Looking the lewis and Clark Expedition and discussing some of the ramifications of this most important expedition. Some people have the lewis and Clark Expedition and compared it to the odyssey of the greek tragedies, just like the civil war. Some can sometimes seen as americas iliad of that great battle. And so this great voyage of the lewis and Clark Expedition be quite significant and, important. A few years ago, Atlantic Monthly did, a survey of the top 100 most influential figures in American History and and clark make the list at. And what i find interesting is theyre the only names on the entire list where theyre listed. So its almost like theyre inseparable. And and the smithsonian editor did one just five years ago on the most significant americans and Meriwether Lewis and, William Clark again made that list. And they were also hooked together. And sakaguchi, a, who accompanied the expedition, also made it so this young teenage woman was considered one of the 100 most significant american. So there is a an impression across the united that lewis and Clark Expedition was significant. And the people that went along are important for our countrys history. Today. Were going to discuss the expedition on three main facets. Were going look at it as the causes and historical context, the events south and the significance of the expedition. Wanted to start out with this from Thomas Jefferson. This was in a letter he wrote George Rogers clark, who was the older brother of clark. And this was written in 1780. So its just few years before the. Its just a few years after the independence declaration of independence. And a few years before the constitution is ratified. And he says, we shall form to the American Union a barrier against the dangerous extension of the british province of canada and. Add to the empire of liberty, extensive and fertile country, thereby converting dangerous enemies into valuable friends. So even during time of the articles of confederation, jefferson is sending letters to various peoples and to kind of formulate this of liberty that he had in mind. Now, jefferson was a child, the enlightenment and he knew the significance of through exploration that people on the ground things and writing them down and recording those would be very valuable for science. And so his attempts to explore what became the United States are legendary. These are just three of the attempts that he made. First was to George Rogers in that letter that we just read. He was a military soldier who, had won some campaigns during, the American Revolution and he said that he wanted him to lead expedition. And clark replied, that he was not in very good health. But if he decided to it in the future, he should think about asking his little brother, william, who will eventually join the lewis and Clark Expedition. So thats pretty cool. The second was john led here and this explorer had an interesting idea that you could explore the western part of the americas by coming from. And so he actually tried to cross russia and go through kamchatka in alaska to come down the coast. But he was stopped by catherine the great one of the great czarist tsarinas from russian history, andrei michaux was a french botanist, and jefferson, as Founding Member of the American Philosophical Society and and got enough support to, try to get him to at least find flora of the west and bring that knowledge back to his friends of Philosophical Society and all three of these expeditions did not reach their zenith, nor they success in the in the terms that jefferson had hoped. When you look at it a european depiction of north america in 1800, you see that the spanish have been quite active and the california coast. There are some french and spanish communities throughout the south and southeast and. Then the the pink areas established or settled the british in the the colonies area. But jeffersons vision, this empire of liberty, was very powerful. You know, he he may not have ever traveled west of the blue ridge mountains, but his mind certainly traveled all the way to the pacific. And in 1800, he learned from his friends in france that there had been a secret treaty that samuel afonso, in which the french had regained all of the area, had suddenly been known as the Louisiana Purchase that had been given to spain during the french and indian war. And so this was significant because france had been a growing empire, and now was led by one of the great modern figures, napoleon. And so now theres not a a crumbling, weak empire on americas westward flank, but an aggressive military mystic french opponent or potential opponent on . The flank. The other thing that changed his way of thinking was the publication of a book. You know, jefferson loved books. He collected thousands of them. He went into great expense debt to do so. And when the library of congress burned down during the war of 1812, jefferson actually gave much of his private library to form the corpus of the new library of congress. And as go there, you can visit it and, see some of the collections that jefferson donated to the. But he was very, very keen on this book by Alexander Mackenzie because voyages from montreal to the pacific was a northward for traders account of traveling along the rivers and streams to the pacific ocean. And even though it was too far north into canada to be effective for year round travel this greatly intrigued jefferson because mackenzie had postulated to the british that they could take control of the entire trade of north america if they put a a monopolistic control into Something Like either the Hudsons Bay Company or the northwest company to take this over. Jefferson did not want america to miss out on the fur bounty of the american west. He also wanted to have utilitarian knowledge that the enlightenment demanded an expected and with the 18 election, he had now and catapulted into becoming the second president of the United States of america. Third president. Excuse me and his geopolitical issues and intrigues with outside inside forces almost compelled him to do something about it. So he sends messages and diplomats to france to napoleon, if he would be willing sell what became known as the Louisiana Purchase. And it took several years for this to happen, but eventually it did on the 30th of april, 1803. This tract of land stretching from the gulf of mexico to the canadian. Was 828,000 square miles of land, draining much of what flowed into the mississippi and Missouri Rivers. This was a territory in which the native Peoples Still claimed right of occupancy. But america was purchasing the right of discoverer v from france. Jefferson announced this to the american on the 4th of july in 1803 and saw this as a great boon. The country to double its size like this. He said, i look to the duplication of this area as a great achievement to the mass of happiness, which is to to ensue. And then postulated is it not better that the opposite bank of the mississippi should settled by our own brother and then children than by strangers of another family. So hes having this vision now of america expanding even beyond the boundaries of the mississippi which in the boundary line. 1783 at the conclusion of the American Revolution. And this enlightenment through exploration was to take a number of turns. But most significant were the scientific questioning Scientific Method and real time that would occur with explorer that were on the ground. And his idea for this empire of liberty was one in which america would spread perhaps from sea to shining sea. But at this time that quite a dangerous proposal, because there was a french philosopher by the name of montesquieu who said that republics could not exist in large Continental Oil ways because the further away you were from the periphery, the more prone or at those fringes spin off from the center. And so the question, how big a republic could get . And still function was still undetermined. So america became this great experiment for expansion of freedom and democracy and equality. There were number of explorers that went west during jeffersons tenure in office. And we will focus on this red line where the lewis Clark Expedition embark from while they embark really the false of the ohio up here all the way down to saint louis and then the saint louis to the columbia. But youll also notice that pike went on several expeditions. He explored the headwaters of the mississippi happy arriving at lake itasca, and he also went on a southwestern to find the headwaters of, the red river, and eventually arrested by the spanish and, transported through spain and, back around to natchez, the freeman custer expedition embarked up the red river, and there was another expedition by hunter and dunbar that went up to washington. And there was another expedition proposed to go up the platte river. But it never happened. So there were lots of designs to try to explore these major river systems. One of the reasons why the lewis and Clark Expedition is more famous than all of these others is because some of the others were actually turned back by the spanish. And the of pike. He was arrested along with his men and taken under house arrest down to santa fe, then down to chihuahua and the freeman and custer expedition was turned back by the spanish, the hunter and dunbar expedition went to the hot and arkansas. They had some r r there with the minerals and then returned home. And the stephen long expedition wont occur until. 1819. So its its down the road. Are you aware that lewis and clark there were seven or excuse me, there were four different attempts by the spanish to arrest lewis and clark. And they sent out expeditions to to apprehend them. And they came within a few hundred on two occasions. And to nearly arrest them. Did jeffersons instructions to were quite clear the object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River and such principal stream of it as its course and communication with. The water of the pacific ocean, and offer the most direct and practical water communication across continent for the purposes of commerce. And this was jefferson letter to lewis that became kind of his marching orders orders. Lewis knew. I mean, this letter to lewis was epic. Its over six pages long. It has a whole list of things that jefferson wants to do. And so he writes a letter to his friend clark, who he had served under a campaign in the 70 ninetys asking him to join him as a co commander. And he says if anything, under these circumstances, in this enterprise, which would induce you to participate with me in this fatigues dangers its honors believe me theres no man on earth with whom i should feel equal pleasure in sharing them as with yourself. So this was an invitation for clark to. Join him in an equal capacity. Even though the president , the secretary of war had not given permission for that rank and, clark wrote back and said, i cheerfully, you in an official character, as mentioned in your letter, to protect you of all the dangers, difficulties and, fatigue. And i anticipate the honors and rewards of the result of such an enterprise. Should we be in accomplishing it. So this was a pretty exciting time for lewis and clark. They began preparing. Now that the official news had been released in july and for the following years. And you can this journey that lewis clark will head on. This is about 8000 miles and its going to be very long trip 864 days. Theyll be gone. So this is a expedition and that required a lot logistical preparation. One of the first things they did was try to find about the region. So they gathered that had been published about the area. And i love map by nicholas king. Its called map of the western part of north america. And you can see that the Mississippi River and the great lakes and the route route of the canadians is quite defined as is the Pacific Coast, where vancouver captain cook and others had mapped and charted the Pacific Coast. But i love this word right in the middle. Ive looked at hundreds and hundreds of maps in my life and is the only time i found this word. I blown it up so you can read it and says conjectural. Basically that means we dont know whats there. And this is amazing. Lewis clark are pretty much they know where their destination is, but theyre not quite sure what theyre going to encounter in the interim. There were kinds of stories of what they might find. They might find exotic animals or blue eyed welchman up near the mandan lost tribes of israel, mountains of silver, mountains of salt a northwest passage, a large, furry beaver that were six feet long. I mean who knew what to expect in this area. So theyre kind of exploring naturalists that theyre going Pay Attention to the flora and the fauna, the landscape and the native peoples to try to understand better whats going on in that region. Now they also knew that if they got on to the great plains and there werent any trees to build, boats that they may need to have another form of transportation. So lewis devised an erector set boat, the experiment that could put together and cover with hides. And in the event that they needed a boat and they didnt have trees, the fact is, after they crossed that the great falls of the missouri, they did need additional craft and put this boat together. But unfortunately, they didnt bring any duct tape or call to to keep the seams leaking. So the boat ended not being as useful for purpose as they hope. He also made one of his important acquisitions and he bought a newfoundland dog named seaman. We dont know whether he was a black dog or the red white colors of the new face. But seaman play an Important Role as kind of the mascot and pet along the journey. Ian clark meet near the falls of the ohio i and clarks point near louisville, kentucky. And in october they start discussing the kinds of things that they will need to have a successful. Clark and then military is the captain or as a lieutenant excuse me and lewis now formerly a captain. They kept the charade that they had both become. And so referred to one another as captain. Even though clarks not promoted until later on. Our bed, his family often. And his family at the south of the ohio and byrd, kentucky, which in a province or county of virginia until it became a state 1790. And so they head down on this keel boat or barge more. That was about 55 feet long and could tow 10 to 12 tons of material. They also did some recruiting as they went to the forts. Some of the officers tried to give them the people they wanted to get out of the fort and they wanted to vote off the island. So speak. But lewis and clark were quite careful and who they chose. They wanted unmarried men primarily that could participate in these dangers and fatigues. And there were only one or two married men that actually went on the expedition. Almost all of the others single and all is said and done. About 55 members embark in saint louis, may of 1804. Sergeant gass was of the commission noncommissioned officers that joined them. Preston. And they built a winter encampment on the side of the river because the transfer of the louisiana had not taken place yet. So they were waiting for that formal ceremony to. During the winter. However, they were quite busy. Lewis went to saint louis to look for procure supplies and clark spent most of the time the men and shooting and also in the other things that they would need to be successful. Now there were at least five journalists who kept records this expedition and lewis and clark were both be some the most important writers. There are several stretches in which lewis either did not write or weve lost those entries. Clark wrote all but days, and even those ten days when he was gone on a hunting trip, summarized. So he basically accounted for every day of the expedition which is quite remarkable. When you look at the words of lewis and clark and their enlisted men, they wrote more words than are contained, the holy bible. So this a pretty extensive record and its been digitized. Its available free for the public at the university of nebraska press. Its a national because it can be searched and keyword search, almost any kind of topic you can think about. Now, the expedition was kind of a village on the move and lewis was the the trained scientist. Jefferson had sent him to philadelphia to meet with his friends, Philosophical Society and the university to receive training on how to take astronomical observations and the equipment that he would need and things like that. Clark was the soldier, and hes the one who made the expedition happen. Hes the one day to day thats getting the boats up the river. Hes making the maps is overseeing the men. York was his servant and they have been lifelong companions, and clark took him with him on the trip. They will meet sacagawea, a third of the way into the expedition. Well talk more about her when that happens. They had french voyagers that were the boatman to take them upstream. That regular army. And they also had civilians were hunters and interpreters. People like john colter and george three yard. They carried with them a huge amount of trade goods to give as gifts to the tribes that they met. Also had tokens of sovereignty like these peace medals with on the front and the hams class of the native soldier on the back with the words peace and friendship. These are called jefferson peace medals. And there are quite and the immense has actually remade replicas of and i have some in my office that you can come see. They have textiles. These are hudsons bay blankets similar to the ones weve looked at before and especially trade and the lewis and