collect. Inclosed I send you some rough notes which I made at the Mandans the 1st year of my tour, perhaps you may collect from this something which you may wish to know.—A copy of these notes were sent to Mr. Jefferson from the Mandans—I send this as I have sent several others papes thro’ the Secty of War. I should be hapy to here from you on the subject of my book.

Accept the assurance of my highest respect & esteem

Your Friend

Wm Clark.
Mr. Nicholis Biddle
Philadelphia

We may pass over several letters relating to the progress of the work under Mr. Biddle’s editorship, but must include the following announcement that he had completed it—for this letter also opens up the long chapter of accidents that befell the fateful History.

Phila July 4, 1812

Dear Sir,

I have been for some time anxiously expecting you in Phila, but observing by the papers that you were at Louisville about the middle of June I write this in expectation that it will find you in Pittsburgh.

It is now almost a whole year since on the 8th of July 1811 I wrote to you that I had completed the work agreeably to our engagement, & was ready to put it to the press whenever Mr. Conrad chose. Since that time I have been constantly endeavouring to commence the publication not only from a regard to the interests of both of us, but because while this work remained in my hands it interfered very much with all my other occupations, besides that the work would lose some of its interest by so much delay. Last winter I was prevented from going to the legislature chiefly by a desire to stay & superintend the printing, yet notwithstanding all my exertions the publication has been prevented from time to time till at last Mr. Conrad’s difficulties have obliged him to surrender everything to his creditors & give up business. This misfortune is very much to be regretted on his account, & I am sorry that we did not know sooner that he would not be able to publish. But since things have taken this turn, it is perhaps better that the printing was not begun than that we should be entangled with his assignees, since now we can place it in other hands. I have already spoken to Mr. Bradford, one of the best booksellers here, & if we come to an arrangement he can soon print the work. I am in hopes that he will take it on the same terms as Mr. Conrad did, but Mr. Conrad has been so embarrassed & occupied that they have not yet been able to understand each other. In a few days however I expect that some agreement can be made & then we can proceed vigorously & soon get the volumes out.

I am truly yrs
N. B.

So this publisher failed and assigned just as the book was ready to go to press—and as we shall see another publisher failed just before it came out. But those were war times, and nothing was secure. General Clark replied promptly:

Washington City Augt. 6th, 1813

Dear Sir

On my arrival at this place I recved your letter of the 4th of July, in which you inform me the falue [failure] of Mr. Conrad, and the State of our work. Mr. Conrad has disapointed us both I find; he has disapointed me in a way I had not the smallest suspicion of.

I think we might have expected from him some intimition of his situation which would [have] prevented a delay of the work—

I hope you have suckceeded in engageing Mr. Bradford to print the work and in makeing such other arrangements as you may have thought best—I expect to go on to Philadelphia in a week or ten days, where I hope to have the pleasure to meet you; as I shall take Indian Chiefs with me, it will not be in my power to stay in your City as long as I could wish. I must therefore intrude on your goodness and assistance.

Mrs. Clark and my two sons came on with me as far as Hagers Town from thence they proceded to Col. Hancocks to remain untill our deficueltes are adjusted to the N W.

Accept of my wormest Solicitations

Yours Truly

Wm Clark
Nicholas Biddle Esq
Phila.

The course of publication never ran more crookedly than about this time, and was as full of shoals as the Kooskooskee. Here is an interesting letter from a great man—one who, however, was greater in steering boats than books:

Philadelphia September 5th, 1812

Dear Sir

I had the pleasure of receiving your letter of the 24th ulto, two days ago at this place, and am extreemly sorry that you were not in the City dureing the time of my remaining in the place, which has been four days, my only Individl. business here was to see you, and make some arrangements respecting the publication of the work (Lewis and Clarks Journal). From the situation of my publick duties, I am compelled to return tomorrow without effecting the objects of my wishes—I have expected you for two days, and have delayed one longer than the Contract made with the man to Carry the Indian Chiefs to Pittsburgh autherised—I am a publick officer and must move with a parcel of people (Indians) who are placed under my Charge.

Cant I persuade you to become Interested in Lewis and Clarks work, I hope you will Concent, and under that hope I take the liberty of offering you the half of every profit arising from it, if you will attend to it, have it Completed as far as it is possible and necessary, prented published &c, including the advances which have and may be necessary &c. If you will agree to this proposition (which I hope you will) please to write to me at Pittsburgh or Louisville, inclose agreements which I can excutee there; and I will send you orders for such specimens &c. as are in the hands of Mr. Conrad and other gentlemen in this City.

Should you not incline to become interested in this way, be so good as to write to me at pittsburgh, and give me your oppinion on this subject.

I have not seen Mr. Bradford, thinking it probable you would become interested and Could make a much better bargain with him than I could.

Doctr. Bartain [Barton] says he can do his part in a very short time. should you become interested you will in Course employ some other persons if the Doctr. should not please you.

Please to write to me as soon as possible and accept the assurence of my highest respect and Esteem.

Yr most Ob He Sert
Mr. Nichs. Biddle                                                          Wᴹ Clark

It began to look very much as if no publisher could be found willing to undertake Lewis and Clark. For example:

Dear Sir

Johnson & Warner have, at last, positively declined making any sort of offer for Genl Clarkes book, & from their conversation seem to have so incorrect an idea of the value of the work and probable profits arising from the publication of it, that it would in my opinion be useless to make them an offer, there is not the smallest probability of their acceding to a fair and reasonable one.—Mr. Dobson also appears to have little inclination to embark in the work and declines making proposals for it—I can now, I believe, do nothing more in the business for you or Genl Clarke, unless you will permit me to substitute advice for services. If I may do this, I will say very decidedly, agree to Mr. Bradfords offer. It is I am confident the best bargain you can make for Genl Clarke.—The copyright I presume will be in him (Genl C.) & I suppose he will derive the entire benefit of the sale of the M. S. in England—

Yours sincerely
John Conrad
[To N. B.] Philada Nov 12, 1812.

Phila Feby 23. 1813

Dear Sir

. . . The times have thrown some obstacles in the way of our work which have prevented its making as much progress as I could have wished. Soon after you left us I consulted Mr. Bradford, but finding his terms not such as I thought advantageous I made proposals to all the booksellers in town. The stagnation in that branch of business however was so great that no one was willing to embark in it, and after a great deal of fruitless negociation I was obliged to return and on the advice of Mr. Conrad accept Mr. Bradford’s proposals. This I was desirous of deferring in hopes of obtaining better terms, but none could be had owing to the nature of the times. I now wait only for the engravers who will soon I hope finish their work and then we can strike off the printing immediately & in a little time the work will be published. The agreement with Mr. Bradford you will see when you arrive, but as I am not sure whether you are not already on this side of Washington I will add no more than that I am

Very sincerely
Genʳ William Clarke                                                          Yrs
Washington                                                                          N. B.

The spectacle of a Biddle begging all Philadelphia to publish Lewis and Clark! Mr. Conrad’s advice proved sound. Mr. Biddle was forced to Mr. Bradford’s terms. These were doubtless as liberal as the latter could afford to make them—for the sequel showed that Bradford and Inskeep would fail even before they could publish the book.

The next document I possess is a power of attorney—ominous of much litigation to come:

I William Clark of the Missouri territory do hereby constitute Nicholas Biddle of Philada my lawful Attorney in all things relative to my transactions with Bradford & Inskeep or any other persons concerned in the publication of Lewis & Clark’s travels, and do hereby empower him for me to demand, recover & receive all my claims and rights thereto or to the profits thereof—make such arrangements and commence such legal processes, consent to such compromises as he may judge proper & generally to do every thing relative to the said work as fully as I could were I personally present—with power also to make such substitutes as he may think advisable, Hereby ratifying whatever he or his substitutes may lawfully do in the premises. In witness whereof I have set my hand and seal hereto this 29th day of March 1813 at Philadelphia

Witness at signing                                       Wᴹ Clark [Seal.]
Benj O’Fallon

Meanwhile the work was put to press by Bradford and Inskeep. The composition and presswork occupied about one year, in the course of which the publishers became insolvent, and made an assignment. I have inspected the original manuscript of the balance-sheet headed “Dr. Lewis and Clarks Travels in acc. currt. with the Estate of Bradford & Inskeep, Cr.,” showing every item of debit and credit. The net price of the books was $6.00 the set, with various discounts to the trade of 50 per cent. or less. The cost of manufacture, etc., was $3,496.97. The total sales credited amounted to $5,535.47, showing a profit. This, however, was offset by amt. of unpaid bills, $686.27; and of bad debts and cops. not paid for, $1,198.13—altogether a debit of $5,381.37, against a credit of $5,535.47, reducing net profits to $154.10. Whereupon, one Paul Allen appears on the scene for the first time to the naked eye of history, with a claim for alleged services of $500, or so much thereof as he had not taken out in trade with the publishers; which more than wiped out the nominal credit of $154.10. This dismal story is not quite told yet. The edition was ostensibly of 2,000 copies; but when the above-described balance-sheet was drawn up, there were 392 of them lacking plates, probably not delivered because certain bills were unpaid; there were 35 otherwise defective copies, and 156 copies were missing, “supposed to be destroyed in binder’s or printer’s hands.” Deducting 583 copies, defective or missing, from an ostensible edition of 2,000, it appears that no more than 1,417 perfect copies of Lewis and Clark ever existed.

Thus, by dint of luck, pluck, and perseverance on the part of the surviving author and his steadfast editor, the History that was to make so much history appeared, in February, 1814. If we take the day on which was made the first sale credited in the above account, as that of actual publication, the exact date was Feb. 20th, 1814. Mr. Biddle soon afterward announced the fact of publication to Governor Clark, as follows:

Phila. March 23, 1814.

My dear Sir,

I have at last the pleasure of informing you that the travels are published, that they have sold very well I understand, and have been well thought of by the readers. Henceforth you may sleep upon your fame, which must last as long as books can endure. Mr. Bradford has I presume sent you a copy of the work. The gentleman who received and prepared it for the press, Mr. Allen, is a very capable person [!], and as I did not put the finishing hand to the volumes I did not think it right to take from him the credit of his own exertion and care by announcing personally the part which I had in the compilation. I am content that my trouble in the business should be recognized only by the pleasure which attended it and also by the satisfaction of making your acquaintance, which I shall always value. I could have wished that your time had permitted you to revise the whole of the work, as no doubt some errors and inadvertencies have from the nature of the volumes and the circumstances attending the publication crept into them. I hope however that you will not find them very numerous or important.

Let me hear from you often. Neither you nor I are great letter writers but I will always be happy to learn that you are well and your affairs prosperous, with my comp’ts to Mrs. Clark I am very truly,

N. Biddle.
Gen. Wm. Clark,
St Louis.

Mr. Biddle doubtless had reasons satisfactory to himself for surrendering to another the credit justly his own, as well as for his rosy vision of Mr. Paul Allen’s ability; but both these are beyond my comprehension. General Clark’s private opinion in this matter is equally occult. We do not hear from him on the subject of the History, in correspondence with Mr. Biddle, until Sept. 16th, 1814, when, in the course of a long letter from St. Louis, on military and domestic topics, he simply says:

“I have borrowed a Copy of my Book which has reached this place but have not had time to read it as yet.”

The rest of the inside history of the book, as represented in this correspondence, is simply the dreary story of lawyering in settlement of an insolvent estate. Mr. Biddle had full power of attorney from General Clark, as we have seen; he was able and indefatigable in his efforts to protect and benefit his client. The case dragged its slow length along till 1818; and much of the correspondence is between the lawyers on each side. Charles Chauncey, Esq., atty. at law; Thomas Astley, ditto; Mr. G. W. Thomas (with an offer to take the remaining stock of books on certain terms); Mr. Mathew Carey (publisher of the Phila. eds. of Gass); Mr. Paul Allen (whining in accents of injured innocence); and others too numerous to specify, appear on the scene; the arithmetic of the eminent counsel for and against the estate of Bradford and Inskeep fetched out variant sums—in fine, no feature of total failure was lacking, for the devil on two sticks had stalked through the whole business. Far from this scene of legal action after mercantile disaster, in St. Louis, was General Clark, who seems to have been slow to realize that nothing can be made of nothing. In 1816 he is still anxious to know how his book-property stands. One letter brings up yet another aspect to the case:

St. Louis March 31st 1816.

Dear Sir

. . . As Doctr. Marks the half Brother of Gov Lewis has expressed to me in a letter some concern about his brothers interest in the Books, and asked of me for a power of Atty. to receive of the publisher the Books I must request you to deliver to the order of his mother Mrs. Marks, such Books Papers &c. as you may think Govr Lewis’s Heirs should receive at least fully the one half of my part. . .

Your mo. ob.t Hʳ Sert
[To N. B.]                                                          Wm Clark

But the half of nothing is nothing again; and having already mentioned the fact that in the final settlement of the unhappy affair, General Clark’s total receipts were some copper-plates and the right to bring out a second edition—of neither of which did he ever avail himself—I will conclude a history of the History with the following letter:

St Louis Dect. 28th, 1817

Dear Sir

Your letter of the 21st of October informing me of the State of my business with the asse of Messt. Bradford & Inskeep in relation to the publication of Lewis & Clarks Journal was only received a few days ago; The proposition made by Mr. Astley as recommended by you meets my decided approbation; I have written to the mother of the late Govʳ Lewis [Mrs. Marks] & sent her a statement of the accounts, and asked her to assent to the arrangement. This measure is important to me as it enables me to satisfy the old lady who I have reasons to believe has been persuaded that profit arrising from that work has been received. I wish something done with the Copy rights but what should be done I cant say, must leave it to your own judgement and better experience. I am realy sorry that you have been at so much trouble in acting for me; I console myself that I may yet have it in my power to do you a service; Mrs. Clark joins me in Compliments, respectfully to Mrs. Biddle & hope you will accept my best wishes.

Your Obt Hle Servant
Wm Clark

Such were the throes of delivery to the world of an immortal book. It only remains for me to close a very imperfect memoir of one of its authors by setting forth the disposition made of the precious manuscripts upon which the original and the present editor both worked. If the patient reader will turn to the plate which is bound in front of this Memoir, he will find reproduced in facsimile a letter from General Clark to Mr. Biddle, dated Washington, 27th Jany., 1818, in which the former indicates his wishes in this matter, concerning those volumes of the Journals and Field Notebooks of Lewis and Clark which Mr. Biddle had in his possession, and certain other manuscript records of the Expedition. All of these writings were deposited by Mr. Biddle with the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, with the exception of Ordway’s journal (presumably returned to General Clark), and perhaps with the further exception of Gass’ MS. journal (to which all clew has been lost). The Biddle deposit was of fourteen (14) bound volumes of MS., the same being two (2) small marble-covered books, one (1) brown book, and eleven (11) red books; together with a number of loose letters and other documents. Meanwhile, in November, 1817, Mr. Jefferson had deposited with the same Society three (3) more bound volumes which had been in his hands, the same being two (2) small marble-covered notebooks, and one (1) red book. A thirteenth red book was also deposited about this time, but by whom is not now known; but it seems probable, from the letter of Mr. Jefferson cited in the note

The three MS. Vols. deposited by Mr. Jefferson have memoranda to such effect on the fly-leaves. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, by H. A. Washington, 8vo. ed. 1854, Washington, Taylor and Maury, include: Vol. VI., pp. 267-270, Letter to Alex. Humboldt, dated Dec. 6th, 1813, alluding to the L. and C. MSS., hoping the Biddle History will soon be out, etc. Vol. VI., pp. 595-597, Letter to M. Correa de Serra, dated Poplar Forest, Apr. 16th, 1816, giving an account, not quite correct, of the L. and C. MSS., as known to him. Vol. VII., pp. 91-93, Letter to M. Duponceau, dated Monticello, Nov. 7th, 1817, saying: “After his [Lewis’] death, I obtained, through the kind agency of Mr. Correa, from Mrs. Barton, three of those books [i. e., L. and C. MSS.], of which I knew there had been ten or twelve [there were at least 18], having myself read them. These were all she could find.” Some further light is thrown on the whereabouts of the L. and C. MSS., in the interval between the publication of the History and the final deposit of the MSS. with the Philosophical Society, by the following letter from Mr. Jefferson to General Clark, now on file in the Bureau of Rolls and Library of the State Department. As it is specially interesting in connection with General Clark’s somewhat peremptory requisition upon Mr. Biddle, above mentioned as being reproduced in facsimile, I will give it entire:

Monticello, Sep. 8. 1816

Dear Sir

The travelling journal of Govr. Lewis and yourself having been published some little time ago, I had hoped to hear that something was doing with the astronomical observations, the biographical chart, the Indian vocabularies, and other papers not comprehended in the journal published. With a view to have these given to the public according to the original intention, I got a friend to apply for them to mr Biddle in whose hands I understood them to be, referring him for authority to the instructions inserted in the life of Govr. Lewis prefixed to the journal. He said he could not deliver them even to the War office, without an order from you, it is to sollicit this order that I now trouble you, and it may be given in favor either of the War office or of myself, if the latter, I should deliver the astronomical observations to the Secretary at War, who would employ someone to make the calculations to correct the longitudes of the map, and to have it published thus corrected; and I should deliver the papers of natural history & the vocabularies to the Philos. Society at Philadelphia, who would have them properly edited, and I should deposit with them also for safekeeping the travelling pocket journals as originals to be recurred to on all interesting questions arising out of the published journal. I should receive them only in trust for the War office to which they belong, and take their orders relating to them. I have received from Dr. Barton’s exrs. 4 vols. of the travelling pocket journals, but I think there were 11 ori. the rest I suppose mr Biddle has. I hope the part I have had in this important voyage will excuse the interest I take in securing to the world all the beneficial results we were entitled to expect from it, and which would so fully justify the expences of the expedition incurred by the United States in that expectation. I salute you with constant friendship and respect,

Th: Jefferson

Genl. Wm. Clarke

With regard to this finishing of the deposit of the L. and C. MSS. with the Philosophical Society, see also Jeff. Papers, 2d ser., Vol. 51, Doc. No. 86, letter of N. Biddle to Wm. Tilghman, Phila., April 10th, 1818, endorsed by Jno. Vaughan. Mr. Vaughan was at the time the Recording Secretary of the Historical and Literary Class of the American Philosophical Society. A copy of the receipt he gave Mr. Biddle is before me, of date April 8th, 1818. That clause of this receipt which expresses the conditions of the custody of the MSS. is in these terms: “It is understood and agreed on the part of the Historical Committee in receiving these books and papers, that Governor William Clark his heirs or assigns shall at all times have the full use of them for any future edition of his travels. By order of the Historical Committee.”

below, that this was one of “four” books deposited by Mr. Jefferson, who certainly received that number (not three) from the executors of Dr. Barton’s estate. I have before me the original and also a copy, both in Mr. Biddle’s hand, of the letter making his own deposit, dated Philada., April 6th, 1818, and addressed to Hon. Wm. Tilghman, Chairman of the Historical Committee of the Philosophical Society; item, a copy of the receipt given by the Society in accepting the custody of these records. In the terms of this agreement it was expressly provided that William Clark, his heirs or assigns, were and are always to have access to and use of these manuscripts for the preparation of any other edition of the History. manent verba scripta—the “written words” slept the sleep of the just, while the printed words went round the world, during three-quarters of a century, till one day they awoke to a new lease of life. The following letter requires no comment beyond my profound acknowledgment of its significance:

Saint Louis, Nov. 25th, 1892.

President and Directors of the
Philosophical Society.

Gentlemen:—

According to the inventory and receipt given in 1818 by your Society for the papers and manuscripts of Lewis and Clark, explorers of the Missouri and Columbia rivers, it was agreed that the heirs of Genl. Clark should at all times have access to them for any future edition of his travels.

Mr. Elliott Coues is now engaged in writing one, and I request that you will let him have access and use of the manuscripts for that purpose.

Very respectfully,
[Signed] Jefferson K. Clark,
(only surviving son of
General William Clark).

My presentation of this letter, together with a formal request to be placed in possession of the MSS. for a limited period, resulted in an immediate vote by the Society in open meeting, Dec. 16th, 1892, by which the whole of this material passed into my hands. The present edition will show what use has been made of a golden opportunity to prepare for the twentieth century that History of the Expedition of Lewis and Clark which Mr. Biddle wrought for the nineteenth.

MEMOIR OF PATRICK GASS.

BY DR. COUES.

I compile the following biographical sketch of the famous Irish sergeant mainly from material presented by one who knew him well, Mr. J. G. Jacob, author of The Life and Times of Patrick Gass, cited on p. cxxiii, and editor of the Wellsburg Herald, of Wellsburg, W. Va. In private correspondence Mr. Jacob informs me that the substance of it appeared in the columns of his paper before it was made up in book form.

Gass was born June 12th, 1771, at Falling Springs, Cumberland Co., near what was afterward Chambersburg, Franklin Co., Pa. When Mr. Jacob wrote of him, in 1858, he was a hale, hearty old man, and already long the sole survivor of Lewis and Clark’s Expedition. His vigor and vitality were astonishing; the more so, considering the hardships he had long endured, and his many years of the besetting sin of an old soldier. In stature he was low, having in his most erect manhood never exceeded five feet seven; he was compactly built, broad-chested and strong-limbed, lean and wiry; only very late in life was he bowed and crippled with rheumatism. When nearly 99 years old he retained his mental faculties, and had a good, sound memory for the events of almost a century. He died April 3d, 1870.

In 1775 Gass’ father moved over South mountain into Maryland. From 1777 to 1780 the boy lived with his grandfather, and was supposed to go to school; but he says himself that he never learned to read, write, and cipher till he had come of age. His next recorded move was in 1780, memorable for the severity of its winter and the deplorable state of the American army. In 1782 the family “went west”—that is, across the Alleghenies. In 1784 they reached the forks of Yough, and located near Uniontown,

The post Memoir of William Clark (Coues, 1893) appeared first on Lewis & Clark Research Database.

BY DR. COUES,

EX-PRESIDENT JEFFERSON’S Memoir of Lewis is a noble and fitting tribute, leaving little to be desired as a contemporaneous biography. It has been accepted as authoritative and final, and has furnished the basis of every memoir of Lewis I have seen. As will be observed, however, I have found much historical matter to incorporate with it in the form of notes. What else I have to say concerns not Lewis’ life, but the circumstances of his death; and certain subsequent events, which may be brought together in the form of a supplement to Jefferson’s Memoir. The affirmation of suicide, though made without qualification, has not passed unchallenged into history; and the mystery of the tragic event will probably never be cleared up. Undoubtedly Jefferson wrote in the light of all the evidence that had reached him in 1813; but it appears that his view of the case was far from being that of persons who lived in the vicinity of the scene at the time. That Governor Lewis did not die by his own hand, but was murdered and robbed, was common report at the time, as vouched for by some persons still living; and the question came up in the Legislature of Tennessee at its session of 1849-50, in connection with the erection of the monument for which the Legislature had provided in 1848.

By far the most circumstantial account we have of the tragedy is that given by Alexander Wilson, the famous ornithologist, in a letter which was written to his friend and the engraver of his birds, Alexander Lawson, and which was published originally in The Portfolio, Vol. VII, No. 1, pp. 34-47, of date January, 1812, under the caption “Particulars of the Death of Capt. Lewis.” This was known and accessible to ex-President Jefferson; in fact, a letter from Paul Allen to him, which I have seen, calls his attention to it. But it is not noted in his Memoir of Lewis, and in the course of time has been practically forgotten, though it is included in the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart’s The Poems and Literary Prose of Alexander Wilson (2 vols., 8vo, Paisley, 1876). This important letter is dated “Natchez, Missisippi Ter., May 28th, 1811.” It tells the story of Lewis’ death as Wilson took it down from the lips of Mrs. Grinder, in her own house. I quote from The Portfolio those portions, pp. 36-38, which are pertinent to my purpose:

“. . . Next morning (Sunday) I rode six miles to a man’s of the name of Grinder, where our poor friend Lewis perished. In the same room where he expired, I took down from Mrs. Grinder the particulars of that melancholy event, which affected me extremely. This house or cabin is 72 miles from Nashville, and is the last white man’s as you enter the Indian country. Governor Lewis, she said, came there about sun-set, alone, and inquired if he could stay for the night; and, alighting, brought his saddle into the house. He was dressed in a loose gown, white, striped with blue. On being asked if he came alone, he replied that there were two servants behind, who would soon be up. He called for some spirits, and drank a very little. When the servants arrived, one of whom was a negro, he inquired for his powder, saying he was sure he had some powder in a canister. The servant gave no distinct reply, and Lewis, in the mean while, walked backwards and forwards before the door, talking to himself. Sometimes, she said, he would seem as if he were walking up to her; and would suddenly wheel round, and walk back as fast as he could. Supper being ready he sat down, but had eaten only a few mouthfuls when he started up, speaking to himself in a violent manner. At these times, she says, she observed his face to flush as if it had come on him in a fit. He lighted his pipe, and drawing a chair to the door sat down, saying to Mrs. Grinder, in a kind tone of voice, ‘Madam this is a very pleasant evening.’ He smoked for some time, but quitted his seat and traversed the yard as before. He again sat down to his pipe, seemed again composed, and casting his eyes wishfully towards the west, observed what a sweet evening it was. Mrs. Grinder was preparing a bed for him; but he said he would sleep on the floor, and desired the servant to bring the bear skins and buffaloe robe, which were immediately spread out for him; and it being now dusk the woman went off to the kitchen, and the two men to the barn, which stands about 200 yards off. The kitchen is only a few paces from the room where Lewis was, and the woman being considerably alarmed by the behaviour of her guest could not sleep, but listened to him walking backwards and forwards, she thinks, for several hours, and talking aloud, as she said, ‘like a lawyer.’ She then heard the report of a pistol, and something fall heavily on the floor, and the words ‘O Lord!’ Immediately afterwards she heard another pistol, and in a few minutes she heard him at her door calling out ‘O madam! give me some water, and heal my wounds.’ The logs being open, and unplastered, she saw him stagger back and fall against a stump that stands between the kitchen and room. He crawled for some distance, raised himself by the side of a tree, where he sat about a minute. He once more got to the room; afterwards he came to the kitchen door, but did not speak; she then heard him scraping the bucket with a gourd for water; but it appears that this cooling element was denied the dying man! As soon as day broke and not before, the terror of the woman having permitted him to remain for two hours in this most deplorable situation, she sent two of her children to the barn, her husband not being at home, to bring the servants; and on going in they found him lying on the bed; he uncovered his side and shewed them where the bullet had entered; a piece of the forehead was blown off, and had exposed the brains, without having bled much. He begged they would take his rifle and blow out his brains, and he would give them all the money he had in his trunk. He often said ‘I am no coward; but I am so strong, so hard to die.’ He begg’d the servant not to be afraid of him, for that he would not hurt him. He expired in about two hours, or just as the sun rose above the trees. He lies buried close by the common path, with a few loose rails thrown over his grave. I gave Grinder money to put a post fence round it, to shelter it from the hogs, and from the wolves; and he gave me his written promise he would do it. I left this place in a very melancholy mood, which was not much allayed by the prospect of the gloomy and savage wilderness which I was just entering alone. . . .”

Such is the horrible story told to Wilson by an eye- and ear-witness. We must accept the substantial accuracy of Wilson’s version, written almost immediately after he heard the narrative of Mrs. Grinder, and by one noted for habitual precision of statement. There is no more room to doubt Wilson’s painstaking correctness than there is reason for doubting his veracity. But the narrative of Mrs. Grinder is very extraordinary. A woman who could do as she said she did, after hearing and seeing what she testifies, must be judged “fit for treason, stratagem, and spoils,” and not to be believed under oath. The story is wildly improbable upon its face; it does not hang together; there is every sign that it is a concoction on the part of an accomplice in crime, either before or after the event. On the theory that Mrs. Grinder was privy to a plot to murder Governor Lewis, and therefore had her own part to play in the tragedy, even if that part were a passive one—or on the theory that, becoming afterward cognizant of the murder, she told a story to shield the actual criminal or criminals—on either of these theories we could understand Mrs. Grinder; otherwise her story is simply incredible. Yet it is upon such evidence as this that the imputation of suicide rests.

Governor Lewis’ alleged actions, before he retired to his room “about dusk,” seem nothing extraordinary. He certainly appears to have been fretted or worried about something; but there was nothing in his conduct which should have so alarmed Grinder’s wife that she could not sleep, but lay listening “she thinks for several hours.” The sort of a woman likely to be the wife of a keeper of a “stand” on the Natchez Trace in 1809 is not likely to have had such weak nerves as that. And where was Grinder himself on this fateful night? Then she hears two pistol-shots, a heavy fall, and an appeal for help. This, however, only moves her to peep through the cracks in the logs of the detached kitchen. There she sees her guest staggering, falling, and crawling about in the yard in search of water. Still she does not stir, and it is not till daybreak, about “two hours” after the shots were fired, that the terror of the woman permits her to give the alarm. This she does by sending “two children” to the barn to bring the servants, who meanwhile had heard nothing; and the whole party now, for the first time, musters courage enough to enter Governor Lewis’ room. Two hours more pass, during which they are begged and offered money to put him out of his misery; but nothing is done, and the governor expires as the sun tops the trees.

Governor Lewis may have committed the deed which history has laid to his charge, in a fit of suicidal mania; and the woman’s incoherent story may not have been intended to deceive, but may have arisen from confused memories of an exciting night. That is conceivable; but my contention is that the testimony, as we have it, does not suffice to prove suicide, and does raise a strong suspicion that Governor Lewis was foully dealt with by some person or persons unknown—presumably Grinder, or him and some accomplices. Until other evidence is forthcoming the victim of untimely fate should be given the full benefit of the doubt, that no stigma may rest on his illustrious name. History may never be able to disprove the alleged suicide; neither has history thus far proven the allegation. This death remains a mystery; but mystery should not be paraded as history.

Very recently the question has been reopened, with a view of setting aside the verdict of posterity, by Mr. James D. Park, a lawyer of Franklin, Tenn., who inclines strongly to the theory of murder and robbery, not suicide. Mr. Park’s article, over the pseudonym “John Quill,” was published in the Nashville (Tenn.) American of Sunday, September 6th, 1891. It occupies 4⅛ columns of the newspaper, and has two illustrations—one a portrait of Lewis, from the miniature profile in the possession of the State Historical Society of Tennessee at Nashville; the other a picture of the monument, from a sketch made by Mr. Park on the spot. Whatever view be taken of the tragedy, Mr. Park’s article is a valuable historical document, bringing news to most persons. Some of it is biographical, citing the brief notice in Howe’s Historical Collections of Virginia, and the more extended sketch of Lewis’ life in the Analectic Magazine and Naval Chronicle, VII. April, 1816, pp. 329-333 (with frontisp. portrait)—both of which were in turn based on Jefferson’s Memoir; another portion is historical, giving the action of the Tennessee Legislature, and the first report of the committee appointed to erect the monument, including a copy of the several inscriptions. The most original matter is the result of Mr. Park’s researches on the spot, which inclined him to the view of murder and not suicide. The picture of the monument is the first ever printed; though roughly executed, as usual with newspaper cuts, it gives an excellent idea of the object. I was put in private correspondence with Mr. Park, through the good offices of Governor Buchanan of Tennessee, and will adduce the substance of his new evidence, nearly in his own words.

As adequate to support the theory of suicide has been held Mr. Jefferson’s statement of hereditary hypochondria, developed to desperation under worry over some trouble about public money accounts. Mr. Jefferson touches very lightly upon the latter feature of the case, but others have spoken more pointedly. Thus in Howe’s Historical Collections, p. 171, we read: “He was subject to constitutional hypochondria, and while under the influence of a severe attack, shot himself on the borders of Tennessee in 1809, at the age of 35. This event was ascribed to the protest of some bills which he drew on the public account.” Again, we find in Jacob’s Life and Times of Patrick Gass, pp. 110, 111, remarks upon the same score, with some particulars to which ex-President Jefferson does no more than allude. Says Jacob:

“Lewis was appointed very shortly after his return in 1806, Governor of Louisiana Territory, as some acknowledgment of his merit, and compensation for his services. In this capacity he acted for some time, but unfortunately a misunderstanding arose between him and the government in regard to the settlement of his public accounts. He was the very soul of honor and of unimpeachable integrity, and the implied imputation dwelt too heavily upon his proud and sensitive spirit. He started to Washington City for an explanation, but never reached his destination. In company with another man [Mr. Neely] he traveled the old route followed by the boatmen at that day, through the Indian country, and having reached a small cabin occupied by a man named Grinders [Grinder] as a kind of tavern for travellers, just within the Chickasaw nation, near the Tennessee line, and between 25 and 30 [read 60 or 70] miles of Nashville, his man left him to go in search of a horse that had strayed. During his absence after the horse, Lewis shot himself twice with a pistol, and this failing to effect his purpose, he killed himself by cutting his throat with a knife [!]. No one saw him commit the act, but some of the [Grinder] family afterwards reported that they had observed indications that his mind was affected, on the morning of [evening before] his death. His body was buried at the corner of the cabin, and for a long time after, the spot was remembered by the adventurous traders who passed that way [along the Natchez Trace], between New Orleans and the upper country. Thus was ushered into eternity a brave and chivalrous spirit, goaded to desperation by the chafing of wounded honor. . . It is enough for the historian to say that he died with the cloud on his memory; and while he records his fate with a careful pen, he would ask of the world its most charitable judgment. The charges against him were hushed, communities and States vied to do him honor, and [in 1848] the Legislature of Tennessee, his adopted State, to manifest an appreciation of what was high and noble in his character and services, ordered a monument to be erected to his memory at the State’s expense.”

Mr. Jacob’s paragraph in Gass fairly reflects accredited history, excepting what he says of recourse to the knife.

A similar view of the case is presented in J. B. Killebrew’s Resources of Tennessee (Nashville, 1874), p. 791, where Lewis county is described: “In the very centre of the present county, on the line of the old Natchez Trace, while on a journey from the Territory of Louisiana, of which he was Governor, Merriwether [sic] Lewis committed suicide, being at the time a little over 35 years of age. On this very spot he was buried, and the Legislature of Tennessee in 1848 had a suitable monument erected to his memory. . . In the midst of dense woods, several miles from any human habitation, on the crest of a bold broad ridge, with deep gorges running toward the northeast and west, and near the commencement of the flat lands, this monument stands, seldom visited, and almost forgotten by the present generation. Its entire height is about 25 [read 20½] feet, and it is surrounded by an iron fence in a state of great dilapidation, many of the rods having been taken away.”

The Analectic Magazine and Naval Chronicle, Vol. VII., No. 40, April, 1816, gives a full-length portrait of Captain Lewis in Indian dress, as a frontispiece; and the same number of this magazine contains, pp. 329-333, a “Notice of Captain M. Lewis.” This is simply abridged from the Jefferson Memoir, and is mostly in the words of the latter. Concerning the portrait the editor says:

“The portrait of captain Lewis, given in the present number, is taken from a drawing of that officer belonging to his fellow traveler, governor Clark, who considers it an excellent likeness, and prizes it highly. The gentleman [name not given] who lent it to us remained here but a short time, and was obliged to take it with him; to which circumstance it is owing that our engraving from it is not executed in so good a style as we could have wished. But that engraving is a faithful copy of the original, which is believed to be the only likeness of Captain Lewis now extant. The ornaments worn by him when in the costume of an Indian warrior, (as represented in the picture) are preserved in the Philadelphia [Peale’s] Museum.”

We may now recur to Mr. Park’s article above described. Jefferson’s account (says Mr. Park in substance) was written in the light of such information as had reached him in 1813, at his home in Virginia. It would be interesting to know the exact sources of his information were this possible now, to judge for ourselves whether they were entirely free from suspicion. Probably such accounts did not convey the idea of murder and robbery. It then required several weeks for the news to travel from the scene to Washington; and whether the details of the death of Governor Lewis ever reached the national capital in official form cannot now be learned.

During the first years of this century a great military road was cut through the then wilderness of Tennessee and Mississippi, known as the “Natchez Trace.” It was made by Lieutenant Edmund Pendleton Gaines, U. S. A., who rose to be a major general during the war of 1812-15. It led southwest from Nashville, Tenn., to Natchez on the Mississippi river, and was the only public road in that region, cut to facilitate the movement of troops and the transportation of supplies to and from the newly acquired “Spanish country.” This old road has since been abandoned in many places, but in other parts of its length it is still (1891) used. Even where given up, and passing through open woods or inclosed in fields, its course can still be traced through Tennessee and Mississippi by its well-worn bed, lower than the adjoining land. Governor Lewis struck across country directly eastward from the Chickasaw Bluffs (the present site of Memphis, Tenn.), and probably made the Natchez Trace at or about where this Trace crosses the Tennessee river, in what is now Lauderdale Co., in northern Alabama, about 20 miles below the town of Florence, and traveled it for about a day’s march west of Newburgh, Lewis Co., Tenn., the scene of the tragedy. At this point in the journey, observes Mr. Park, “the conduct of Mr. Neely, the Indian agent, as mentioned in Mr. Jefferson’s account, seems to have been very strange. He had at the Chickasaw Bluffs volunteered to accompany Governor Lewis from there through the Indian country to the seat of government, in order to look after and watch over his distinguished guest, whom he had found quite indisposed, and, as alleged, showing signs of a disordered mind. They had servants and horses in their train; yet the recapture of two horses that had strayed from the camp was deemed by Mr. Neely of more importance than the welfare and safety of his friend, whom he permitted to go forward with the servants while he remained a whole day behind to look up the horses. The accounts do not show that he ever found them, or ever caught up with Governor Lewis.”

Thus it appears that from the point above noted Governor Lewis kept on, unattended by Mr. Neely, along the Natchez Trace. On this road, at intervals of about a day’s journey, say some 30 miles, there were primitive places of entertainment for man and beast, called “stands.” Governor Lewis reached one of these, kept by a Mr. Grinder. The site of “Grinder’s stand” is still seen, on a spot about sixty miles in an air-line southwest of Nashville, marked by the ruins of a stone chimney, a mound of earth, and the remains of a garden or small clearing in the forest. It is on the crest of a ridge, along which runs the Natchez Trace, not now used at this point. Even at this day the nearest habitation is a mile and a half or two miles distant. North of the site of the old house, and about 150 yards from it, on the east side of the road, is the great explorer’s grave, and the monument erected by the State of Tennessee to his memory. I give the results of Mr. Park’s inquiries on the spot, Nov. 21st, 1889, in his own words: “It has always been the firm belief of the people of this region that Governor Lewis was murdered and robbed. The oldest citizens now living remember the rumor current at the time as to the murder, and it seems that no thought of suicide ever obtained footing here. The writer recently had an interview with Mrs. Christina B. Anthony, who lives some two miles from the Lewis grave, and has lived all her life of 77 years in the neighborhood. She says that ‘old man Grinder’ kept a ‘stand’ for travelers on the Natchez Trace. Polly Spencer, whom she knew well before her death about 40 years ago, was a hired girl at Grinder’s when Governor Lewis was killed. Polly had often told the circumstances of the murder so far as she personally knew them. She was washing dishes in the kitchen after supper with some of the females in the family, when they heard a shot in the room where Captain Lewis was sleeping. All rushed into the room and found him dead in his bed. Captain Lewis, being fatigued from his journey, had retired immediately after supper. His only companion, she said, was a negro boy, who was attending the horses in the barn at the time. Old Grinder, who was of Indian blood, was at once suspected of the murder, ran away, was captured on Cane creek, brought back, and tried; but the proof not being positive, he was released. Only 25 cents was found on the person of Captain Lewis after he was shot. Old Grinder soon afterward removed to the western part of the State, and it was reported in his old neighborhood had bought a number of slaves and a farm, and seemed to have plenty of money. Before this he had always been quite poor.

“Mrs. Anthony says the people always believed old Grinder killed Mr. Lewis and got his money. She had never heard of the theory of suicide until the writer mentioned it to her. Mrs. Anthony was a young married woman, boarding with the father of Polly Spencer, when Polly told her of these circumstances. Mrs. Anthony thus heard an ear-witness, so to speak, relate the story of the murder, which is pretty direct evidence. She is a bright, active, intelligent old lady, and has for many years kept the little hotel at the hamlet of Newburgh, the county seat of Lewis County, which is just two miles east of the monument. She refers to her brother, Jason Boshears, 80 years of age, living near Mount Pleasant, 20 miles distant, and Mrs. Sallie Barham Sims, 82 years of age, living at Aetna Furnace, Hickman County, who were born and formerly lived near by, and who, she thinks, could give more in detail the circumstances of the murder, as developed on the trial of old Grinder. It was, however, inconvenient for the writer to look up these two old persons.

“Others living in Lewis and adjoining counties have been conversed with, who remember the general belief at the time that Grinder killed his guest for the purpose of robbery. He must have observed that Captain Lewis was a person of distinction and wealth; that he was almost alone and probably had money with him. It seems incredible that a young man of 35, the governor of the vast territory of Louisiana, then on his way from his capital to that of his nation, where he knew he would be received with all the distinction and consideration due to his office and reputation, should take his own life. His whole character is a denial of this theory. He was too brave and conscientious in the discharge of every duty, public and private; too conspicuous a person in the eyes of the country, and crowned with too many laurels, to cowardly sneak out of the world by the back way, a self-murderer. This idea was doubtless invented to cover up the double crime of robbery and murder, and seems to have been the only version of his death that reached Mr. Jefferson and his other friends in Virginia.”

This is literally a lawyer’s brief, summing such evidence as could be procured to defend Governor Lewis from the charge of suicide. It is probably as strong a presentation of the case as is now possible. It also falls in well with the Wilson evidence already adduced—which is the more remarkable, in that Wilson took Mrs. Grinder’s wild story to be a statement of fact, and evidently believed that poor Lewis had killed himself. That the new Park testimony is conclusive, however, Mr. Park himself would probably not urge. That the theory of murder was a matter of common report, acted upon at the time to the extent of the arrest and trial of Grinder, and that it has ever since been believed by the community, is established by direct testimony. But the evidence, mainly circumstantial, did not suffice to convict Grinder or anyone else of murder. The fragmentary evidence which has come down to us, moreover, does not hang together well. It even opens up the doubt that we have the true date of death within 24 hours. Jefferson’s account makes the hour “about three o’clock in the night,” when Polly Spencer is not likely to have been washing dishes in the kitchen with others of the household. This means 3 a.m., of the historical date, October 11th, 1809; but from what Mr. Park has adduced, it would appear that, irrespective of mode of death, Governor Lewis lost his life shortly after the usual hour of an evening meal, on October 10th. Had Polly and all the rest “rushed into the room” on hearing the shot, and “found him dead in his bed,” it seems likely that more positive and detailed accounts of the scene would have at once come into existence and been perpetuated. But nothing appears of the whereabouts of the supposititious murderer at this moment; and an intending murderer would hardly have chosen so early an hour, when all the family were up and about, and he knew he had the whole night in which to execute his design at leisure. It is not unreasonable to translate Mrs. Anthony’s report to Mr. Park—made about 80 years after the event, it must be remembered—in somewhat these words: Polly Spencer (had been) washing dishes (the evening before; and some hours afterward, when the family had been abed and asleep) they heard the shot, and rushed into the room, etc. This might easily have been past midnight of October 10th, or about the hour alleged of October 11th. But even were the date fixed to the hour, the question of murder or suicide would not, thereby, be left other than it was before.

Mr. Park seems to me to present a strong case,—perhaps the strongest that will ever be drawn up,—and deserves much credit for thus undertaking to clear so great a name from so grave an imputation. Prior to making his investigations he had never heard of the Wilson testimony above given, and had read only Mr. Jefferson’s account of the death. In fact he had nothing but the common belief of the people to go upon. He cites Governor Lewis’ established reputation and well-known circumstances; he brings forward an actual arrest and trial for murder; and he establishes the facts that murder was at the time a matter of common allegation and belief, and has been from that day to this the tradition of the community. These are strong points. But the actual testimony adduced at this time is from the memory of one person as to events of about eighty years ago; it is at second-hand, indirect, and circumstantial only; thus being fatally defective. It is also offset by the unqualified statements of Mr. Jefferson, a wary and astute man of the world, accustomed to weigh his words well; one who must have been satisfied in his own mind that he had the facts of a case beyond his personal knowledge; and one who had every imaginable reason—personal, official, or other—to put the matter in the most favorable light. The mystery remains, and it is not probable that the truth will ever be known.

It is a relief to turn from this sad scene, and see what has been done to honor Governor Lewis by the country he loved and served so well. The erection of his monument is an incident in the history of a State.

On the 21st of December, 1843, the legislature of Tennessee passed an act creating the County of Lewis, “In honor of Capt. Merrewether Lewis, who has rendered distinguished services to his country, and whose remains lie buried and neglected within its limits.” The grave is in the exact center of this county, which was surveyed from this point and carved out of the then surrounding counties of Maury, Hickman, Wayne, and Lawrence.

On the 4th of February, 1848, the same legislature appropriated $500 for the erection of a suitable monument, and appointed four distinguished citizens of Tennessee as a committee to carry out this design and report to the next legislature. The gentlemen accepted the commission as a labor of love and duty. The “Report of the Lewis Monumental Committee,” made to the legislature of 1849-50, as appears from the Appendix to the Journal of the House of Representatives, pp. 238-240, is as follows:

“To the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee:

“By the ninth section of an act passed at the last session of the General Assembly of this State, entitled an act to establish the County of Lewis, the sum of $500 was appropriated, or so much thereof as might be necessary, to preserve the place of interment where the remains of General Merriwether Lewis were deposited; and the undersigned were appointed the agents of the General Assembly to carry into execution the provisions of the act, and report to the present General Assembly.

“Looking upon the object to be accomplished to be one highly honorable to the State, the undersigned entered upon the duties assigned them most cheerfully, and with as little delay as possible. They consulted with the most eminent artists and practical mechanics as to the kind of monument to be erected, and a plan being agreed upon they employed Mr. Lemuel W. Kirby, of Columbia, to execute it for the sum of five hundred dollars.

“The entire monument is twenty and a half feet high. The design is simple, but is intended to express the difficulties, successes, and violent termination of a life which was marked by bold enterprise, by manly courage and devoted patriotism. The base of the monument is of rough unhewn stone, eight feet high, and nine feet square where it rises to the surface of the ground. On this, rests a plinth of cut stone four feet square, and eighteen inches in thickness [height], on which are the inscriptions which are given below. On this plinth stands a broken column eleven feet high, two and a half feet in diameter at the base, and a few inches smaller at the top. The top is broken to denote the violent and untimely end of a bright and glorious career. The base is composed of a species of sandstone found in the neighborhood of the grave. The plinth and shaft, or column, are made of a fine limestone, commonly known as Tennessee marble. Around the monument is erected a handsome wrought-iron rail fence.

“Great care was taken to identify the grave. George Nixon, Esq., an old Surveyor, had become very early acquainted with its locality. He pointed out the place; but to make assurance doubly sure the grave was reopened and the upper part of the skeleton examined, and such evidences found as to leave no doubt of the place of interment. Witnesses were called and their certificate, with that of the Surveyor, prove the fact beyond dispute.

“The inscription upon the plinth was furnished by Prof. Nathaniel Cross, of the University of Nashville. It is beautiful and appropriate. It is placed on the different sides of the plinth, and is as follows:

[WEST FACE.]
Merriwether Lewis,
Born near Charlottesville, Virginia, August 18, 1774,
Died October 11, 1809, aged 35 years.

[SOUTH FACE.]
An officer of the Regular Army—Commander of the Expedition to the Oregon in 1803-1806—Governor of the Territory of Louisiana—His melancholy death occurred where this monument now stands, and under which rest his mortal remains.

[EAST FACE.]
In the language of Mr. Jefferson: ‘His courage was undaunted. His firmness and perseverance yielded to nothing but impossibilities; A rigid disciplinarian, yet tender as a father of those committed to his charge; honest, disinterested, liberal, with a sound understanding and a scrupulous fidelity to truth.’

[NORTH FACE.]
Immaturus obi: sed tu felicior annos
Vive meos, Bona Respublica! Vive tuos.

Erected by the Legislature of Tennessee.
A. D. 1848.

“In the Latin distich, many of your honorable body will no doubt recognize as the affecting epitaph on the tomb of a young wife, in which, by a prosopopoeia, after alluding to her immature death, she prays that her happier husband may live out her years and his own:

‘Immatura peri: sed tu felicior annos
Vive meos, conjux optime! Vive tuos.’

“Under the same figure the deceased is represented, in the Latin distich as altered, after alluding to his early death, as uttering as a patriot a similar prayer, that the republic may fulfill her high destiny, and that her years may equal those of time. As the distich now stands, the figure may be made to apply, either to the whole Union, or to Tennessee that has honored his memory by the erection of a monument.

“The impression has long prevailed that under the influence of disease of body and mind—of hopes based upon long and valuable services—not merely deferred but wholly disappointed—Governor Lewis perished by his own hands. It seems to be more probable that he died by the hands of an assassin. The place at which he was killed is even yet a lonely spot. It was then wild and solitary, and on the borders of the Indian nation. Maj. M. L. Clark, a son of Governor Clark, of Missouri, in a letter to the Rev. Mr. Cressey, of Maury Co., says: ‘Have you ever heard of the report, that Governor Lewis did not destroy his own life, but was murdered by his servant, a Frenchman, who stole his money and horses, returned to Natchez, and was never afterwards heard of? This is an important matter in connection with the erection of a monument to his memory, as it clearly removes from my mind, at least, the only stigma upon the fair name I have the honor to bear.’

“The undersigned would suggest to the General Assembly the propriety of having an acre of ground, or some other reasonable quantity, around the grave, secured against the entry of private persons. This can be done either by reserving the title in the State, or by directing a grant to issue in the name of the governor and his successors in office. The first mode would probably be the best.

“All of which is respectfully submitted.

“Edmund Dillahunty,
“Barclay Martin,
“Robert A. Smith,
“Samuel B. Moore.”

At the time of Mr. Park’s visit to the grave, November 21st, 1889, the base of the monument was somewhat moss-grown, the inscriptions on the plinth were scarcely legible, and the iron fence was nearly all gone. It is said that the iron was taken away during the War of the Rebellion to make horseshoes, as the production of iron was then almost entirely suspended in the South. The acre reserved around the monument has since become “God’s Acre” indeed, where rest the remains of one of his noblest works, albeit now indistinguishable from humbler dust in a common burying-ground. “Far out in the native forest, on the highlands, with no human dwelling near, it is indeed a lonely spot, where the wild deer and the fox are still pursued by the hunter’s hounds. The existence of such a grave and monument is scarcely known outside of the State, and to but few anywhere of the present generation. Tennessee would be loath to give up the honored dust which has slept in her bosom for more than eighty years; but would it not be a graceful, if too long neglected, act, should Congress authorize the erection of an appropriate monument of bronze at the national capital, to the memory of the accomplished soldier and scientist who led the first expedition through the unknown gateways of the mountains to the Pacific, and the mystery of whose untimely end will perhaps never be solved?”

The post Supplement to Jefferson’s Memoir of Lewis (Coues, 1893) appeared first on Lewis & Clark Research Database.

(p. xiii) “To Meriwether Lewis, Esquire, Captain of the First Regiment of Infantry of the United States of America:

“Your situation as Secretary of the President of the United States has made you acquainted with the objects of my confidential message of January 18th, 1803, to the legislature; you have seen the act they passed, which, though expressed in general terms, was meant to sanction those objects, and you are appointed to carry them into execution.

“Instruments for ascertaining, by celestial observations, the geography of the country through which you will pass,

ct them, as follows: Doc. No. 97, five pages, Lancaster, Pa., Apr. 20th, 1803. M. L. arrives there Apr. 19th, and puts himself under instructions of Mr. Andrew Ellicot to learn to work astron. insts.; steps taken to engage recruits from posts of Southwest Point, Massac, Kaskaskais (sic) and Illinois; one John Conner engaged as interpreter (engagement later canceled); rifles and tomahawks being made at Harper’s Ferry, where Lewis was long detained about the building of his boat “Experiment” (see p. 406, beyond).—Doc. No. 98, Philada., Pa., May 14th, 1803; various matters, but chiefly Mr. Ellicot’s and Mr. Patterson’s views regarding astron. insts.—Doc. No. 99, Philada., May 29th; preparations so far forward that he expects to leave for Washn. June 20th; has submitted Jefferson’s instructions to Drs. Rush, Barton, and Wistar, who approve them; is informed by Major McRea, com’d’g at S. W. Point that out of 20 volunteers for the Exped. only 3 possessed the requisite qualifications; has taken sketches from Vancouver’s work for composing a map Mr. Gallatin promised to project and complete; has been unable to procure “Danvill’s,” i. e., D’Anville’s, map; and “the maps attached to Vancouver’s Voyage cannot be procured seperately from that work, which is both too costly and too weighty for me either to purchase or carry.”—Doc. No. 109, Philada., June 27th, 1803; wholly personal matters. Doc. No. 108, dated 12 o’clock Harper’s Ferry, July 8th, 1803; leaves in an hour, “taking the rout of Charlestown, Frankfort, Uniontown and Redstone old fort to Pittsburgh.”—Doc. No. 100, Pittsburgh, July 22d, 1803, delayed there by non-completion of a boat which had been promised for July 20th, was now promised for Aug. 5th (but in fact was not finished till Aug. 31st).—Doc. No. 101, Pittsburgh, July 26th, 1803. (This is the Lieut. Hook matter: see in full in my Memoir of Clark, beyond.)—Doc. No. 102, Wheeling, Sept. 8th, 1803, in part as follows: “It was not until 7 O’Clock on the morning of the 31st. Ultm˚ that my boat was completed, she was instantly loaded, and at 10 A. M. on the same day I left Pittsburgh, where I had been moste shamefully detained by the unpardonable negligence of my boat-builder . . . according to his usual custom he got drunk, quarreled with his workmen, . . . I spent most of my time with the workmen alternately presuading and threatening . . . I shall leave this place tomorrow morning, and lose no time in geting on.”—Doc. No. 103, dated “On board my boat opposite Marietta,” Sept. 13th, 1803; just arrived there; been obliged to use horses or oxen to drag his boat over shoals; “I find them the most efficient sailors in the present state of the navigation of the river, altho’ they may be considered rather clumsy.”—Doc. No. 104, Cincinnati, Oct. 3d, 1803; chiefly devoted to discovery by Dr. Wm. Goforth of bones of “mammoth” (mastodon), found at Big Bone Lick; item, interpreter Conner has declined; William Clark has accepted; item, so refreshing in its naiveté that I must quote it: “As this Session of Congress has commenced earlyer than usual, and as from a variety of incidental circumstances my progress has been unexpectedly delayed, and feeling as I do in the most anxious manner a wish to keep them in a good humour on the subject of the expedicion in which I am engaged,” this ingenuous young diplomat, who evidently had not served a Jefferson in vain, proposes to make a side-trip, perhaps up the Canceze (Kansas) river, and prevail on Captain Clark to make a feint somewhere else, as a sop to a congressional Cerberus thirsting for information about “Jefferson’s Purchase.”—Doc. No. —, St. Louis, March 26th, 1804, describes Osage plum and apple, and incloses specimens.—Doc. No. 105, St. Louis, May 18th, 1804 (when the Exped. had started, but Captain L. had not joined it), is a list of articles for’d to Prest. Jefferson by Mr. Peter Chouteau, not in the handwriting of M. L. This closes the correspondence, so far as I have examined it, up to the date last given; the next documents on file among the Jeff. Papers are the advices from Fort Mandan, Apr. 7th, 1805: see beyond, p. xxxvi.

have been already provided, Light articles for barter and presents among the Indians, arms for your attendants, say for from ten to twelve men, boats, tents, and other traveling apparatus, with ammunition, medicine, surgical instruments, and provisions, you will have prepared, with such aids as the Secretary of War can yield in his department; and from him also you will receive authority to engage among our troops, by voluntary agreement, the number of attendants above mentioned; over whom you, as their commanding officer, are invested with all the powers the laws give in such a case.

“As your movements, while within the limits of the United States, will be better directed by occasional communications, adapted to circumstances as they arise, they will not be noticed here. What follows will respect your proceedings after your departure from the United States.

“Your mission has been communicated to the Ministers here from France, Spain, and Great Britain, and through them to their governments; and such assurances given them as to its objects, as we trust will satisfy them. The country of Louisiana having been ceded by Spain to France, the passport you have from the Minister of France, the representative of the present sovereign of the country, will be a protection with all its subjects; and that from the Minister of England will entitle you to the friendly aid of any traders of that allegiance with whom you may happen to meet.

“The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, and such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregan [sic], Colorado, or any other river, may offer the most direct and practicable water-communication across the continent, for the purposes of commerce.

“Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, you will take observations of latitude and longitude, at all remarkable points on the river, and especially at the mouths of rivers, at rapids, at islands, and other places and objects distinguished by such natural marks and characters, of a durable kind, as that they may with certainty be recognized hereafter. The courses of the river between these points of observation may be supplied by the compass, the log-line, and by time, corrected by the observations themselves. The variations of the needle, too, at different places, should be noticed.

“The interesting points of the portage between the heads of the Missouri, and of the water offering the best communication with the Pacific ocean, should also be fixed by observation; and the course of that water to the ocean, in the same manner as that of the Missouri.

“Your observations are to be taken with great pains and accuracy; to be entered distinctly and intelligibly for others as well as yourself; to comprehend all the elements necessary, with the aid of the usual tables, to fix the latitude and longitude of the places at which they were taken; and are to be rendered to the War Office, for the purpose of having the calculations made concurrently by proper persons within the United States. Several copies of these, as well as of your other notes, should be made at leisure times, and put into the care of the most trustworthy of your attendants to guard, by multiplying them against the accidental losses to which they will be exposed. A further guard would be, that one of these copies be on the cuticular membranes of the paper-birch [Betula papyrifera], as less liable to injury from damp than common paper.

“The commerce which may be carried on with the people inhabiting the line you will pursue renders a knowledge of those people important. You will therefore endeavor to make yourself acquainted, as far as a diligent pursuit of your journey shall admit, with the names of the nations and their numbers;

“The extent and limits of their possessions;

“Their relations with other tribes or nations;

“Their language, traditions, and monuments;

“Their ordinary occupations in agriculture, fishing, hunting, war, arts, and the implements for these;

“Their food, clothing, and domestic accommodations;

“The diseases prevalent among them, and the remedies they use;

“Moral and physical circumstances which distinguish them from the tribes we know;

“Peculiarities in their laws, customs, and dispositions;

“And articles of commerce they may need or furnish, and to what extent.

“And, considering the interest which every nation has in extending and strengthening the authority of reason and justice among the people around them, it will be useful to acquire what knowledge you can of the state of morality, religion, and information among them; as it may better enable those who may endeavor to civilize and instruct them, to adapt their measures to the existing notions and practices of those on whom they are to operate.

“Other objects worthy of notice will be:

“The soil and face of the country; its growth and vegetable productions, especially those not of the United States;

“The animals of the country generally, and especially those not known in the United States;

“The remains and accounts of any which may be deemed rare or extinct;

“The mineral productions of every kind, but more particularly metals, limestone, pit-coal, saltpetre; salines and mineral waters, noting the temperature of the last, and such circumstances as may indicate their character;

“Volcanic appearances;

“Climate, as characterized by the thermometer, by the proportion of rainy, cloudy, and clear days; by lightning, hail, snow, ice; by the access and recess of frost; by the winds prevailing at different seasons; the dates at which particular plants put forth or lose their flower or leaf; times of appearance of particular birds, reptiles, or insects.

“Although your route will be along the channel of the Missouri, yet you will endeavor to inform yourself, by inquiry, of the character and extent of the country watered by its branches, and especially on its southern side. The North river, or Rio Bravo [Rio Grande del Norte], which runs into the Gulf of Mexico, and the North river, or Rio Colorado, which runs into the Gulf of California, are understood to be the principal streams heading opposite to the waters of the Missouri and running southwardly. Whether the dividing grounds between the Missouri and them are mountains or flat lands, what are their distance from the Missouri, the character of the intermediate country, and the people inhabiting it, are worthy of particular inquiry. The northern waters of the Missouri are less to be inquired after, because they have been ascertained to a considerable degree, and are still in a course of ascertainment by English traders and travelers; but if you can learn anything certain of the most northern source of the Missisipi [sic], and of its position relatively to the Lake of the Woods, it will be interesting to us. Some account too of the path of the Canadian traders from the Missisipi at the mouth of Ouisconsing [Wisconsin river] to where it strikes the Missouri, and of the soil and rivers in its course, is desirable.

“In all your intercourse with the natives, treat them in the most friendly and conciliatory manner which their own conduct will admit; allay all jealousies as to the object of your journey; satisfy them of its innocence; make them acquainted with the position, extent, character, peaceable and commercial dispositions of the United States; of our wish to be neighborly, friendly, and useful to them, and of our dispositions to a commercial intercourse with them; confer with them on the points most convenient as mutual emporiums, and the articles of most desirable interchange for them and us. If a few of their influential chiefs, within practicable distance, wish to visit us, arrange such a visit with them, and furnish them with authority to call on our officers on their entering the United States, to have them conveyed to this place at the public expense. If any of them should wish to have some of their people brought up with us, and taught such arts as may be useful to them, we will receive, instruct, and take care of them. Such a mission, whether of influential chiefs, or of young people, would give some security to your own party. Carry with you some matter of the kine-pox; inform those of them with whom you may be of its efficacy as a preservative from the small-pox, and instruct and encourage them in the use of it. This may be especially done wherever you winter.

“As it is impossible for us to foresee in what manner you will be received by those people, whether with hospitality or hostility, so is it impossible to prescribe the exact degree of perseverance with which you are to pursue your journey. We value too much the lives of citizens to offer them to probable destruction. Your numbers will be sufficient to secure you against the unauthorized opposition of individuals, or of small parties; but if a superior force, authorized or not authorized by a nation, should be arrayed against your further passage, and inflexibly determined to arrest it, you must decline its further pursuit and return. In the loss of yourselves we should lose also the information you will have acquired. By returning safely with that, you may enable us to renew the essay with better calculated means. To your own discretion, therefore, must be left the degree of danger you may risk, and the point at which you should decline; only saying, we wish you to err on the side of your safety, and to bring back your party safe, even if it be with less information.

“As far up the Missouri as the white settlements extend, an intercourse will probably be found to exist between them and the Spanish posts of St. Louis opposite Cahokia,⁸ or St. Genevieve opposite Kaskaskia.⁹ From still further up the river the traders may furnish a conveyance for letters. Beyond that you may perhaps be able to engage Indians to bring letters for the government to Cahokia, or Kaskaskia, on promising that they shall there receive such special compensation as you shall have stipulated with them. Avail yourself of these means to communicate to us, at seasonable intervals, a copy of your journal, notes, and observations of every kind, putting into cipher whatever might do injury if betrayed.

“Should you reach the Pacific ocean, inform yourself of the circumstances which may decide whether the furs of those parts may not be collected as advantageously at the head of the Missouri (convenient as is supposed to the waters of the Colorado and Oregan, or Columbia), as at Nootka Sound, or any other point of that coast; and that trade be consequently conducted through the Missouri and United States more beneficially than by the circumnavigation now practiced.

“On your arrival on that coast, endeavor to learn if there be any port within your reach frequented by the sea vessels of any nation, and to send two of your trusty people back by sea, in such way as shall appear practicable, with a copy of your notes; and should you be of opinion that the return of your party by the way they went will be imminently dangerous, then ship the whole, and return by sea, by the way either of Cape Horn, or the Cape of Good Hope, as you shall be able. 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 draughts 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 aids they may furnish you shall be honorably repaid, and on demand. Our consuls, Thomas Hewes, at Batavia in Java, William Buchanan in the Isles of France and Bourbon, and John Elmslie at the Cape of Good Hope, will be able to supply your necessities by draughts on us.

“Should you find it safe to return by the way you go, after sending two of your party round by sea, or with your whole party, if no conveyance by sea can be found, do so; making such observations on your return as may serve to supply, correct, or confirm those made on your outward journey.

“On re-entering the United States and reaching a place of safety, discharge any of your attendants who may desire and deserve it, procuring for them immediate payment of all arrears of pay and clothing which may have been incurred since their departure, and assure them that they shall be recommended to the liberality of the legislature for the grant of a soldier’s portion of land each, as proposed in my message to Congress, and repair yourself, with your papers, to the seat of government.

“To provide, on the accident of your death, against anarchy, dispersion, and the consequent danger to your party, and total failure of the enterprise, you are hereby authorized, by any instrument signed and written in your own hand, to name the person among them who shall succeed to the command on your decease, and by like instruments to change the nomination, from time to time, as further experience of the characters accompanying you shall point out superior fitness; and all the powers and authorities given to yourself are, in the event of your death, transferred to and vested in the successor so named, with further power to him and his successors, in like manner to name each his successor, who, on the death of his predecessor, shall be invested with all the powers and authorities given to yourself.

“Given under my hand at the City of Washington, this twentieth day of June, 1803.

“THOMAS JEFFERSON,
“President of the United States of America.”

While these things were going on here, the country of Louisiana, lately ceded by Spain to France, had been the subject of negotiations at Paris between us and this last power; and had actually been transferred to us by treaties executed at Paris, on the 30th of April, 1803. This information, received about the 1st day of July, increased infinitely the interest we felt in the Expedition, and lessened the apprehensions of interruption from other powers. Everything in this quarter being now prepared, Captain Lewis left Washington on the 5th day of July, 1803, and proceeded to

hward extension; the rest being “Louisiana.” A straight line from the Straits of Fuca on the Pacific coast to the mouth of the Mississippi river would run through “Louisiana” from northwest to southeast. Such was the vast area acquired by the United States through Jefferson’s magnificent stroke. It was often called “Jefferson’s Purchase.”

The treaty ceding this country by France to the United States was executed at Paris, April 30th, 1803, by Robert R. Livingstone and James Monroe, Ministers Plenipotentiary, on the part of the President of the United States, and Barbe Marbois, Minister of the Public Treasury, on the part of the First Consul of France. This treaty was ratified July 31st, 1803. The lower part of Louisiana was formally transferred by Laussat, Commissioner of France, to General James Wilkinson and Governor Wm. C. C. Claiborne, at New Orleans, Dec. 20th, 1803 (see Jefferson’s Message of Jan. 16th, 1804); the upper part was likewise transferred to Captain Amos Stoddard, at St. Louis, Mar. 9th or 10th, 1804. Captain Lewis, while waiting for the advance of spring to enable him to go up the Missouri, was present at the latter transfer. His name is said to be affixed as that of one of the witnesses to the official document executed by the Spanish authorities and Captain Stoddard; but I have not seen it.

An Act of Congress of March 26th, 1804, divided the thus acquired territory of Louisiana along the parallel of 33° N. into a southern part, called the “District of New Orleans,” and a northern part, the “District of Louisiana.” The latter District was then temporarily attached to the already existing “Territory of Indiana,” of which William Henry Harrison was at the time Governor, and who thus became also the first Governor of the new “District of Louisiana.” His governorship of the latter began at St. Louis, Oct. 1st, 1803. An Act of Congress of March 3d, 1805, changed the name “District of Louisiana” to “Louisiana Territory,” to be governed by a Governor and three Judges. This arrangement took effect July 4th, 1805, when General James Wilkinson entered upon his gubernatorial functions. These he held for two years, when Governor Lewis was appointed to the office, Mar. 3d, 1807, and entered upon his functions in July, 1807, at St. Louis; he held the position till his death, Oct. 11th, 1809, and was succeeded by Governor Benjamin Howard, appointed April 17th, 1810.

How “Missouri” grew out of “Louisiana” may also be here noted, as Captain (afterward General) Clark became Governor of that Territory. Originally “Missouri” was the name of certain Indians and their river. An Act of Congress of June 4th, 1812, taking effect the first Monday of October, 1812, created Missouri as a Territory of the second grade: “The Territory heretofore called ‘Louisiana’ shall be hereafter called ‘Missouri.'” (This was the former “District of Louisiana,” as separated from the “District of New Orleans”—both these having been in the first instance “Louisiana.”) A proclamation of Governor Benjamin Howard, of Oct. 1st, 1812, divided the new Missouri Territory into five counties—St. Charles, St. Louis, St. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, and New Madrid—the same that had before been the five “districts” of the “District of Louisiana.” The total of representation in the General Assembly of the new Territory of Missouri was 13. Governor Howard was succeeded by Governor Clark, 1813–1820. The first delegate to Congress from Missouri was Edward Hempstead, elected Nov., 1812, to serve two years: he had been Attorney-General of the former District of Louisiana, under a commission from Governor Lewis, presented before the proper court May 29th, 1809. At the date of creation of Missouri Territory, James Madison was President of the United States, and Henry Clay Speaker of the House of Representatives. Missouri was authorized to adopt a State Constitution by an Act of Congress approved by President Monroe, March 6th, 1820. The Legislature met for this purpose at St. Louis, Sept. 18th, 1820, and Alexander McNair was inaugurated Governor; the first Senators elected were David Barton and Thos. H. Benton; the first Representative was John Scott. But certain objections to the State Constitution which Missouri had adopted, caused Congress, March 2d, 1821, to require amendments thereto; which being made by the Legislature which convened at St. Charles, June 4th, 1821, the President’s proclamation of Aug. 10th, 1821, admitted Missouri as the twenty-fourth State of the Union.

Thus it appears that Captain Lewis became Governor of “Louisiana Territory” (which had been the “District of Louisiana”), Mar. 3d, 1807–Oct. 11th, 1809, succeeding Governor Wilkinson, and succeeded by Governor Howard. And General Clark became Governor, not of “Louisiana Territory” but of “Missouri Territory,” succeeding Governor Howard (after a short interregnum of an acting Governor), July 1st, 1813, and holding the office till 1820, when, declining the dust of the political arena, he was defeated by the election of Alexander McNair. General Clark was never Governor of Missouri as a State.

Pittsburg, where other articles had been ordered to be provided for him. The men too were to be selected from the military stations on the Ohio. Delays of preparation, difficulties of navigation down the Ohio, and other untoward obstructions retarded his arrival at Cahokia until the season was so far advanced as to render it prudent to suspend his entering the Missouri before the ice could break up in the succeeding spring.

From this time his journal, now published, will give the history of his journey to and from the Pacific ocean, until his return to St. Louis on the 23d of September, 1806. Never did a similar event excite more joy through the United States. The humblest of its citizens had taken a lively interest in the issue of this journey, and looked forward with impatience for the information it would furnish. Their anxieties too for the safety of the corps had been kept in a state of excitement by lugubrious rumors, circulated from time to time on uncertain authorities, and uncontradicted by letters or other direct information, from the time they had left the Mandan towns, on their ascent up the river in April [Apr. 7th] of the preceding year, 1805, until their actual return to St. Louis.

It was the middle of February, 1807, before Captain Lewis, with his companion, Captain Clark, reached the City of Washington, where Congress was then in session. That body granted to the two chiefs and their followers the donation of lands which they had been encouraged to expect in reward of their toil and dangers. Captain Lewis was soon after [March 3d] appointed Governor of Louisiana, and Captain Clark [March 12th] a General of its militia and Agent of the United States for Indian affairs in that department.

He was certainly in Washington by the 11th, as witness the following letter, addressed to Auguste Chouteau, sen. (b. New Orleans, Sept. 26th, 1750; d. St. Louis, Feb. 24th, 1829), who was appointed colonel of militia by Governor Lewis in 1808.

City of Washington, Feb. 11, 1807.

Sir.—This will be handed to you by a particular friend and acquaintance of mine, Mr. Fleming [qu. Frederick?] Bates, late Judge of the Michigan Territory and Receiver of Public Moneys at Detroit.

Mr. Bates has been recently appointed the Secretary of the Territory of Louisiana and Recorder of the Board of Commissioners for adjusting the Land Claims in that Territory, and is about to establish himself at St. Louis, in order to take on him the discharge of the duties incumbent to those offices.

The situation of Mr. Bates as a public officer sufficiently shows the estimation in which he is, in my opinion, deservedly held by the Executive of the United States, and consequently renders any further observations in relation to his talents or integrity unnecessary on my part. You will confer an obligation on me by making Mr. Bates acquainted with the respectable inhabitant of St. Louis and its vicinity or by rendering him any service which it may be in your power to give him.

The papers you confided to my care have been laid before the Executive, but as yet I have received no answer on the subject; nor do I believe that any definite answer will be given, or measures taken in relation to the land claims of Louisiana, until after the passage of a law on that subject which is now under the consideration of Congress.

I shall probably come on to St. Louis in the course of the next fall, for the purpose of residing among you; in such an event I should wish timely to procure a house by rent or otherwise for my accommodation, and I have fixed my eye on that of Mr. Gratiot, provided we can come on terms which may be mutually agreeable. I would prefer renting or leasing to purchase; in either case the enclosure of the garden must be rendered secure, and the steps and floor of the piazza repaired by the 1st of October next. I would thank you to request Mr. Gratiot to write me on this subject and to state his terms distinctly, as to price, payment, etc., in order that I may know whether my resources will enable me to meet these or not, or whether it will become necessary that I should make some other provision for my accommodation.

My respectful compliments to your lady, Mad’e P. Chouteau, and to my friends of St. Louis and its vicinity, and believe me your sincere friend and Obed’t servant,

Meriwether Lewis.

Mon’R Aug’t Chouteau.

A considerable time intervened before the Governor’s arrival at St. Louis. He found the territory distracted by feuds and contentions among the officers of the government, and the people themselves divided by these into factions and parties. He determined at once to take no side with either, but to use every endeavor to conciliate and harmonize them. The even-handed justice he administered to all soon established a respect for his person and authority, and perseverance and time wore down animosities and reunited the citizens again into one family.

Governor Lewis had from early life been subject to hypochondriac affections. It was a constitutional disposition in all the nearer branches of the family of his name, and was more immediately inherited by him from his father. They had not, however, been so strong as to give uneasiness to his family. While he lived with me in Washington I observed at times sensible depressions of mind; but, knowing their constitutional source, I estimated their course by what I had seen in the family. During his Western Expedition, the constant exertion which that required of all the faculties of body and mind suspended these distressing affections; but after his establishment at St. Louis in sedentary occupations, they returned to him with redoubled vigor and began seriously to alarm his friends. He was in a paroxysm of one of these when his affairs rendered it necessary for him to go to Washington. He proceeded to the Chickasaw bluffs, where he arrived on the 16th of September, 1809, with a view of continuing his journey thence by water. Mr. Neely, Agent of the United States with the Chickasaw Indians, arriving there two days after, found him extremely indisposed and betraying at times some symptoms of a derangement of mind. The rumors of a war with England, and apprehensions that he might lose the papers he was bringing on, among which were the vouchers of his public accounts and the journals and papers of his Western Expedition, induced him here to change his mind and to take his course by land through the Chickasaw country [Tennessee]. Although he appeared somewhat relieved, Mr. Neely kindly determined to accompany and watch over him. Unfortunately, at their encampment, after having passed the Tennessee [river] one day’s journey, they lost two horses, which obliged Mr. Neely to halt for their recovery. The Governor proceeded under a promise to wait for him at the house of the first white inhabitant on his road. He stopped at the house of a Mr. Grinder, who not being at home, his wife, alarmed at the symptoms of derangement she discovered, gave him up the house and retired to rest herself in an outhouse, the Governor’s and Neely’s servants lodging in another. About three o’clock in the night [of Oct. 11th, 1809] he did the deed which plunged his friends into affliction and deprived his country of one of her most valued citizens, whose valor and intelligence would have been now employed in avenging the wrongs of his country, and in emulating by land the splendid deeds which have honored her arms on the ocean. It lost, too, to the nation the benefit of receiving from his own hand the narrative now offered them of his sufferings and successes, in endeavoring to extend for them the boundaries of science and to present to their knowledge that vast and fertile country which their sons are destined to fill with arts, with science, with freedom and happiness.

To this melancholy close of the life of one whom posterity will declare not to have lived in vain, I have only to add that all the facts I have stated are either known to myself or communicated by his family or others, for whose truth I have no hesitation to make myself responsible; and I conclude with tendering you the assurances of my respect and consideration.

Th. Jefferson.
Mr. Paul Allen, Philadelphia.

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On the return journey in April 1806, the expedition stayed three days with the Walla Walla. Yelleppit organized a gathering of over 500 people, with dancing, trading, and cultural exchange. The chief gifted Clark a white horse, and the expedition provided in return a peace medal, a handkerchief, and other trade goods.

The Walla Walla later became part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, established by the Treaty of 1855. Their positive relationship with the expedition stands as an example of what cross-cultural encounters could look like when both sides approached with goodwill.

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The Tillamook had already salvaged much of the whale by the time the expedition arrived. Clark traded for about 300 pounds of blubber and some whale oil — valuable provisions for the monotonous diet at Fort Clatsop. The expedition also noted the Tillamook’s skill in processing whale products and making canoes.

Sacagawea accompanied this coastal expedition after insisting on seeing both the ocean and the whale — one of the few times her personal wishes are recorded in the journals.

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The Yankton were generally receptive to the expedition’s message of American sovereignty and trade. The council included traditional calumet ceremonies, speeches, and gift exchange. Pierre Dorion Sr., who had lived among the Yankton for decades, served as interpreter.

The positive encounter with the Yankton stood in contrast to the tense confrontation with the Teton Sioux just weeks later, illustrating the diverse responses of different Siouan peoples to the expedition.

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Clark visited the grave of the recently deceased Omaha chief Blackbird, who had ruled his people through intimidation and was said to have used arsenic obtained from traders to poison rivals. Blackbird had been buried sitting upright on his horse atop a bluff overlooking the Missouri — Clark paid his respects at this dramatic grave site.

The expedition noted the Omaha’s recent population losses from smallpox and expressed interest in future trade relations. The Omaha would later maintain a complicated relationship with American settlers and the U.S. government throughout the 19th century.

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The Arikara had been severely weakened by smallpox epidemics in the late 18th century, reducing their population from perhaps 30,000 to approximately 2,000. Despite this devastation, they maintained their agricultural villages and trade networks.

Relations between the expedition and the Arikara were cautiously friendly — the captains held councils, distributed gifts, and attempted to broker peace between the Arikara and the Mandan. One Arikara chief agreed to travel to Washington, D.C. but died during the journey.

In 1823, Arikara warriors attacked William Ashley’s fur trading party, killing or wounding many men in one of the most significant armed conflicts between Americans and Plains Indians. This attack was partly motivated by the death of the chief who had gone to Washington and by perceived broken promises from the American government.

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Despite their English name, the Salish did not practice head-flattening — the name was apparently applied by neighboring peoples. They were skilled horse people who ranged across the Northern Rockies, often in conflict with the Blackfeet.

The Salish oral tradition preserves their own account of the Lewis and Clark encounter, noting their wonder at the strangers’ appearance and possessions. The expedition members noted the Salish language’s unusual sounds, which they compared to speech impediments — in fact, the Salish language family has distinctive consonant clusters unfamiliar to English speakers.

The Flathead Reservation was established in western Montana in 1855. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes maintain a strong connection to the Lewis and Clark story through their oral traditions and ancestral lands along the expedition route.

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The council set the template for dozens of similar meetings throughout the journey: Lewis delivered a speech about American sovereignty and trade, distributed gifts (medals, flags, trade goods), demonstrated the air rifle, and invited chiefs to visit the “Great Father” in Washington.

The Otoe and Missouria had been weakened by smallpox and warfare with other tribes. They were interested in the trade relationship the expedition promised but lacked the military power to resist or negotiate from strength.

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