To Shining Sea - Chapter 29
The Secret Mission of Meriwether Lewis, January 18th 1803
The Unveiling of Canadian History, Volume 4.
To Shining Sea – Ireland, Haiti, and Louisiana, and the Idea of a Continental Republic, 1797 – 1804.
Part 3 – The Louisiana Frontier
Chapter 29 - The Secret Mission of Meriwether Lewis, January 18th 1803
President Jefferson tried to control any outrage over the American loss of the Port of New Orleans, by keeping the discussion in Congress - in secret session. And by pressuring Monroe into accepting to be sent on a desperate mission to France. And in the midst of all this, President Jefferson requests from Congress, $2500 for a voyage of discovery.
Secretary to the President, Meriwether Lewis, by Charles Willson Peale (1807)
On the same day that Madison wrote to Livingston, on December 17th 1802, John Randolph (Virginia), quickly moving to stay in control of the crisis, moved a resolution in the House of Representatives that:
“the President of the United States be requested to cause to be laid before this House such papers as are in the possession of the Department of State, as relate to the violation on the part of Spain, of the Treaty of Friendship, Limits, and Navigation, between the United States of America and the King of Spain”,
and it was agreed to unanimously.
On December 22nd, President Jefferson sent to the House a message that:
“I was led … to lose not a moment in causing every step to be taken which the occasion claimed from me”,
with a report from the Secretary of State, and with the information they requested – the letters from Claiborne and Hulings.
Madison wrote in his report that:
“whether, in these violations of treaty, the officer of Spain at New Orleans has proceeded with or without orders from his government, cannot as yet be decided by direct and positive testimony.”
On December 31st, President Jefferson sent an additional, but ‘confidential’, message to the House, along with the (November 15th) reply of Salcedo to Claiborne, but he implied that its content should not be made public –
“although an informal communication to the public, of the substance of the enclosed letter, may be proper for quieting the public mind, yet I refer to the consideration of the House of Representatives, whether a publication of it, in form, might not give dissatisfaction to the writer, and tend to discourage the freedom and confidence by communications between the agents of the two Governments.”
Note: In his November 15th reply to Claiborne, Salcedo stated that though the king had not suspended the deposit, the intendant had ended neutral commerce because the three years allowed for the deposit under the treaty had expired and because he meant to stop the many frauds and abuses committed by American traders. He remarked that Morales had doubtless told the king of his actions, and there was reason to hope the king would either restore the deposit at New Orleans or assign a new location.
A motion was made that both of the two messages from the President and the accompanying documents be sent to a select committee, but it was defeated. Another motion was made that these papers should be printed for the use of the members, but this too was defeated. A motion was then made that these papers should be sent to a Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union (where it could be kept secret), and it was agreed to.
On January 4th 1803, Roger Griswold (Connecticut), citing the part of President Jefferson’s message to Congress that referred to Louisiana, moved a resolution that:
“the President of the United States be requested … to lay before this House copies of such official documents as have been received by this government, announcing the cession of Louisiana to France, together with a report explaining the stipulations, circumstances, and conditions, under which that province is to be delivered up; unless such documents and report will, in the opinion of the President, divulge to the House particular transactions not proper at this time to be communicated.”
Randolph then moved to commit this motion to the same Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union to whom had been committed the messages of the President respecting New Orleans. Griswold would argue that he ‘did not wish that a resolution so important should be referred to a secret committee’ but should be decided in public. This was debated until Griswold’s motion was defeated on January 6th.
Since one of the messages from the President had been ‘confidential’, any discussion of any of the messages or any of the accompanying documents would have to be behind closed doors. Even though it seemed quite innocent, to send Griswold’s resolution to this same Committee of the Whole would also place it behind closed doors. The ‘republicans’ wanted to keep the (forthcoming) actions on New Orleans and Louisiana out of the public’s view.
On January 7th 1803, after meeting in secret session, the House resolved to:
“receive with great sensibility the information of a disposition in certain officers of the Spanish Government, at New Orleans, to obstruct the navigation of the river Mississippi, as secured to the United States by the most solemn stipulations. That, adhering to that humane and wise policy which ought ever to characterize a free people, and by which the United States have always professed to be governed; willing, at the same time, to ascribe this breach of compact to the unauthorized misconduct of certain individuals, rather than to a want of good faith on the part of His Catholic Majesty; and relying, with perfect confidence, on the vigilance and wisdom of the Executive, they will wait the issue of such measures as that department of the Government shall have pursued for asserting the rights and vindicating the injuries of the United States; holding it to be their duty, at the same time, to express their unalterable determination to maintain the boundaries and the rights of navigation and commerce through the river Mississippi, as established by existing treaties.”
On January 11th, Griswold again moved to have the House resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole to present his resolution, but it was objected to by Randolph. Samuel Dana (Connecticut) said that the resolution was objected to because it ‘may irritate the Court of Spain, and this will be improper’, but compare it to Randolph’s resolution – ‘is there anything in this calculated to gratify the courtly delicacy of a Castilian?’ And the motion was again defeated.
On January 11th, President Jefferson sent to the Senate a message that:
“the cession of the Spanish province of Louisiana to France, and perhaps of the Floridas, and the late suspension of our right of deposit at New Orleans, are events of primary interest to the United States. On both occasions, such measures were promptly taken as were thought most likely amicably to remove the present and to prevent future causes of inquietude. The objects of these measures were to obtain the territory on the left bank of the Mississippi, and the eastward of that, if practicable, on conditions to which the proper authorities of our country would agree; or, at least, to prevent any changes which might lessen the secure exercise of our rights …
I therefore nominate Robert R. Livingston to be Minister Plenipotentiary, and James Monroe to be Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary … to enter into a treaty or convention with the First Consul of France, for the purpose of enlarging, and more effectually securing, our rights and interests in the river Mississippi, and in the territories eastward thereof.
But as the possession of these provinces is still in Spain, and the course of events may retard or prevent the cession to France being carried into effect, to secure our object … I therefore nominate Charles Pinckney to be Minister Plenipotentiary, and James Monroe to be Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary … to enter into a treaty or convention with His Catholic Majesty, for the purpose of enlarging, and more effectually securing, our rights and interests in the river Mississippi, and the territories eastward thereof.”
President Jefferson had written to Monroe on January 10th, the day before, that:
“I have but a moment to inform you that the fever into which the Western mind is thrown by the affair at New Orleans stimulated by the mercantile, & generally the federal interest, threatens to overbear our peace. In this situation we are obliged to call on you for a temporary sacrifice of yourself, to prevent this greatest of evils in the present prosperous tide of our affairs. I shall tomorrow nominate you to the Senate for an extraordinary mission to France, & the circumstances are such as to render it impossible to decline; because the whole public hope will be rested on you.”
He wrote to Monroe again on January 13th, that:
“you possessed the unlimited confidence of the administration & of the Western people; & generally of the republicans every where; and were you to refuse to go, no other man can be found who does this. The measure has already silenced the feds here. Congress will no longer be agitated by them; and the country will become calm as fast as the information extends over it. All eyes, all hopes are now fixed on you; and were you to decline, the chagrin would be universal, and would shake under your feet the high ground on which you stand with the public. Indeed I know nothing which would produce such a shock. For on the event of this mission depends the future destinies of this republic ...”
The President also added that:
“as to the time of your going, you cannot too much hasten it, as the moment in France is critical. St. Domingo delays their taking possession of Louisiana, and they are in the last distress for money for current purposes.”
That was putting a lot of pressure on Monroe’s shoulders. Plus, recall that Monroe had earlier been the Minister to France, but had been recalled by President Washington. This made his appointment resentful to the ‘federalists’.
On January 12th, the House met again in secret session, was presented with the committee’s report that:
“the object of the resolution is to enable the Executive to commence, with more effect, a negotiation with the French and Spanish governments relative to the purchase from them of the island of New Orleans, and the provinces of East and West Florida”,
and they resolved that:
“a sum of two millions of dollars … be appropriated to defray the expenses which may be incurred in the relation to the intercourse between the United States and foreign nations.”
What these expenses were, remained unsaid - but it may cost $2 million!
In the midst of his acrobatics with Congress over New Orleans, President Jefferson sent a second ‘confidential’ message to Congress, on January 18th, (one that would forever change the course of America’s future), that:
“as the continuance of the act for establishing trading houses with the Indian tribes will be under consideration of the Legislature at its present session … The Indian tribes residing within the limits of the United States, have, for a considerable time, been growing more and more uneasy at the constant diminution of the territory they occupy … and the policy has long been gaining strength with them, of refusing absolutely all further sale, on any conditions …
In order peaceably to counteract this policy of theirs, and to provide an extension of territory, which the rapid increase of our numbers will call for, two measures are deemed expedient.
First, to encourage them to abandon hunting, to apply to raising stock, to agriculture, and domestic manufactures; and thereby prove to themselves that less land and labor will maintain them in this, better than in their former mode of living. The extensive forests necessary in the hunting life, will then become useless; and they will see advantage in exchanging them for the means of improving their farms, and of increasing their domestic comforts.
Secondly, to multiply trading houses among them, and place within their reach those things which will contribute more to their domestic comfort, than the possession of extensive, but uncultivated wilds ... While the extension of the public commerce among the Indian tribes may deprive of that source of profit such of our citizens as are engaged in it, it might be worthy the attention of Congress, in their care of individual as well as of the general interest, to point, in another direction, the enterprise of these citizens, as profitably for themselves, and more usefully for the public.
The river Missouri, and the Indians inhabiting it, are not as well known as is rendered desirable by their connexion with the Mississippi, and consequently with us. It is, however, understood, that the country on the river is inhabited by numerous tribes, who furnish great supplies of furs and peltry to the trade of another nation, carried on in a high latitude, through an infinite number of portages and lakes, shut up by ice through a long season. The commerce on that line could bear no competition with that of the Missouri, traversing a moderate climate, offering, according to the best accounts, a continued navigation from its source, and possibly with a single portage, from the Western ocean, and finding to the Atlantic a choice of channels …
An intelligent officer, with ten or twelve chosen men, fit for the enterprise, and willing to undertake it … might explore the whole line, even to the Western ocean, have conferences with the natives on the subject of commercial intercourse, get admission among them for our traders, as others are admitted, agree on convenient deposits for an interchange of articles, and return with the information acquired, in the course of two summers ...
While other civilized nations have encountered great expense to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge, by undertaking voyages of discovery, and for other literary purposes, in various parts and directions, our nation seems to owe to the same object, as well as to its own interests, to explore this, the only line of easy communication across the continent, and so directly traversing our own part of it …
The nation claiming the territory, regarding this as a literary pursuit, which it is in the habit of permitting within its dominion, would not be disposed to vie it with jealousy, even if the expiring state of its interests there did not render it a matter of indifference.
The appropriation of two thousand five hundred dollars, ‘for the purpose of extending the external commerce of the United States’, while understood and considered by the Executive as giving the Legislature sanction, would cover the undertaking from notice, and prevent the obstructions which interested individuals might otherwise previously prepare in its way.”
While President Jefferson began by outlining a policy towards the Indian tribes, he then outlined a secret mission to discover a route to the western ocean. This secret mission was motivated by the British discovery of 1793!!!
From British North America, Alexander Mackenzie had travelled from Fort Chipewyan, the Northwest Company trading post at the western tip of lake Athabasca, and had arrived at the mouth of the Bella Coola river upon the Pacific Ocean, on July 20th 1793. The journals of his exploration were later published in London in 1801.
While at home at Monticello in the summer of 1802, President Jefferson obtained a copy of the book(s), which he and his private secretary, Meriwether Lewis, devoured. They also would study Jefferson’s map collection. Gallatin, another avid map collector, would have a special map made for Lewis, with details on what was known of the Missouri river up to the Mandan villages. There would be 3 certain points on the map – the latitude and longitude of St. Louis, the Mandan villages, and the mouth of the Columbia river.
Sometime, during that summer and autumn, President Jefferson decided that Captain Lewis would lead the mission to reach the western ocean.
Note on Meriwether Lewis: In August 1794, 20-year old Meriwether Lewis volunteered to join the Virginia militia, in order to help quell the Whiskey Rebellion, remaining in the militia for another 6 months, before joining the regular army of the United States, under General Anthony Wayne, in May 1795. In November 1795, he was transferred to the (elite) Chosen Rifle Company, under Captain William Clark, the younger brother of General George Rogers Clark. In November 1796, he was transferred to the 1st Infantry Regiment, and in December 1800, was promoted to Captain.
In February 1801 he was asked by President-to-be Jefferson to accept the position as his private secretary.
President Jefferson’s policy towards the natives was again repeated in a letter to William Henry Harrison, Governor of the Indiana Territory, on February 27th –
“this letter being unofficial, & private, I may with safety give you a more extensive view of our policy respecting the Indians, that to be prepared against the occupation of Louisiana by a powerful & enterprising people, it is important that setting less value on interior extension of purchases from the Indians, we bend our whole views to the purchase and settlement of the country on the Mississippi from it’s mouth to it’s Northern regions …
the Cahokias being extinct, we are entitled to their country by our paramount sovereignty. The Piorias we understand have all been driven off from their country, & we might claim it in the same way; but as we understand there is one chief remaining, who would, as the survivor of the tribe, sell the right, it will be better to give him such terms as will make him easy for life, and take a conveyance from him. The Kaskaskias, being reduced to a few families, I presume we may purchase their whole country for what would place every individual of them at his ease …
we should proceed to the settling their boundaries with the Poutewatamies & Kickapoos; claiming all doubtful territory, but paying them a price for the relinquishment of their concurrent claim, and even prevailing on them if possible to cede for a price such of their own unquestioned territory as would give us a convenient northern boundary …
the occupation of New Orleans, hourly expected, by the French, is already felt like a light breeze by the Indians. You know the sentiments they entertain of that nation. Under the hopes of their protection, they will immediately stiffen against cessions of land to us. We had better therefore do at once what can now be done.”
While President Jefferson had begun his message to Congress with a reference to the previous Indian policies of President Washington’s ‘federalist’ administration - ‘to encourage them to abandon hunting, to apply to raising stock, to agriculture, and domestic manufactures’ and ‘to multiply trading houses among them, and place within their reach those things which will contribute more to their domestic comfort’, with this letter to Harrison, President Jefferson showed that the ‘republican’ Indian policy was really about obtaining their land!
And although moved also by a fear of British dominance of the western Indian trade, yet nonetheless, it did instigate the future voyage of discovery of Lewis and Clark.
[next week - chapter 30 - General Hamilton’s Response, February 8th 1803]
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