New Responsibilities for the Successful Explorers

The duties of Governor Lewis and General Clark increased with their new government responsibilities. Lewis went to Philadelphia in early April 1807, after being detained in Washington longer than he anticipated. In Philadelphia Lewis secured assistance in publication of the Journals that included a volume for the botanical collection, one of the most important records of discovery in the history of man.⁽¹⁾ Unfortunately, the botanical collection volume was not published until the Moulton Edition of the Journals, Herbarium Vol. 12. Other publications, Plants of the Lewis and Clark Expedition by Wayne Phillips and Lewis and Clark’s Green World by Earle and Reveal present the collections in vivid color.

Lewis was still in Philadelphia on 27 June 1807 ⁽²⁾ then returned to Washington to settle more War Department Accounting questions.

On 28 October 1807 Lewis is back in Ivy, VA, no doubt staying at Locust Hill with his mother, where he is accepting advanced payments for the “Lewis and Clark Tour” (Lewis and Clark Journals).⁽⁴⁾ Lewis was a successful explorer but his personal life, which included failed courtships, was very complicated.

Flowers grown in American Gardens today, found by Lewis and Clark.

Lewis returned to St. Louis through the Cumberland Gap and along the Boone Trace/Wilderness Road. On 20 January 1808, the citizens of Lexington, KY entertained Governor Lewis with a “Public Dinner” at Mr. Wilson’s Inn.⁽⁵⁾

The Governor arrived in St. Louis to assume his duties on 8 March 1808.⁽⁶⁾ Clark had returned to Fincastle on 15 March 1807, this time staying with Col. Hancock, Julia’s father. He proceeded to St. Louis and was in the city on the Mississippi River on 18 May 1807.⁽⁷⁾

Fortunately for Governor Lewis and Superintendent of Indian Affairs Clark, Congress had divided the Louisiana Territory at the 33 Parallel in 1804 making the administration of the Upper Louisiana Territory most of area they had explored along the Missouri River. ⁽⁸⁾ Even with the reduced area, they will have a multitude of situations to deal with as administrators.

Sources:

(1) Jackson, Donald, Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Vol. 2-University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1978, page 393.

(2) Ibid, page 418.

(3) Ibid, page 424-431.

(4) Ibid, page 438-439.

(5) Kentucky Gazette & General Advertiser, Vol. XXI- NO. 1 164, Tuesday 6 Feb, 1 808, page University of Kentucky W. T. Young Library, Reel # S-8 # 16.

(6) Bakeless, John, Lewis and Clark Partners in Discovery, Dover Press, Mineola, NY, 1 947, page 390.

(7) Jackson, Donald, Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Second Edition, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1978, Vol. 2, page 411.

(8) Ambrose, Stephen, Undaunted Courage, Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West, Simon and Schuster, NY, 1996, page 415.