Meriwether Lewis

Meriwether Lewis
2nd Governor of Louisiana Territory
In office March 3, 1807 – October 11, 1809
Appointed by	Thomas Jefferson
Preceded by	James Wilkinson
Succeeded by	Benjamin Howard
Personal details
Born	August 18, 1774(1774-08-18) Ivy, Colony of Virginia
Died	October 11, 1809(1809-10-11) (aged 35) Hohenwald, Tennessee
Spouse(s)	none
Occupation	explorer, soldier, politician
Signature

Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774 – October 11, 1809) was an American explorer, soldier, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition also known as the Corps of Discovery, with William Clark. Their mission was to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase, establish trade and sovereignty over the natives near the Missouri River, and claim the Pacific Northwest and Oregon territory for the United States before European nations. They also collected scientific data, and information on indigenous nations.^[1] President Thomas Jefferson appointed him Governor of Upper Louisiana in 1806.^[2][3]

Biography

Meriwether Lewis was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, in the present-day community of Ivy.^[4] He was the son of Lt. William Lewis of Locust Hill (1733 – November 17, 1779),^[5] who was of Welsh ancestry, and Lucy Meriwether (February 4, 1752 – September 8, 1837), daughter of Thomas Meriwether and Elizabeth Thornton who were both of English ancestry. (Thornton was the daughter of Francis Thornton and Mary Taliaferro). He moved with his mother and stepfather Captain John Marks to Georgia in May 1780. His older brother Nicholas Lewis became his guardian. They settled along the Broad River in the Goosepond Community within the Broad River Valley in Wilkes County (now Oglethorpe County).

During his time in Georgia, Lewis enhanced his skills as a hunter and outdoorsman. He would often venture out in the middle of the night in the dead of winter with only his dog, Seaman, to go hunting. Even at an early age, he was interested in natural history, which would develop into a lifelong passion. His mother taught him how to gather wild herbs for medicinal purposes. In the Broad River Valley, Lewis first dealt with American Indians. This was the traditional territory of the Cherokee, who resented encroachment by the colonists. Lewis seems to have been a champion for them among his own people. While in Georgia, he met Eric Parker, who encouraged him to travel. At thirteen, Lewis was sent back to Virginia for education by private tutors. One was Parson Matthew Maury, an uncle of Matthew Fontaine Maury. In 1793, Lewis graduated from Liberty Hall (now Washington and Lee University).

That year he joined the Virginia militia, and in 1794 he was sent as part of a detachment involved in putting down the Whiskey Rebellion. In 1795 Lewis joined the U.S. Army, commissioned as a Lieutenant, where he served until 1801. Among his commanding officers was William Clark, who would later become his companion in the Corps of Discovery.

On April 1, 1801, Lewis was appointed as an aide by President Thomas Jefferson, whom he knew through Virginia society in Albemarle County. Lewis resided in the presidential mansion, and frequently conversed with various prominent figures in politics, the arts and other circles.^[6] Originally, he was to provide information on the politics of the United States Army, which had seen an influx of Federalist officers as a result of John Adams's "midnight appointments".^[7] When Jefferson began to plan for an expedition across the continent, he chose Lewis to lead the expedition.

Return and gubernatorial duties

After returning from the expedition, Lewis received a reward of 1,600 acres (6.5 km²) of land. He also initially made arrangements to publish the Corp of Discovery journals, but had difficulty completing his writing. In 1807, Jefferson appointed him governor of the Louisiana Territory; he settled in St. Louis. He died in 1809 on his journey to deliver his journals to a Washington publisher.

Lewis' record as an administrator is mixed. He established roads and was a strong proponent of the fur trade. His position was to protect the western lands from encroachment,^[7] which was not favorable to the rush of settlers looking to open new lands for settlements. But due to his quarreling with local political leaders, controversy over his approvals of trading licenses, land grant politics, Indian depredations, excessive drinking and a slow-moving mail system, it appeared that Lewis was a poor administrator. He did not adequately keep in touch with his superiors in Washington.^[8]

Freemasonry

Lewis was a Freemason, initiated, passed and raised in the "Door To Virtue Lodge No. 44" in Albemarle, Virginia, between 1796 and 1797.^[9] On August 2, 1808, Lewis and several of his acquaintances submitted a petition to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania requesting dispensation to establish a lodge in St. Louis. Lewis was nominated and recommended to serve as the first Master of the proposed Lodge, which was warranted as Lodge No. 111 on September 16, 1808.^[10]

Death

On September 3, 1809, Lewis set out for Washington D.C., where he hoped to resolve issues regarding the denied payment of drafts he had drawn against the War Department while serving as the first American governor of the Louisiana Territory. Some accounts say he carried his journals with him for delivery to his publisher. Lewis intended to travel to Washington by ship from New Orleans, but changed his plans while en route down the Mississippi from St. Louis. He decided to make an overland journey via the Natchez Trace and then east to Washington. The Natchez Trace was the old pioneer road between Natchez, Mississippi and Nashville, Tennessee. On October 10, 1809 Lewis stopped at an inn on the Natchez Trace called Grinder's Stand, about 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Nashville. After leaving dinner, he went to his bedroom. In the predawn hours of October 11, the innkeeper heard gunshots. Servants found Lewis badly injured from multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head. He died shortly after sunrise.

While modern historians generally accept his death as a suicide, there is some debate.^[11] Priscilla Grinder, the tavern-keeper's wife, claimed Lewis acted strangely the night before his death. She said that during dinner, Lewis stood and paced about the room talking to himself in the way one would speak to a lawyer. She observed his face to flush as if it had come on him in a fit. After he retired for the evening, she continued to hear him talking to himself. At some point in the night, she heard multiple gunshots, and what she believed was someone calling for help. She claimed to be able to see Lewis through the slit in the door crawling back to his room. She never explained why, at the time, she didn't investigate further concerning Lewis' condition or the source of the gunshots. The next morning, she sent for Lewis' servants. They found him wounded and bloody, with part of his skull gone, but he lived for several hours. Priscilla Grinder's testimony is held as a point of contention from both sides of the murder-suicide debate. The murder advocates point to five conflicting testimonies as evidence that hers is fabricated, and the suicide advocates point to her testimony as proof of suicide.^[11]

The only doctor to examine Lewis' body did so in 1848. He reported that Lewis appeared to have died "by the hand of an assassin". Lewis' descendants have retained the report.^{[citation needed]}

When Clark and Jefferson were informed of Lewis' death, both accepted the conclusion of suicide. His mother and relatives contended it was murder. In later years, a court of inquiry explored whether they could charge the husband of the tavern-keeper with Lewis' death. They dropped the inquiry for lack of evidence or motive.

From 1993–2010, many of Lewis' kin (through his sister Jane, as he had no children) sought to have the body exhumed for forensic analysis, to try to determine whether the death was a suicide. A Tennessee coroner's jury in 1996 recommended exhumation. Since Lewis is buried in a national park, the National Park Service must approve; they refused the request in 1998, citing possible disturbance to the bodies of more than 100 pioneers buried nearby. In 2008 the Department of Interior approved the exhumation, but that decision was rescinded in 2010 upon policy review, and the Department has stated the last decision is final. It is making improvements to the grave site and visitor facility.^[12]

Memorials

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Paul Allen with a biography of Meriwether Lewis, 1813

The explorer was buried near present day Hohenwald, Tennessee, near his place of death. The State of Tennessee erected a monument over his grave in 1848. The Tennessee State Commission charged with locating the grave and erecting the monument wrote in its official report that it was likely Lewis was murdered. Today, the grave site is maintained by the Natchez Trace Parkway.

In 2009, the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation organized a commemoration for Lewis in conjunction with their 41st annual meeting October 3–7, 2009.^[13] It included the first national memorial service at his grave site. On October 7, 2009, the 200th anniversary of Lewis' death, about 2,500 people (Park Service estimate) from more than twenty-five states gathered at his grave to acknowledge his life and achievements. Speakers included Clark descendant Peyton "Bud" Clark, Lewis collateral descendants Howell Bowen and Tom McSwain, and Stephanie Ambrose Tubbs (the daughter of the author Stephen Ambrose, who wrote Undaunted Courage, an award-winning book about the Lewis and Clark expedition). A bronze bust of Lewis was dedicated at the Natchez Trace Parkway for a planned visitor center at the gravesite area. The District of Columbia and governors of twenty states sent flags flown over state capital buildings to be carried to Lewis' grave by residents of the states associated with the Lewis and Clark Trail.

This was the final bicentennial event honoring the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Re-enactors from the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial participated, and official attendees included Native American tribal chiefs and representatives from Jefferson's Monticello. The Lewis and Clark descendants, along with representatives of St. Louis Lodge #1, past presidents of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, and the Daughters of the American Revolution, carried wreaths and led a formal procession to Lewis' grave. Samples of plants which Lewis discovered on the expedition were brought from the Trail states and laid on his grave. The U.S. Army was represented by the 101st Airborne Infantry Band and its Army chaplain.

Legacy

For many years, Lewis' legacy was overlooked, inaccurately assessed, and somewhat tarnished by his alleged suicide.^[7] Yet his contributions to science, the exploration of the Western U.S., and the lore of great world explorers, are considered incalculable.^[7]

Four years after Lewis' death, Thomas Jefferson wrote:

Of courage undaunted, possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which nothing but impossibilities could divert from its direction, ... 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.^[14]

Jefferson wrote that Lewis had a "luminous and discriminating intellect."

The alpine plant Lewisia (family Portulacaceae), popular in rock gardens, is named after Lewis, as is Lewis' Woodpecker. A subspecies of cutthroat trout, the westslope cutthroat (Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi), is also named after him. Geographic names that honor him include Lewis County, Idaho, Lewis County, Kentucky; Lewis County, Tennessee; Lewisburg, Tennessee; Lewiston, Idaho; Lewis County, Washington; the U.S. Army fort Fort Lewis, Washington, the home of the US Army 1st Corps (I Corps), and especially Lewis and Clark County, Montana, the home of the capital city, Helena; the Lewis Range of Montana's Glacier National Park; Lewis Avenue in Phoenix, Arizona. A day use campground at Gates of the Mountains Wilderness, north of Helena, Meriwether Picnic site. A cave, Lewis and Clark Caverns between Three Forks and Whitehall, Montana. The US Navy Polaris nuclear submarine USS Lewis and Clark was named for him and William Clark.

Footnotes

References

• Fisher, Vardis (1962). Suicide or Murder?: The Strange Death of Governor Meriwether Lewis. The Swallow Press, Inc.. ISBN 0-8040-0616-4. 
• Danisi, Thomas C. (2009). Meriwether Lewis. New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-59102-702-7. 
• Works by Meriwether Lewis at Project Gutenberg
• The Journals of Lewis and Clark from American Studies at the University of Virginia.
• Meriwether Lewis at Find a Grave Retrieved on February 20, 2008
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Lewis, Meriwether". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Meriwether Lewis on The History Channel
• Meriwether Lewis Park and Burial Site
• Meriwether Lewis's grave on Find-A-Grave
• Lewis and Clark at C-SPAN's American Writers: A Journey Through History