AFTER LIFE
It would be a pleasant labor, and one well worth the pains, to record
the story of the later years of every one of those valiant souls, from
the highest to the lowest. But that may not be done here. The best
homage that can be rendered to the subordinates is to speak of their
common motive: simple-hearted, unselfish devotion to the interests of
the nation, unstained by ulterior hope of private gain. A bill was
passed by Congress in 1807, granting to the non-commissioned officers
and privates, according to rank, a sum of money equal to double pay for
the period of service, and, in addition, 300 acres of land from the
public domain. But nothing beyond ordinary pay had been definitely
pledged in advance. Clearly it was not the expectation of material
reward which sustained them.
The bill passed by Congress included also a grant of 1500 acres of land
to Captain Lewis, and of 1000 acres to Captain Clark. It is upon record
that Lewis, in the spirit which had regulated all of his relations with
Clark, objected to this discrimination in his favor.
In March, 1804, before the expedition set out, the newly acquired
Louisiana Territory was divided by Congress, the dividing line being
the 33d parallel. The southern portion was named the District of New
Orleans, and the northern, the District of Louisiana; this name being
changed, a year later, to Louisiana Territory.
On March 3d, 1807, Meriwether Lewis was made governor of this
territory, with headquarters at the village of St. Louis; and this
office he held until he died, October 11, 1809, at the age of
thirty-five years.
Although his service in this position was so untimely short, he did
much toward laying a firm foundation for the institutions of lawful and
orderly life. According to Mr. Jefferson, "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."
In the newly organized society, events rapidly took form. Governor
Lewis, with two others (judges of the court), constituted the
territorial legislature, which concerned itself at once with matters of
development,--providing for the establishment of towns, laying out
roads, etc. In 1808 the laws of Louisiana Territory were collected and
published, under the supervision of the legislature. This was the first
book printed in St. Louis. A post-office was established also in 1808,
and soon afterward the first newspaper appeared. From a mere frontier
trading settlement, whose conduct was regulated by untamed impulses,
St. Louis was being put in the way of its present greatness.
Aside from these purely administrative duties, the governor was further
occupied in endeavoring to secure permanent peace with the Indians, and
to prepare them for receiving the advantages of civilized life. This
was his largest thought, growing naturally out of all that he had seen
and done in the years preceding; and in it he was supported and
inspired by continued association with Captain Clark, who had been
appointed Indian agent for the territory. He had plenty to do; and in
such intervals as could be found, he was preparing for publication the
history of his travels.
The manner of his death is not exactly known. Although several writers
have given their best efforts to erasing what they seem to consider a
blot upon his reputation, the weight of opinion appears to sustain Mr.
Jefferson's statement that he committed suicide while affected by
hypochondria. Mr. Jefferson wrote in his memoir:--
"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 upon this journey, and was crossing through Tennessee when
death overtook him, at the cabin of a backwoodsman where he had stopped
for the night. Some of the circumstances point to murder, others to
suicide; the truth is conjectural. What does it matter, after all? He
had lived largely; had done a man's work; he has a noble place in
history.
A better fortune was in store for Captain Clark. He was destined for
long and honorable service in public life, and a fair old age.
On the 12th of March, 1807, a few days following Captain Lewis's
appointment as governor of Louisiana Territory, Captain Clark was
commissioned by President Jefferson as brigadier-general of the
territorial militia, and as Indian agent. Dr. Coues says in his
excellent biographical sketch that "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." Then William Clark was the man
for the place. Throughout his public life there is no stain of any sort
upon his name. With his strong, decisive, straightforward character,
which would not suffer him to yield a jot in his ideas of right and
wrong, he must have excited jealousies and made some enemies; but none
of these had the hardihood to speak against his integrity.
His best work was accomplished as Indian agent. In that position he was
in fact and in name the foster-father of all the tribes who lived in
the territory he had helped to explore. It devolved upon him to
acquaint the Indians with the nature and purposes of our government,
and to bring them into obedience to its laws. More than this, he had a
large task before him in endeavoring to reconcile the traditional
enmities of the tribes one against another. He succeeded well. He got
the confidence of the natives, and kept it; from fearing his power,
most of them came to revere the man. When all is said of the
Indians,--of their savage craft, their obliquity of moral vision, their
unsparing cruelty, and their utter remissness in most matters of
behavior, the fact remains that they know how to appreciate candor and
honor, and will respond to it as well as they are able. They are slow
to believe in wordy protestations: they must have signs more tangible.
They will not trust all men of white complexion merely because they
have found one trustworthy; each man must prove himself and stand for
himself. William Clark gave them a rare exhibition of upright,
downright manliness, and they learned to respect and love him. He was
soon celebrated from St. Louis to the Pacific, and was called by the
name "Red-Head." To this day, old men of the Rocky Mountain tribes
speak of him with fondness, saying that our government has never shown
another like him.
He was a man of iron; his was an iron rule. In that time, Indian
affairs were comparatively free from the modern bureaucratic control;
the agent devised and followed his own plans, unhampered by jealous
superiors. It has been said that Clark's office was that of an
autocrat, a condition too dangerous to be generally tolerated. Clark
was indeed an exception. The most absolute power could be intrusted to
him with implicit confidence that it would not be abused. The Indians
themselves, who were the most directly concerned, did not rebel against
his unbending authority. If he was stern, exacting the utmost, and
holding them to a strict accountability for violations of law, they
knew that his least word of promise was certain of fulfillment. They
did not find his rule too onerous under those conditions. While he held
sway, the Western Indian country was in an unequaled state of order and
decency.
Not the least of our debts to Captain Clark lies in the fact that it
was he who brought the journals of the great expedition to public view.
Captain Lewis had not been able to finish this work before his death;
most of the details of arrangement for publication fell to his
surviving companion, with the admirable editorial supervision of
Nicholas Biddle. It is often regretted that editorial revision of the
manuscripts was considered necessary; for what was thus gained
sometimes in clearness and brevity of statement was more than lost in
delicious naivete. Mr. Biddle did his part thoroughly, sympathetically;
and it was he who succeeded in finding a publisher,--a matter hard to
accomplish in that time, troubled as it was with war and with political
and commercial uncertainty. The authentic history did not appear until
the year 1814.
Meanwhile, Captain Clark had passed to fresh honors. Following the
death of Governor Lewis, Benjamin Howard was appointed as his
successor. In 1812 the name of the territory was changed to Missouri;
and in 1813 Captain Clark was appointed by President Madison as its
governor. After being reappointed by Madison in 1816 and 1817, and by
Monroe in 1820, he surrendered his office upon the admission of
Missouri to statehood, when a governor was elected by vote of the
people. In 1822 he was named by President Monroe to be Superintendent
of Indian Affairs, and this post he held for sixteen years thereafter,
until his death.
He died as a man of his make would wish to die. He was sixty-eight
years of age, but still in harness and able to do his work. He passed
quietly away at the home of his eldest son, Meriwether Lewis Clark, in
St. Louis, on the first day of September, 1838.
_And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought
it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land
which the Lord our God doth give us._
The Riverside Press
_Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton & Co._
_Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A._