N3844

Lewis & Clark Expedition - Bicentennial

Fred's Anecdotal Note

Meriwcther Lewis

Explaining why he chose Lewis rather than a scientist to lead the expedition, President Jefferson wrote, "It was impossible to find a character who to a compleat science in botany, natural history, mineralogy, & astronomy, joined the firmness of constitution & character, prudence, habits adapted to the woods, & a familiarity with the Indian manners & character, requisite for this undertaking. All the latter qualification Capt. Lewis has."

Upon his return Lewis paid tribute to his co-commander and men by writing to Jeffelson, "With respect to lhe exertions and services rendered by that esteemable man Capt. William Clark in the course of our late voyage I cannot say too much. The whole of the party who accompanied me from lhe Mandans have returned in good health, which is not, I assure you, to me one of the least pleasing considerations of the voyage."

In an 1813 letter, Thomas Jefferson penned a stirring and amazing one-sentence description of Meriwether Lewis. "Of courage undaunted, possessing a firmness & perseverance of purpose which nothing but impossibilities could divert from it's direction, careful as a father of those committed to his charge, yet steady in the maintenance of order & discipline, intimate with the Indian charucter, customs & principles, habituated to the hunting life, guarded by exact observation of the vegetables & animals of his own country, against losing time in lhe description of objects alreadly possessed, honest, disinterested, liberal, of sound understanding and a fidelity, to truth so scrupulous that whatever he should reporl would be as cerlain 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 enterprize to him. "