So Hard to Die: The Life of Meriwether Lewis

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0:00 For this next talk, I would like to speak about a personal hero of mine. Um, somebody who is the namesake of this institution, this community that we're building. Uh, a pretty incredible person. Um, he was born a Virginia aristocrat. He left wealth and fortune to go serve. He lived with Thomas Jefferson for two years. He led a group of 33 men through the American wilderness for two and a half years and back without a single casualty. And this man is Meriwether Lewis. Is anybody familiar with Meriwether Lewis? Lewis and Clark. Right. So we everybody knows about Lewis and Clark. Lewis and Clark. It's almost like the two names have kind of just become one. But the Louiswis and Clark expedition was co-aptain by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Two very different personalities. We'll kind of get into

1:09 that. Um I want to start by reading something from this is a fantastic book. Has anybody read this book? This is Undaunted Courage by Steven Ambrose. Uh it's an incredible book. This is something that Thomas Jefferson wrote about Meriwether Lewis. He wrote of courage undaunted, possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which nothing but impossibilities could divert from its direction. Careful as a father of those committed to his charge, yet steady in the maintenance of order and discipline. intimate with the Indian character, customs and principles, habituated to the hunting life, guarded by exact observation of the vegetables and animals of his own country against losing time in the description of objects already possessed. 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

2:17 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. So, why do we care about Meriwether Lewis? I think that Meriwether Lewis is probably one of America's most unsung heroes. Uh, we're talking about a guy who exemplifies not only the intellectual life, uh, in the poetic life, but also pure physical vigor. uh really a complete man, not without his faults. However, uh Meriwether Lewis was born uh August 18th in 1774 near Charlottesville, Virginia. Uh he was born about 3 miles from Montichello. So he was born into the Lewis family,

3:18 which is this Virginia aristocracy. there was actually a lot of uh intermaring between the Jefferson family and the Lewis family as well as other heroes from American history. So he's born like three miles away from Montichello within sight of Montichello. And his father is a Revolutionary War hero. When Lewis is five, his father is at home uh on a I think he was hunting, falls off of his horse into a river one winter and has to walk, you know, the three or four miles back home in the cold, dies of pneumonia. So, he lost his father very early. And uh and then his stepfather, Captain John Marx, was another pretty notable person. Um when Lewis was eight years old, uh Captain Marx led a group of pioneers from Virginia down to a Georgia settlement. So this would have been

4:19 where Lewis probably got his first like big adventure with an overland expedition. Um now Lewis was known for just spending a ton of time outside. You know, like Jefferson notes that Lewis would go out hunting at night with uh nothing but his rifle and his dogs. And Jefferson also notes that he would go out in the winter barefoot in the Virginia manner. Um so we have this very adventurous young man. uh when he was uh 13 years old, they uh essentially the environment of this Georgian frontier was uh not abysmal, but Lewis was very energetic and showed a lot of intellectual promise and there was just not enough there for him to be educated. So he goes back to Virginia and he starts essentially attending different tutors to receive a formal education. Um and that does not last too

5:21 long. It only lasts about 5 years. And it is an interesting insight into the educational model at the time where you didn't just send your kid to school at least if you had the money to. You would just ship your kid off to go live with a tutor for four or six months. Uh so you know your kid would go live with the Latin tutor and then he would go move over and live with the arithmetic tutor and just a very like interesting uh decentralized kind of education. So he's bouncing around um and then when he's 18 years old he officially inherits uh his father's plantation. So he's got I forgot how many acres. Um this is in Virginia. It's called the Locust Hill Plantation. There's an apartment complex there. Now, if anybody's interested, the Locust Hill Apartment Complex. Um, but uh yeah, so he he inherits this land. Uh 26 slaves, um 500 pounds of cash, uh 147 gallons of whiskey. He

6:25 essentially becomes a formal Virginia planter. Uh but this life is not for him. He very quickly becomes restless. He doesn't want to just sit around on a plantation. So when he's 20 years old, uh, he enlists in George Washington's militia to go, uh, put down the whiskey rebellion. So he joins the militia, goes and puts down the whiskey rebellion. I will note actually before we go any further, so when he joins the army, he's like 20 years old. two years prior to this in 17 1790 or 1792 is when this would have happened. Um, you know, we had we had our 13 colonies. I don't believe the Northwest ordinances have happened yet, but they may have. But essentially, the the the American continent was a giant question mark. Nobody really knew what was out there. We had just kind of

7:28 gotten out of the Revolutionary War. Uh we have our independence for now and there's just this huge like unknown swath of land out to the west of us. Nobody really owns it. Spain has got outposts out there. Spain technically has a deed to it, but you know, you don't really own what you can't protect and enforce. So there's this there's this uh not necessarily global but many of these countries are starting to think about what's going to happen with this American continent like who's going to get their hands on this right so Lewis is 18 years old at the time and the this would have been in 1792 a American merchant sailed his ship into the mouth of the Colombia river. His ship was the Colombia Reviva. I forgot his name, but he sails into the mouth of the Columbia River near Oregon and he fixes the

8:28 latitude and longitude. So essentially, we have everybody now knows where the continent ends and then they know where St. Louis is. Essentially, everything else between those two points is a giant mystery and everybody wants to get their hands on it. So this whole Columbia River thing kind of incites this uh competition to figure out like who's going to own America, you know, and 1792, this is two years after Benjamin Franklin died, uh a meeting takes place in the American Philosophical Society, which was founded by Franklin, and Jefferson and Washington, they all agree that we should send an expedition out into the American continent and see if we can figure out what's going on. Uh, so Lewis puts his name in the hat. You know, he had essentially grown up, like I said, right near Monachello. Jefferson watched him grow up. Jefferson's much older than him, but they had known each other for a long time. So Lewis tells Jefferson that

9:33 he wants to lead this expedition, and Jefferson says no, he doesn't have enough experience. He's not old enough. They give the appointment to a French botonist who ended up being a spy. He was he was more interested in contracting alliances with Spain and trying to secede parts of America than actually doing this surveying expedition that Jefferson wanted to accomplish. So that was the first plan that was put together to explore the American continent. um more specifically the Louisiana territory was in 1792 and it failed. So Lewis doesn't get his appointment. So he says screw it, I'm going to go join the army. So he goes he serves in Washington's militia. He joins the regular army and he essentially spends the next few years um on the frontier serving in the army. I think at one

10:33 point he was like delivering mail and messages. Um he was like on the outskirts of the country. So again this is he's getting more experience with the frontier life and also getting to know the terrain and the people. So when Thomas Jefferson gets elected as the president of the United States, this would have been in 1801. Jefferson gets elected and he writes to Lewis. Uh Lewis, I believe, is back in Virginia. I think he had served four or five years, kind of figuring out what to do next. He gets this letter from Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Jefferson tells him that he's in need of a personal secretary. Would you like to be my secretary? And Lewis says, "Yes." So what happens after this is essentially what I consider the greatest bachelor pad of all time which is Thomas

11:40 Jefferson who is now a widowerower and Meriwether Lewis living alone together in the president's mansion in Washington DC. Uh and as Jefferson would put it he would write uh to his daughter that Captain Lewis and I are like two mice in a church. So we have this period, you know, Lewis is 27 years old at the time living with Thomas Jefferson in Washington DC. I mean, I don't think it gets any cooler than that. Uh so, you know, this would kind of be a period of intellectual growth and social distinction for Lewis. Uh and to me like the next three years of this story is equally as interesting as the actual expedition itself. Uh because we essentially have Lewis uh living with Jefferson. Lewis has access to Jefferson's library. Lewis is attending Jeffersonian dinners like starting to

12:40 build social distinction in Washington. and he's a young man um really starting to build that reputation. So essentially Lewis is living with Jefferson. Lewis is his personal secretary and then in the spring of 1801 uh Napoleon purchases the Louisiana territory uh from Spain. So, there's a transfer of ownership of the Louisiana territory, uh, which essentially composes, you know, again, maybe I should have had a PowerPoint because a map would have been nice, but it's the entire states of Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, and portions of Colorado, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. 828,000 square miles of land. uh which was exactly pretty much what America had at the time around 800,000

13:42 square miles. So uh Napoleon becomes the owner of uh the Louisiana territory. Jefferson is not stoked about this. Jefferson knows that Napoleon is a uh is a conqueror. Um he knows that there's some weird blood between France and America since the revolution. He doesn't want Napoleon and France anywhere near the United States. France already has control of uh New Orleans, so they have some like economic influence in the area. Jefferson does not want this to continue any longer. Um so at that same time, right around 1801, something happens with another explorer. We have a Scottish explorer, Alexander McKenzie, who essentially took a I believe it was a solo expedition uh out of was it Toronto through the Northwest Territories um across the upper portion of the Louisiana territory to Oregon and

14:51 he carves his name into a rock and this is huge news. Again, this guy's name was Alexander McKenzie, and this was uh massive news. And he might have been a British. He was a Scott or a Brit. Um I think he was British. But so this is really everybody is talking about this now. So you have France who owns the Louisiana territory. Now you have this Brit who has explored a portion of it and carved his name into Iraq. Jefferson is like, "Oh, hell no." like we have got to do something about this. He said, "We're about to lose this." So Jefferson goes like manic over this whole situation. And he essentially immediately uh tells Lewis like, "Look, we're sending an expedition out as soon as possible to go ahead and figure this whole thing out." So Lewis's or Jefferson's primary focus becomes putting together an expedition to explore the Louisiana territory. uh and get Britain and France out of our hair.

15:59 Um so Jefferson, that quote that I read was Jefferson explaining why he chose Lewis uh for the appointment. So Jefferson tells Lewis, hey, you're going to be leading an expedition through the Louisiana territory. Uh, and he pretty much gives Lewis free reign to compile the crew, to pick his co- captain, to put together a list of supplies. He pretty much just completely trusts Lewis with this entire endeavor. Um, which is uh really an incredible uh testimony uh to Lewis's character. So, Jefferson tells him, look, this is all you, but also Lewis has a lot to learn. So, not only does he need to traverse the Louisiana territory and get back alive, but he has to survey the Louisiana territory. He has to take a catalog of uh the flora and the fauna. Surveying is

17:00 incredibly difficult back then. You know, you have to take uh very precise astronomical uh calculations and those instruments are finicky. This is a scientific uh experiment that these guys have to do. This isn't a guy just marching through the woods and getting to the ocean and coming back. They have to stop and take very precise measurements along the way and map everything that they're seeing. Um or else the expedition would there would be be no point to it. They have to somehow show to everybody else that hey like this is ours. We understand this better than you do. Um we have a right to this land. So essentially what would happen is this is 1802. Uh Lewis is told by Jefferson that he's going to be leading this expedition and for the next year Lewis is studying like a maniac. So Jefferson is teaching

18:00 him everything he knows about botany. Jefferson also has the most expansive library at the time relating to uh the American geography of the Louisiana territory. So Lewis is reading Jefferson's books. He's learning from Jefferson himself. He essentially gets an undergrad education from Thomas Jefferson in six months. Jefferson sends him up to Philadelphia where he studies with Benjamin West. He studies medicine with West. There's four or five other tutors that Lewis uh goes and studies with who are friends of Jefferson. So, he's like just there's not a minute to spare. Um this whole thing is really coming down to the wire. So, he's studying, he's diving into the library and he is uh working with these tutors. Um at the same time, Jefferson has to figure out how to get the funding to do this expedition, right? because like we don't have a lot of money. We're like a new country. So, you know, the the

19:04 Federalists and really Congress, they're not super uh gung-ho about just the idea of like a wilderness expedition. They're like, "We have all this land. Like, why don't we need to worry about getting any more?" Uh so, Jefferson essentially pitches the idea to Congress that look, this is economic. We're going to go and we're going to secure the trade routes. uh we're going to take the trade routes from the French and the Spanish and do trade with the Native Americans and it's going to make our country rich. And by pitching the idea to Congress that way, he gets the money that he needed uh to execute the expedition with Lewis. So Lewis also goes and starts to assemble uh his crew. He starts to put together the actual list of items that they're going to take with them. And Lewis is given free reign to choose his co- captain. He picks a man named William Clark who is somebody who he actually didn't really know William Clark for that long.

20:10 William Clark was the captain of a rifle company that Lewis served in for like six months. But something about Clark, something about his character uh was strong enough that years later, uh Lewis would remember him and Lewis would pick him to be his co- captain on the expedition. Now, interestingly enough, when this whole expedition kind of kicks off, there's a a clerical error in the paperwork and and Clark actually doesn't get uh his uh captain's uh rank. He's actually officially a lieutenant on paper. But Lewis um has so much trust in William Clark that he actually just doesn't tell the rest of the crew that Clark's not a captain. And he's like, "You're a captain. We're co- captains. Like there is no hierarchy. It's you and I and then everybody else is beneath us." So Lewis could have easily just go ahead and pulled rank and been this the single captain of the expedition, but he was insistent on William Clark being a

21:10 co- captain even if he did not hold the rank of captain. So essentially what we have is uh Lewis gets this whole thing together. He gets 33 guys and they head up uh the Mississippi River to Illinois and they spend the winter of 1804 uh near Wood River, Illinois. And you know, kind of like that story with Franklin where he talks about how when the the guys are sitting around all day, that's when they fight and quarrel and all that. The same thing happens when they're wintered. like the the river's frozen. They're pretty much just sitting in their tents around fires like trying to keep themselves busy, you know, drilling every now and then. So, there's just like that whole winter is just dealing with people fighting and like every single one of the winters um is always like a lot more uh drama than when they're actually on the expedition. So they they winter in uh

22:10 in Wood River, Illinois in 1804. And right around this time, it might have been shortly before they got to Illinois, uh something incredible happened, and that was the Louisiana purchase. So Thomas Jefferson strikes a deal with Napoleon. He purchases the Louisiana territory. 828,000 square miles for 15 or three cents an acre actually. $15 million at three cents an acre is the greatest real estate deal that has ever taken place in recorded history. Um and it instantly doubled the size of the United States. And it's funny because Jefferson had to like circumvent uh Congress to make this happen. So that whole instance is really an interesting uh discussion on uh you know moral relativity and like when it's okay to break the rules right if Jefferson was really sticking to the

23:12 rules of the constitution he had no right to execute that purchase but in doing so he doubled the size of the United States I think we can say it was a good thing. Uh so now like this whole thing is coming together. Lewis is starting to lead this expedition up the Mississippi River. Jefferson strikes a deal with Napoleon. We own this land now. But again, you don't own it if you can't defend it or enforce it. It's just a piece of paper. Um, so we still, you know, the execution of this expedition is still of the utmost importance. Um, so in writing about the expedition and them making their way up the Mississippi River, we uh we find a pretty interesting picture. You know, you've got 33 guys, you've got thousands of pounds of gear, you've got dozens of boats, and they're essentially pulling up the river. So, they're going upstream. So, you know, you're you're on the side of the boat and you've got a

24:16 pole and you you know get it in the bottom of the river and then you kind of walk backwards actually back the back the the side of the boat to get the boat moving. And they're pushing these boats up the Mississippi River. And these these guys are working so hard that every single one of them is eating 10 pounds of meat every single day. So you've got these guys pushing these boats up the river. At the same time, you essentially have constant hunting taking place. So these guys are pushing these boats up the river. You've got uh hunters up river who are constantly hunting and leaving game hanging in trees for the boats to pick up. Uh it's it's a whole operation, but nine pounds of meat every single day. I mean, that's that's crazy. Uh so what happens um after they leave the Mississippi River, this is May 1804. Um something this is actually the first and only death of a member of the expedition

25:29 and it was Sergeant Charles Floyd. uh and he fell ill of appendicitis and died and that would be the only death of a crew member of this expedition. So think about that just for a moment. You've got 33 guys out in the wilderness for two and a half years is how long this whole thing took. You've got them, you know, fighting grizzly bears. You have them fighting rivers and rapids, you know, countless Native American tribes. and the only person of this crew who died died of appendicitis early on. I think that that is a crazy testimony to the leadership of uh Lewis and Clark. Um really an interesting fact. So what happens is after that they get up into North Dakota um and they build Fort Mandon and this is their uh their second winter. So they winter near in North Dakota with the Manden and Hadata tribes

26:36 and pretty much every single winter like the LA the there's three winters Illinois um Manden and Oregon which is Fort Clatsop. Uh pretty much those last two winters if they didn't have help of the natives they would have starved. Um, so the natives are able to help them, uh, show them what food they can eat and a lot of times bring them food and they trade and barter and all that, but uh, the help from the Native Americans is absolutely crucial, especially during these winters. Um, so uh, coming out of the uh, the winter of 1804 1805, they essentially pick up Saka Jia. Everybody's familiar with Saka Jia. So, Tusant Sharbano, he was a French fur trapper and he had this uh this wife Sakajia and she spoke she was a Sichonyi woman and she spoke a mirate of Native American languages

27:40 and Tusant Charbano and Sakajia join the expedition. Now, this is going to come incredibly convenient because as they get to the Rocky Mountains up to Missouri, they very quickly realize that there's no way they're going to get over these mountains without horses. So, they get to the Rocky Mountains. We're talking about a completely impassible uh wall of mountains. And they're up in uh Montana now at this point. Um, and they meet the Shosonyi tribe. So, this is a really really crucial meeting. Uh, Lewis is out with a few guys on a uh he's he's looking for this tribe. He's looking for the Shosonyi and he finds some Shosonyi women. He walks up to them. He paints their faces uh with this red paint and kind of just messes around with them. And uh he gets them to go and bring their warriors. So

28:42 60 Sony warriors show up on horseback and the leader, the chief Kamiait arrives and they discuss, you know, what their plan is. Uh William Clark brings up the rest of the expedition and Saka Jia comes up and the chief Lewis Clark, they're all standing there and Chief Kami looks at Sack Jia and realizes that Sack Jia is his longlost sister. She had been kidnapped years ago from the Sichony tribe. So the chief of the tribe that is absolutely imperative for them to get horses from to cross the Iraqi mountains. The chief just so happens to be the brother of Sack Jia. So there's this big uh reunion and you know everybody's crying and it's this incredible moment, right? Uh suffice to say they get the horses that they need. Uh they cross the Rocky Mountains at the uh the the Lemhigh Pass, which is

29:42 the Bitterroot Mountains up in Montana where Cam lives. Um how far are you from the Bitterroot Mountains? N 2 hours, three hours. Yeah, close enough. Um, so they get over the Rocky Mountains, uh, and essentially make their way through Montana, through Oregon, and on November 7th, 1805, William Clark writes in his journal, "Oh, in view, oh the joy." So, they've made it to the Pacific Ocean. And, uh, it's a it's a pretty incredible thing to think about. This is maybe, how many miles is It's like by now 3,500. I think the in total they surveyed 8,000 miles of terrain. They took a little bit of a detour on the way back. Uh Lewis did, but this is 4,000 miles or 3,500 miles of uh of surveying that they've done. Now, when they get over to the Pacific Ocean,

30:43 the ideal scenario is you, you know, flag down an American ship and you get a ride back, right? Um, that was something that Jefferson had talked about them potentially doing. And, uh, there was no ship. They waited, no ship showed up, so they decided to head back. Um, and making it back, it took a lot less time than making it there. And on September uh so they start heading back uh March 1806 they had wintered at Fort Clatsop in Oregon. I think this is also where like they ate dogs. I think there's part of the story where they they they start eating dogs. They don't have any food. So I think that semen the dog. Yeah. So Whoa, dude. Hold on a second. I said don't be the only guy getting weird, man. So, yes. So, hey, the context here is important. So,

31:47 so Meriwether Lewis had a dog named Seaman. S E A M- an which was a very loyal dog. They did not eat that particular dog. So, you know, they they they don't eat that dog. It was like a a new found like a a big dog that he had bought in St. Louis. This dog this dog was was like a hero of this expedition. At one point uh some natives steal Lewis's dog and he goes into a fury and is ready to just shoot everybody to get his dog back. Um so yes, that dog that Cameron brought up uh casually uh was a big part of the expedition and and made it all the way back as well. the dog that did not eat semen. Um, thank you for that clarity. Yeah. So, uh, you know what kind of dog it was? It was a new found one. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. So, uh, so pretty much they get back,

32:49 uh, on September 23rd, 1806. And like nobody nobody had heard from them for like two and a half years. Like everybody assumes that they're dead. This is like 30 guys just walk out into the unknown and then two and a half they instantly become national heroes. Pretty much they get back to St. Louis, everybody is just like, "Holy you guys are still alive." Instant national heroes. Uh, and pretty much the whole country is waiting for these guys to uh release their journals. Like everybody wants to know what happened out on the expedition. Um, so they get back, you know, they write to Jefferson and they had successfully mapped 8,000 miles of unexplored land, documented over 300 animal and plant species, uh, and established contact with 50 tribes. Um, and this whole expedition

33:57 solidified the right of the United States to the Louisiana territory. So, a huge accomplishment. Um, so you know, it's a success, right? I mean, everybody's happy and, you know, one would think that maybe we can all go live happily ever after. It was not the case. Uh, you know, William Clark did end up getting married to Julia Hancock of Fincastle, Virginia. Uh, he was 37, she was 16. Um, and uh, yeah, different 1809, I guess, man. Um but uh they had a family. They had five or six kids and and Clark lived a long life. Um you know, Lewis's life was not quite like that. You know, before we get into this part of the story, I'd like to read something. Anybody have their pamphlet? Okay. Thank you. So on August 18th in 1805, uh Lewis wrote a journal entry that is printed in your pamphlet and this is his

35:11 birthday and he writes, "This day I completed my 31st year and conceived that I had in all human probability now existed about half the period which I am to remain in this sublunary world. I reflected that I had done as yet little, very little indeed, to further the happiness of the human race or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed with regret the many hours I have spent in indolence, and now sorely feel the want of that information which those hours would have given me, had they been judiciously expended. But since they are past and cannot be recalled, I dash from me the gloomy thought and resolved in future to redouble my exertions and at least endeavor to promote those two primary objects of human existence by giving them the aid of that portion of talents

36:11 which nature and fortune have bestowed upon me or in future to live for mankind as I have heretofor lived for myself. So this is a man who um is leading the greatest wilderness expedition of all time lamenting that he has done very little who who is this that he has done very little for the human race. Um that's a famous journal entry uh from the expedition. Lewis gets back and in 1807 Jefferson appoints him as the governor of the upper Louisiana territory. Now I want you to think about or maybe I ask a question. Has anybody here ever spent an extended period of time in the wilderness backpacking, hiking, whatever it is away from civilization? How long? Uh I mean well civilization I had a car or a truck so but I was out there for about two weeks. Wasn't a crazy crazy trip. It sounds awesome.

37:14 But it was just no roads. Yeah. You know, in the Rockies and all that. Yeah. Sweet. Cam and I actually So, don't ask me. We were there. Yeah. So, yeah, Cam Cam and I met in a wilderness program. We got sent away and we were in the woods for uh 3 months in the Blueidge Mountains. That's where that's where Cam and I met each other. Um we were juvenile delinquents. Um, so I want you to I want you to think about if you were out in the wilderness for two and a half years on one of the greatest adventures of all time, meeting Native Americans, you know, doing peace deals, finding new animals, hunting, fishing, exploring, and then all of a sudden you're sitting behind a desk. So this is what happens. He's appointed as the governor of the upper Louisiana territory. Uh and at the time the whole nation is waiting for these journals to come out. So this is a year after the

38:17 well a little bit less than a year after the expedition has finished like the journals of Meriwether Lewis. It's like us waiting for Epstein's list. It's like everybody's like where where are the journals? Everybody is waiting for the journals. Well, here's something that Jefferson would write about it. Uh, he'd said, "Never did a similar event excite more joy, more joy through the United States, the humblest of its citizens, had taken a lively interest in the issue of this journey, and looked forward with impatience for the information it would furnish." So, that's what Jefferson would write about this anticipation for these journals. Think about the pressure that Lewis had on him. It's like the whole world, all of America is waiting on you to finish your project, your writing. And it's funny because, you know, Lewis was a a very uh contemplative kind of a self-conscious guy. you know, when he is

39:20 sitting at the great falls of the Missouri, um he actually sits down to write a description of the falls and then he scratches it out and he and he writes that like I don't have the words to describe what I'm seeing right now. You know, Lewis is a very contemplative character. Um and uh very heady uh William Clark was more of a pragmatist, practical type of guy. So there's this yin andyang balance in their partnership. Um, you know, just to kind of add on to that context, you know, Jefferson had written and so this is kind of where we're entering the the the mystery of how Lewis died and what really happened to him. So he's sitting there, you know, 1805, he's 31 years old and he's writing that he has conceived that he's probably halfway done with his life. Um little did he know he would die four years later at 35 years old. So you know Jefferson writes that he had

40:25 observed in Lewis uh sensible depressions of mind and writes that you know Lewis is um he's he's moody at times um perhaps a little bit bipolar. He's got this like mercurial personality. There's also a lot of times on the expedition where Lewis made decisions that just didn't seem uh logical. For example, on their way back, Lewis is going hunting for some elk and he brings Pierre Cruette with him hunting. Only problem is Pierre Cruett's pretty much blind, can hardly see. So why you would pick this guy to go hunting with you, uh, you know, nobody knows. But essentially, Lewis is in some brush in his buckskins and a rifle goes off and Lewis takes a 54 cal caliber ball to his ass and it it doesn't hit any bone, but he takes a shot in his ass and he think at first he thinks that uh the Native Americans are

41:28 attacking him. So, he freaks out. He starts calling for Pierre and like nobody knows what's going on. Pretty much what they think happened is Pierre saw Lewis and his buckskins in the grass and thought it was an elk and shot him. So actually Lewis would spend the next like four weeks like laying on his stomach in the back of one of the boats. He was totally messed up. But why you would bring the blind guy hunting with you? That's just an example of a weird decision that didn't make any sense. And Lewis kind of made a few of those throughout the expedition. So Lewis is the governor of the upper Louisiana territory. Um he essentially he's replaced this guy named James Wilkerson who was a rascal. If you look up James Wilkerson, it might have been John Wilkerson, but uh his whole life is just him trying to people over. Like him and Aaron Burr conspired to secede part of the United States with Spain. and like this guy was just like no good. So Lewis replaces him in office. Jefferson

42:34 appoints Lewis the governor. Um so there's some conspiracy that maybe that upset some uh you know dirty players uh which might have led to Lewis's death. Um but what we have happening is we have Lewis is now behind a desk and he's got this pile of work piling up and time passes by and these journals are not getting published. uh and actually he he stops writing to Jefferson. You know, this is Thomas Jefferson, the president of the United States, somebody who has watched Lewis since he was a boy. Um also interesting to note, when Lewis went on his expedition, Jefferson handed him an unlimited line of credit to draw on the treasury of the US government. And if I recall correctly, a line of credit like that has never been issued since. But he was given an unlimited line of credit. I'm getting one for this club. We get one for this club. Talk to Trump. We'll talk to Trump. An unlimited line

43:35 of credit to draw to to invoice the US Treasury for whatever Lewis needed anywhere in the world. This was a line of credit that was usable anywhere on planet Earth. Wow. Very interesting. So Lewis stops responding to Jefferson's letters. Lewis is in Louisiana. Some people think it's because he's drinking too much. Some people think he's depressed and up. Um but he's not writing Jefferson back. And Jefferson writes, he's like, "I haven't heard from you in like two months." It's like, "What's going on?" So this weird period kind of starts to take place. Um and uh yeah, this is, you know, the most unfortunate case of writers's block ever. Uh so in 1809, James Madison is elected president. Jefferson leaves office. So Lewis has now lost his man in the high tower. Um and Madison and Dearborn, I believe, they start to kind of crack down on spending. And all of a sudden, Lewis is having to come out of pocket for a bunch of expenses with his territory. So Lewis is entering financial trouble. He's potentially

44:42 experiencing emotional distress. um he uh is experiencing the guilt or shame or whatever it may be of not having finished his journals. So you have all these things kind of piling up on his chest. And essentially he's like, "All right, like I need to get to DC and get to Mr. Jefferson and just figure this whole thing out." He leaves uh he leaves St. Louis. That's the thing to note. So he was in St. Louis at the time when he was governing the upper Louisiana territory. Um he leaves St. Louis. His plan is to go to DC and then make his way to Philly where there's some editors who can help him finish his journals. And he takes the uh Mississippi River down. He plans on taking the river down to uh I believe New Orleans and then taking a ship to Washington.

45:46 And he is uh taking his way down the Mississippi and uh I'll read some quotes here from Jefferson because now now we're kind we're entering more of like what really happened here. Um, and there's so many different stories, but for some context, you know, Jefferson would write after Lewis had died that I quote, "Governor Lewis had from early life been subject to hypocchondric affections. It was a constitutional disposition in all the near branches of the family of his name, and was more immediately inherited by him from his father. They had not, however, been so strong as to give uneasiness to his family. While he lived with me in Washington, I observed at times sensible depressions of mind. But knowing their constitutional source, I estimated their course by what I had seen in the family. During his western

46:48 expedition, the con the constant exertion which that required of all the faculties of body and mind suspended these distressing affections. But after the establishment after his establishment at St. Louis in sedentary occupations, they returned upon him with redoubled vigor and began seriously to alarm his friends. He was in a peroxism of one of these when his affairs rendered it necessary for him to go to Washington. So there's all these people who who would write about Lewis at the time. Um one of his his friends in St. Louis, William C. Carr, he wrote, "Our governor left us a few days ago. Our our governor left us a few days since with his private affairs altogether deranged. He is a good man but a very imprudent one. I apprehend he will not return. But then you have other people who who

47:51 who kind of refute this. Um there's a book a 1993 book called Suicide or Murder. Um and uh Vardis Fiser he writes that you know his handwriting during these last days in St. Louis uh his clear and orderly records of his debts and his investing three friends with the power of attorney to sell his property during his absence if creditors should demand it. All this certainly does not look like the behavior of a man in proxism. So he makes his way down the Mississippi River and he's in New Madrid and apparently he writes a will. So he's on the river and he composes a will leaving all of his assets to his mother. There is the report that he attempts to take his life twice on this river ride. That report was given uh a few years after his death by Gilbert Russell who was the commanding officer at Fort

48:57 Pickering. Uh and and he uh he would say that the commanding officer of the fort on discovering his situation and learning from the crew that he had made two attempts to kill himself and one of which he had nearly succeeded resolved at once to take possession of him and his papers and detain them there until he recovered or some friend might arrive in whose hands he could depart in safety. So essentially Captain Russell detains Meriwether Lewis at Fort Pickering. Um I believe where was this? I can't recall the state this is in now. Um he detains Lewis uh and for two weeks he keeps Lewis there until essentially Lewis calms down. Again like alcohol is continuously given as a reason for like Lewis's derangement. Um so he detains Lewis. Lewis writes a letter to James Madison and tells him that his plan has changed. He's no longer taking the Mississippi the whole way. Um, he's now going to go

50:00 overland by way of the Nashes Trace, which some of y'all drove down on the way down here. He's going to go overland to Nashville and then through Nashville to Washington DC. Um, and he writes that like he he talks about the heat of the South. He doesn't want to deal with it. And he's also worried that a British ship could take his papers if he gets down to New Orleans. He doesn't want to lose the journals. Um, so that's the only narrative regarding those two suicide attempts on that boat. So Lewis is held at Fort Pickering and he decides to depart overland uh by horse by way of the Natchez trace. He's heading to Nashville. And essentially, while Lewis is at Fort Pickering, uh, a man named James Neely shows up. Uh, he was an agent to the Chickasaw Nation and he offers to go

51:03 with Lewis, uh, at least part of the way up the Natchez trace. Again, this is another one of those question marks. You know, some people think that James Neely was sent by somebody to see that Lewis didn't make it where he needed to go. Um, I haven't really read much into Neely, but I do know that I believe after Lewis's death, Neie would meet uh a violent end in Washington. Um, there was some revenge taken on him. People thought that he might have had something to do with this. Uh, so this guy shows up and says, "Sure, I'll I'll take uh Captain Lewis up the Nach's trace." And it's Neie, it's Lewis, Lewis has one of his servants, uh, John Pernier, and then Neie has one of his servants. Um, and Neie would report, you know, that Lewis appeared at times deranged of mind. So, we have this image of this like of this American hero, like one of the goats, like seriously the greatest to ever do it. um like potentially losing

52:06 his mind and going insane or in the middle of a huge plot to frame him. Uh it's a a tragic tragic story. Um, so on October 10th, uh, so they take the Nashes trace up, they go through the Chickasaw Nation. Um, and then October 10th, 1809, Lewis rides up to a uh, so the Nachas Trace, it was essentially a footpath or a highway of sorts uh, for the South at the time. Uh this would be the same route that Andrew Jackson would march the Tennessee Volunteers to the uh Battle of New Orleans. They marched down the Nachas Trace. So this is like a very popular footpath. So there's like these ins like all along the way. And the trace goes from New Orleans um all the way up right outside of Nashville. Um now I think it ends in Tupelo. Uh so on October 10th, 1809,

53:11 Lewis rides up to one of these ins uh called Grinders in or Grinder Stand about 70 miles from Nashville. And with that being said, we're going to go on a field trip. October 10th, 1809, Meriwether Lewis would have walked pretty much right where we are standing. This is the old notches trace. So big chunks of the original trail are still intact and there's generally signs that kind of point them out, but since time, you know, they've kind of made new trails, but the original trace would have gone right up through here and on October 10th, Lewis would have came up this trail. Now, the only firsthand account of this story comes from Priscilla Grinder, who was the wife of the owner of Grinder's Inn. You remember that in that I told you guys, there's all these up and down

54:16 the Nashes trace. So, Grinder's in is owned by a man, Mr. Grinder, and his wife, Priscilla, is home with her two kids. And again, this is the only firsthand account of this story. In this this story, she would actually change years later, but this is what she told a man named Alexander Wilson, who would come to investigate what happened 7 months after Lewis's death. So she tells Wilson that Lewis came up this trail on his horseback alone and approached the inn, which we'll go walk over to where it was. Priscilla says that Lewis came up the trail alone on his horseback and she said that he seemed deranged. Um he shows up and she offers him dinner. He sits down. He's compulsively smoking his pipe, kind of talking to himself, looking out into the distance, acting

55:20 really, really weird. She asks him why he's alone. He says that there's people coming up behind. He's just a little bit ahead of them. So, he sits down. He has dinner with them. He asks for spirits. She pours him a drink. Apparently, he doesn't drink very much. And he keeps saying, "What? What a lovely evening. What a lovely evening. What a lovely evening." just rambling. She uh he asks her for a room and she goes to prepare a bed and he's like, "I'll just sleep on the floor." And he sends his servant to go get his buffalo robes and he says he'll sleep on the floor. So Priscilla's home alone, right? She's got her two kids. Her husband's not here. She moves. So the the inn was like a it was like two cabins connected by a breezeway. So, she moves her and her kids into one of the extra cabins and gives Lewis the main space because this guy is being really weird is what she says. And

56:26 she says that as she's trying to fall asleep, she can hear Lewis walking back and forth in his room, talking to himself like a lawyer, she says. And all night he's up making noise. And around 2:00 a.m. a gunshot goes off. And as Jefferson describes it, he did the deed which plunged his friends into affliction. So, a gunshot goes off and Priscilla says that she looks out of the cracks in her cabin and she can see a man stumble out of the cabin and wander around and at one point he leans up against a tree and she's just watching this silhouette. He comes up to her door, scratches on her door. He's asking her, "Madame, madame, please bring me some water. Heal my wounds."

57:26 and she's terrified, you know, like her kids are in here, so she doesn't answer the door. She says she sees him wander back into his cabin and a second gunshot goes off. The next morning when the sun rises, Priscilla sends her kids to go get Lewis's servant to check on Lewis. And they find him laying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the front of the head and a gunshot wound to the chest. He's still alive. They say that a a portion of his forehead was blown off, exposing his brains, and he's laying there still alive. And as Lewis is laying there, some stories even say that he had cuts up and down his body, like hundreds of razor cuts up and down his body. Again, there's like so many different stories. Like this

58:26 whole evening is a mystery. But Priscilla says that, you know, as Lewis is laying there, he's he's begging for his servant to grab his rifle and blow his brains out. He's saying he says, "I'll give you everything in my chest. Just take me out of this misery." And he's in a delirium. He's in and out of consciousness. And his final words, he keeps repeating this over and over again. I am no coward, but I am so strong, so hard to die. And he just repeats that. So hard to die. So hard to die. So hard to die. And later that morning, he would succumb to his wounds and he would die pretty much right where we're standing. You know that story 20 years later, she would add more people to the account. She would say that there were people who came the trail. There was even a a Chickasaw man who said that he was there and there was uh a duel that almost took place.

59:32 There's countless additional stories about what went down that night. The main narrative is that Lewis had gone insane and taken his own life. The additional narratives are an assassination. Maybe he had known something that they didn't want Washington to know. Maybe there was something in the journals that they didn't want people to know. There's countless conspiracies about the death of this man. Some people speculate that when Jefferson wrote about his hypochondriac afflictions that it was not a mental condition, but a physical condition that was causing mental derangement. Countless stories. But on the morning of October 11th, 1809, Lewis would die here and they buried him in a a shallow grave. Um, it's also important to think about none of these trees would have been here. I mean, maybe a couple of these, but this would have been farmland, clear-cut, you know, totally different environment. But they buried

1:00:37 Lewis in a grave and kind of marked it with some rails. And then in uh 1818, they would uh reenter the body into the monument, which we'll go see. From then on, there have been countless disputes about what happened to Lewis. There's been demands to reexume the body. Some people speculate that there was a gunshot to the back of the head and by observing the skull, they could figure out if it was suicide or an assassination. Um, but ever since then, this is an ongoing debate about what actually happened to Meriwether Lewis. But nevertheless, right here on this spot at the age of 35 years old died one of the greatest American heroes I've ever learned about. And um I would say that his life is something that we should honor and study. If you're an outdoorsman, reading

1:01:44 about this adventure is very inspiring. And just as an American, learning about these people fills us with pride for who we are and where we come from. Yeah, guys, this is the spot right here where it all went down.