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[Illustration: Wm Clark
Meriwether Lewis]
LEWIS AND CLARK
MERIWETHER LEWIS
AND
WILLIAM CLARK
BY
WILLIAM R. LIGHTON
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
PORTLAND, OREGON
THE J. K. GILL COMPANY
1905
COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY WILLIAM R. LIGHTON
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Transcriber's Note: The symbol "^" in "Miss^ie" is used to indicate
that the letters following it are printed in superscript.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. CHARACTERISTICS 1
II. THE EXPEDITION 15
III. TERMS OF THE COMMISSION 25
IV. THE START 34
V. WITH THE SIOUX 51
VI. TO THE FALLS OF THE MISSOURI 69
VII. OVER THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE 82
VIII. THE LAST STAGE OF THE WESTWARD JOURNEY 93
IX. WINTER ON THE COAST 107
X. HOMEWARD: IN THE MOUNTAINS 117
XI. RECROSSING THE DIVIDE 134
XII. HOME 142
XIII. AFTER LIFE 149
LEWIS AND CLARK
CHAPTER I
CHARACTERISTICS
In the years 1804, 1805, and 1806, two men commanded an expedition
which explored the wilderness that stretched from the mouth of the
Missouri River to where the Columbia enters the Pacific, and dedicated
to civilization a new empire. Their names were Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark.
As a rule, one who tries to discover and to set down in order the
simple signs that spell the story of a large man's life is confused by
a chaos of data. No such trouble arises in this case. There is great
poverty of fact and circumstance in the records of the private lives of
these men; so careless were they of notoriety, so wholly did they merge
themselves in their work. Anything like ostentation was foreign to
their taste, and to the spirit of their time, which took plain, dutiful
heroism as a matter of course. No one knows any "characteristic
anecdotes" of Meriwether Lewis; and the best stories about Clark are
those preserved in the tribal histories of Western Indians. The
separate identity of the two men is practically lost to all except the
careful reader. Each had his baptismal name, to be sure; but even their
private names are fused, and they are best known to us under the joint
style of Lewis and Clark. In effect they were one and indivisible. For
evidence of their individuality we must look to the labors which they
performed in common.
When, several years after the conclusion of the great expedition, the
manuscript journals were being prepared for publication, the editor
could not find sufficient material out of which to make a memoir of
Captain Lewis, and was forced to appeal to Mr. Jefferson for aid; for
Jefferson had been an early neighbor and friend of the Lewis family,
and later, on becoming President, had made the lad Meriwether his
private secretary, and had afterwards appointed him to direct the
exploration. The sketch written by Mr. Jefferson is, like most of his
papers, appreciative and vital. It is to this document, dated at
Monticello, August 18, 1813, that every biographer must have recourse:--
"Meriwether Lewis, late governor of Louisiana, was born on the 18th
of August, 1774, near the town of Charlottesville, in the county of
Albemarle, in Virginia, of one of the distinguished families of
that State. John Lewis, one of his father's uncles, was a member of
the king's council before the Revolution. Another of them, Fielding
Lewis, married a sister of General Washington. His father, William
Lewis, was the youngest of five sons of Colonel Robert Lewis of
Albemarle, the fourth of whom, Charles, was one of the early
patriots who stepped forward in the commencement of the Revolution,
and commanded one of the regiments first raised in Virginia, and
placed on continental establishment.... Nicholas Lewis, the second
of his father's brothers, commanded a regiment of militia in the
successful expedition of 1776 against the Cherokee Indians.... This
member of the family of the Lewises, whose bravery was so usefully
proved on this occasion, was endeared to all who knew him by his
inflexible probity, courteous disposition, benevolent heart, and
engaging modesty and manners. He was the umpire of all the private
differences of his county,--selected always by both parties. He was
also the guardian of Meriwether Lewis, of whom we are now to speak,
and who had lost his father at an early age.
"He (Meriwether) continued some years under the fostering care of a
tender mother, of the respectable family of Meriwethers, of the
same county; and was remarkable, even in infancy, for enterprise,
boldness, and discretion.
"When only eight years of age he habitually went out in the dead of
night, alone with his dogs, into the forest to hunt the raccoon and
opossum, which, seeking their food in the night, can then only be
taken. In this exercise, no season or circumstance could obstruct
his purpose--plunging through the winter's snows and frozen streams
in pursuit of his object. At thirteen he was put to the Latin
school, and continued at that until eighteen, when he was returned
to his mother, and entered on the cares of his farm; having, as
well as a younger brother, been left by his father with a
competency for all the correct and comfortable purposes of
temperate life. His talent for observation, which led him to an
accurate knowledge of the plants and animals of his own country,
would have distinguished him as a farmer; but at the age of twenty,
yielding to the ardor of youth and a passion for more dazzling
pursuits, he engaged as a volunteer in the body of militia which
was called out by General Washington, on occasion of the
discontents produced by the excise taxes in the western parts of
the United States [the Whiskey Rebellion]; and from that station he
was removed to the regular service as a lieutenant of the line. At
twenty-three he was promoted to a captaincy; and, always attracting
the first attention where punctuality and fidelity were requisite,
he was appointed paymaster to his regiment."
That is about all that is definitely known of Lewis's family and early
life. It is not much; but it suffices to show that he came of fine,
fearless stock, mettlesome and reliant,--the sort of stock that brings
forth men of action. The invertebrate vanity of blood is kept out of
this story, in accord with the democratic belief of the time that a
strong man's ancestors are what he himself makes them. They may have
done their part well, but it remains for him to put the finishing
touches to their reputation. Given a few sturdy souls, quick and
willing to serve in time of need, and that was enough of family
distinction. Behavior, rather than pedigree, made the Lewis character.
When Captain Lewis was appointed to command the expedition, he had
served Mr. Jefferson for two years as private secretary. Concerning his
fitness for public duties, Mr. Jefferson wrote:--
"I had now had opportunities of knowing him intimately. Of courage
undaunted; possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which
nothing but impossibilities could divert from its direction;
careful as a father of those committed to his charge, yet steady in
the maintenance of order and discipline; intimate with the Indian
character, customs, and principles; habituated to the hunting life;
guarded, by exact observation of the vegetables and animals of his
own country, against losing time in the description of objects
already possessed; honest, disinterested, liberal, of sound
understanding, and a fidelity to truth so scrupulous that whatever
he should report would be as certain as if seen by ourselves--with
all these qualifications, as if selected and implanted by Nature in
one body for this express purpose, I could have no hesitation in
confiding the enterprise to him. To fill up the measure desired, he
wanted nothing but a greater familiarity with the technical
language of the natural sciences, and readiness in the astronomical
observations necessary for the geography of his route. To acquire
these, he repaired immediately to Philadelphia, and placed himself
under the tutorage of the distinguished professors of that place,
who, with a zeal and emulation enkindled by an ardent devotion to
science, communicated to him freely the information requisite for
the purposes of the journey. While attending at Lancaster to the
fabrication of the arms with which he chose that his men should be
provided, he had the benefit of daily communication with Mr. Andrew
Ellicott, whose experience in astronomical observation, and
practice of it in the woods, enabled him to apprise Captain Lewis
of the wants and difficulties he would encounter, and of the
substitutes and resources afforded by a woodland and uninhabited
country."
It is plain that this astute judge of men reposed perfect confidence in
his friend. From January, 1803, when Congress sanctioned the
undertaking, until May, 1804, when the party set out from St. Louis,
the young officer had full charge of the intricate and difficult
details of preparation. It was he who superintended the building of
boats and the making of arms, accoutrements, scientific apparatus, and
all equipment; and, what was of more importance, he selected the men
who were to form his command. That was a nice matter. It would have
been worse than useless to lead a company of fretful dissenters. The
expedition was to be conducted on a military basis; but it was not
ordinary field service; it was a mission for picked men. Much would
depend upon each man's natural aptitude for his task; much more would
depend upon the integrity of the corps as a whole. The consummate
wisdom of Lewis's selection of his aids shines from every page of the
journals. None of the men seemed to need instruction in the cardinal
elements of conduct; each was as sensible of his trust as Lewis
himself. It was in this spirit of the subordinates, rather than in the
absolute authority of the captain, that success was to lie.
To guard against untoward accident, that might thwart the work, Lewis
wished to have a companion in command. This pleased Mr. Jefferson, and
the choice fell upon Captain William Clark.
William Clark was the ninth of a family of ten children. His father was
John Clark, second, who, like his father before him, was a Virginian,
living in King and Queen County. The pioneering spirit was strong in
the family,--the _Wanderlust_, that keeps man's nature fluid and
adaptable. This led John, second, to remove first to Albemarle County,
and later to Caroline County, where William was born on August 1, 1770,
not far from the birthplace of Meriwether Lewis.
When the boy was about fourteen years of age, the family moved once
more, into the dim West, settling at the place now known as Louisville,
in Kentucky. William's elder brother, George Rogers Clark, had preceded
the others, and had built the first fortification against the Indians
at the Falls of the Ohio, around which were clustered a few of the rude
dwellings of the frontiersmen. At this place, amidst the crudest
conditions of the Kentucky border, the lad grew to maturity. That was
not an orderly life; it was rather a continuing state of suspense,
demanding of those who shared in it constant hardihood and fortitude.
For the right-minded man, however, it had incalculable value. Many of
the strongest examples of our national character have been men who owed
the best that was in them to the apparently unkindly circumstances of
their youth. What was denied to Clark in easy opportunity had ample
compensation in the firmness and self-reliance which came from
mastering difficulties.
To read Clark's letters and papers is to discover that his education in
the politer branches of learning was as primitive as the surroundings
of his home. It is plain that the training which prepared him for
manhood was got mostly outside the schoolroom.
Like Lewis, he chose a military career. When he was but eighteen years
of age, he was appointed ensign in the regular army; and two years
later he was made captain of militia in the town of Clarksville, "in
the Territory of the United States North West of the Ohio River." In
1791 he was commissioned as a lieutenant of infantry, under Wayne, and
served afterward as adjutant and quartermaster. Ill health led him to
resign his commission in the army in 1796.
A few months before his resignation he first became acquainted with
Meriwether Lewis, who, as an ensign, was put under his command. Then
began one of those generous and enduring friendships that are all too
rare amongst men. It is not known just what their private relations
were in the mean time; but in 1803, upon Lewis's earnest solicitation,
Captain Clark consented to quit his retirement upon his Kentucky farm
and join in that work which was destined to be but the beginning of his
real usefulness.
He comes to us out of the dark. We must forego intimate knowledge of
his growth, being content with finding him full-grown and ready. No
doubt his service in the army, where he was associated with men of
ability, had helped him to master many details of engineering craft,
which he was to use in his later service. But this was at most
incidental; his strength, his power to serve, was native, not acquired.
That they might share alike in all particulars of rank and
responsibility in the expedition, it was understood that Lewis would
endeavor to procure for Clark a captain's commission. Clark wrote to
Nicholas Biddle (the editor of the journals) in 1811:--
"On these 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 everything
arranged I waited with some anxiety for the commission which I had
reason to expect (Capt. of Indioneers [Engineers]) a few days
before I set out I received a Commission of 2d Lieutenant of
Artillerist, my feelings on this occasion was as might be expected.
I wished the expedition suckcess, and from the assurence of Capt.
Lewis that in every respect my situation command &c. &c. should be
equal to his; viewing the Commission as mearly calculated to
authorise punishment to the soldiers if necessary, I proceeded. No
difficulty took place on our rout relative to this point...."
In the very nature of things, personal difficulty of a petty sort could
not arise. Official rank was as nothing between them. They were capable
and loyal; the morale of their party was ideal; and under their
guidance was wrought out what has been well called our national epic of
exploration.