Lewis & Clark Expedition Quotes

Actually starting in the Obama Administration, his ship and a NOAAA Government Research ship both were surveying the new undersea areas, However, it would take 20 such ships to do the job in the next decade–so vast was the new territory that we now have.

a Shoshone Indian woman who accompanied Lewis and Clark in exploring the Louisiana Territory

i.e., the Lewis and Clark expedition Jefferson had taken it upon himself to authorize the expedition and did not inform Congress until it was ongoing. When the expedition became known to Congress, there was much debate whether the expedition came under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.

This was the beginning of the Jeffersonian effort culminating in the Corps of Discovery and the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Presidential, confidential memoranda to the Congress were more common then than now when they have become a rarity.

Lewis had the baby wrapped in an American flag for the ceremony. Many later rigid flag etiquette aficionados would find that use of the American flag highly inappropriate but at the time there were no such sensitivities. The Corps of Discovery were not respecting tradition; they were making it.

Maury helped organize the Thomas Walker expeditions. These were precursors to the Jefferson organized Lewis and Clark expedition later.

Jefferson had insisted that the expedition was purely scientific. The fact that it was lead by two military officers and involved soldiers led many to suspect the expedition was an “invasion” of what was then officially Spanish Territory. The very small size of the expedition made the concept of an expansion effort seemingly ridiculous to many. Jefferson was never public about his hopes fort the eventual possibilities but Martinez seemed to have gotten it right but was paid little heed.

Jefferson had offered the command of the large expedition to General Clark, but instead was persuaded by him to send a smaller force headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (no relation to the General.)

The bitter partisanship of the time was as intense as any in our history. Jefferson was attacked more frequently and more virulently than even William Clinton. Further, there were still major issues of Congressional vs. Presidential power, and there were those who believed the President should not at all concern himself with the legislative process but should merely carry out those laws that Congress passed.

One of the great successes of the expedition was the result of Lewis and Clark not only following these instructions but going to extremes of avoiding violence in almost all cases despite some provocation.