Saturday, August 02, 2008

Were lead mines the reason Meriwether Lewis was murdered?

The immense fortunes to be had in lead mining operations south of St. Louis may have been the reason Meriwether Lewis was murdered. Captain Amos Stoddard reported to Congress that “no part of the world furnished lead ore in greater quantities and purities.” Lead was used to make bullets for guns; and Congress voted to reserve and lease all land containing lead in the territory. William Carr, the federal land agent, said that the profits from the leasing and sale of public lands could pay for almost the entire $15 million cost of the Louisiana Purchase within a few years. But after the U. S. acquired the territory, the lead district became the scene of raging “mineral wars,” with armed groups battling for control. The chief troublemaker was John Smith T., a relative of General James Wilkinson. 

When Meriwether Lewis was appointed Governor of Louisiana Territory he wrote to William Clark appointing him Brigadier General of Louisiana Territory. In this letter of March 13, 1807, he wrote “It is my wish that every person who holds an appointment of profit or honor in that territory and against whom sufficient proof of the infection of Burrism can be adduced, should be immediately dismissed from office without partiality favor or affection, as I can never make any terms with traitors.” He named three men, one of whom was John Smith T. The three men had set off down the Mississippi to join Aaron Burr in his planned invasion of Mexico, but had turned back upon learning of President Jefferson’s denouncement of Burr as a traitor. 

John Smith T. 

John Smith T. added a “T.” for “Tennessee” to his name. He was reputed to be the most dangerous man in Missouri and was said to have killed 12-14 men in duels and 4-5 others (though this cannot be substantiated). John Darby, the Mayor of St. Louis, called him “as mild a mannered man as ever put a bullet into the human body.” He always carried four pistols, one dirk (bowie knife), and a rifle called “Hark from the Tombs.” By the 1820’s he was known as the “Lead King of Missouri.”

Smith T. had speculated in the Yazoo land frauds and owned or claimed a quarter of a million acres in Tennessee and northern Alabama. He kept numerous and prominent lawyers busy with multiple law suits. Smith T. managed his affairs with litigation, dueling challenges, and hired gunmen. Two of his slaves worked fulltime as gunsmiths; their guns were considered the finest in the West. A shot tower on the White Cliffs of Selma along the Mississippi River produced the bullets. 

Smith T. was ready to supply the guns and ammunition needs for any filibustering expedition. In fact he was a participant in at least four filibuster attempts to invade Texas and Mexico through the years. Smith T.’s mother was Lucy Wilkinson Smith. Historians agree that she was a relative of James Wilkinson, but their exact relationship is not known. Perhaps Smith T. was either a nephew or second cousin. Contemporaries didn’t seem to be aware of their family relationship, though they were associates. (I am hoping that some genealogist can solve this puzzle.)

When James Wilkinson became the first Governor of Louisiana Territory in 1805-06, he dismissed Moses Austin (the father of Stephen Austin of Texas fame) from several offices and replaced him with Smith T. Moses Austin, the leading mine owner in the district, was Smith T.’s biggest enemy. He had enough armed manpower to resist Smith T.’s takeover attempts. Smith T. employed both thugs and lawyers in staking out the“floating” land claims he had purchased from the brother of the Spanish governor, and he dared anyone to do anything about it. 

Governor Lewis travels to Washington

Meriwether Lewis left St. Louis on September 4th,1809, intending to go by boat to Washington D. C. He was upset because federal officials were refusing to pay bills that he had authorized as Governor of Louisiana Territory, and was being held personally responsible for these amounts. All of these bills were eventually honored by the government and paid to Lewis’s estate after his death. His death occurred on October 11th on the Natchez Trace, some 70 miles south of Nashville, Tennessee. 

Lewis stayed at Fort Pickering (Memphis, Tennessee) for 15 days, from September 15-29th. Upon his arrival at the fort, he changed his travel plans and decided to go by horseback to the federal city, giving as his reason that he was afraid his papers (the expedition journals) would fall into the hands of the British at sea. Initially he was sick with malarial fevers, but he wrote sensible and coherent letters during this time. 

The commander of the fort, Captain Gilbert Russell, wanted to accompany Lewis to Washington. Russell wrote a letter to President Jefferson (dated January 4, 1810) saying that Lewis was sick for the first six days, but after that he was “perfectly restored and able to travel.” He continued, “Being then myself placed in a similar situation with him by having Bills protested to a considerable amount I had made application to the General [James Wilkinson] and expected leave of absence every day to go to Washington with Governor Lewis. In consequence of which he waited six or eight days expecting that I would go on with him, but in this we were disappointed & he set off with a Major Neely who was going to Nashville.” Neely, a local Indian agent appointed by General Wilkinson, had unaccountably arrived at the fort “on or about September 18th,” and waited eight days to travel with Lewis. 

After Lewis’s death, his papers were brought to Virginia, where they were found to be all in a jumble, personal and business papers mixed together. That, and a missing will William Clark was looking for, point to the theft of documents. It seems likely that Lewis was carrying papers that some people did not want to have reach Washington.

A recent reading of a biography, Frontier Swashbuckler: The Life and Legend of John Smith T. by Richard Steward, provides a plausible motive for an assassination, because John Smith T. was going to Washington on business also.

John Smith T. brings petitions to Congress

A month before Lewis left St Louis, a “citizen’s committee” in St. Louis chose John Smith T. as a lobbyist to go to Washington, and to bring two petitions to Congress. The first petition asked for the removal from office of Judge John B. C. Lucas, a friend of both Meriwether Lewis and Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury. Lucas was one of three land claims commissioners in St. Louis and a Judge of the Territorial Court. As a member of the commission reviewing Spanish land claims, he was blamed for too strictly following the law. In addition, the petitioners wanted the law changed, validating land claims that were recorded after France’s secret acquisition of the territory on October 1, 1800. 

The second petition asked for a change of status for Louisiana Territory; an upgrade which would allow residents to elect their own territorial officials, rather than be wards of the federal government. It was obviously also the intention of the petition leaders to urge that Lewis not be reappointed as Territorial Governor by the President. 

Reuben Smith’s trade mission to Sante Fe

John Smith T. planned to go to the federal city in the winter. Before that he undoubtedly helped his younger brother and business partner, Reuben Smith, get ready to set off on an unauthorized “trade mission” to Sante Fe. The expedition left the lead mine district on November 20, 1809. News of Lewis’s death had reached St. Louis by November 2nd.  This filibustering expedition into Spanish territory consisted of six men: Reuben Smith, two associates, one Mexican interpreter, and two slaves. They were well armed and supplied; they had money, but no trade goods. The group aroused the suspicions of Spanish officials and the men were captured in February, 1810. 

Unlike the hospitality shown by Spanish authorities to Lieutenant Zebulon Pike and his party after their capture in 1806-07, the Reuben Smith party was treated harshly. Smith and his two associates were put to work in the gold and silver mines of Chihauhua where they labored under irons for three years. It is said that John Smith T. went alone to Sante Fe and paid a bribe to Father Miguel Hidalgo and his Mexican revolutionary forces to secure their release.

The “smoking bullets”

What transpired in Washington D. C. during the early winter months of 1810 is unknown. No records have been found of John Smith T.’s activities. However, the results of the petition issues are known: Judge Lucas, was reconfirmed in his appointment as land commissioner, and a bill to elevate Louisiana Territory to second class status failed to be enacted by Congress. The lead mine claims remained in legal limbo, never being accepted by Congress, while all those involved ignored the issues of valid titles and continued to make money. 

The death of Meriwether Lewis was bracketed by two significant events: in August, the selection of John Smith T. to bring petitions to Congress, and in November, the departure of Smith T.’s brother Reuben Smith on a trade mission to Sante Fe. Are these the “smoking bullets” revealing the role of large land claimants and “Burrites” in causing the death of Meriwether Lewis? 

In a later blog I will examine the story of the last days of Lewis’s life, which consist of second hand accounts reported in letters and news articles.

Posted by Kira Gale on 08/02/2008 at 09:02 AM

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Lewis and Clark Proceeding On Newsletter Archives

Featuring Lewis and Clark Trail news from around America, an archive of past issues of the monthly newsletter, Proceeding On, is now available. Kira Gale was awarded the Meritorious Achievement Award of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation in 2007. She is the author of Lewis and Clark Road Trips: Exploring the Trail Across America published in 2006.  There is a large website with links and MapQuest maps to over 800 destinations on the trail, a forum, and other interesting information. The website address is www.lewisandclarkroadtrips.com Contact kira@lewisandclarktravel.com for permission to reprint articles featured in her newsletter. Send news, photo, comments to her for inclusion in the newsletter which goes out around the end of each month.

Join the mailing list to receive Proceeding On each month.

 Proceeding On Newsletter Archives

PAST ISSUES 1850 Grave Exhumation and Monument Committee Report (June, 2008) Unknown portraits of Lewis and Clark found (May, 2008) Strange Happenings during the 1811-12 New Madrid earthquakes (April, 2008) Jail Inmate rescues stolen Sacagawea statue heads (March, 2008) Power plant on Portage Route stalls out (February, 2008) Court record found for Sacagawea’s children (January, 2008) Lewis and Clark comic book by Native American artist now available (Nov-Dec, 2007) Beauty Queens stage protest at Sacagawea statue (October, 2007) City of St Louis proposes developing Gateway Arch grounds (September, 2007) Sacagawea dollar coins a hit in Ecuador (August, 2007) Montana inquires about HBO mini series (July, 2007) Lewis and Clark HBO mini series in 2008 with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton (June, 2007)

Posted by Kira Gale on 08/02/2008 at 07:48 AM

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Monday, July 07, 2008

Prince Maximilian’s Journals provide the text for Bodmer’s paintings

If you love the watercolors of Karl Bodmer, you will want to read the journals of Prince Maximilian. Looking at the drawings alone is like reading a comic book missing its words. The first volume of a modern edition of the journals has just been published by the University of Oklahoma Press. It is available from the press at a cost of $85. (The ISBN number is 978-0-8061-3888-6.) The title is The North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied: Volume 1: May 1832-April 1833. I just bought a copy at Joslyn Art Museum, the home of both the Bodmer drawings and the original journals of Prince Maximilian. This publication has been long awaited, and it was well worth the wait. It is a glorious publication. 

Joslyn Art Museum has a current exhibit, Karl Bodmer’s Eastern Views: Celebrating Volume 1 of the North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied, which will be up through August 31st. The small paintings cover their voyage across the Atlantic, their travels from the east coast to St. Louis, and their stay in the utopian scholarly community of New Harmony, Indiana. It is worth a trip to Omaha, Nebraska to view. If you travel by car, many sites they visited are destinations in my book, Lewis and Clark Road Trips: Exploring the Trail Across America. With the publication of the next two volumes, we will be able to make many comparisons between the Lewis and Clark Expedition and Maximilian’s travels. When Maxmilian and his companions traveled up the Missouri they visited many of the same places, using copies of maps provided by William Clark. (The map copies are also part of the Joslyn collection.) Bodmer’s paintings have always been considered as primary resources for the Lewis and Clark Journals, as they were painted only about thirty years later.

The journals were written in old German script (which made it hard to translate); and contain delightful small illustrations by the Prince himself. We saw an original journal on display at the exhibit. Editors Stephen S. Witte and Marsha V. Gallagher have done a beautiful job of incorporating his illustrations and providing additional commentary in a page layout that makes it a joy to read.  The book is a classic, and upon publication of all three volumes, will provide much needed, valuable information. It is also fun to read; unlike the official report style of the Lewis and Clark Journals, it is a personal journal, filled with insights and observations. What a treat to finally get to know Prince Max, and to put the words with the pictures!

Posted by Kira Gale on 07/07/2008 at 01:25 PM

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Sunday, July 06, 2008

Ioway Chief Hard Heart’s Trading Posts in Omaha-Council Bluffs: A Lewis and Clark Day Trip

Ioway Chief Hard Heart was an ally of the United States during the War of 1812. He was a distinguished war chief, who had fought in 50 battles and commanded in seven.The War of 1812 was very much an Indian war, with many Indians in the Upper Midwest fighting on the side of the British who supplied them with arms and ammunition.The Ioway mostly sided with the British, with whom they had been trading for many years; but Chief Hard Heart, who had been awarded a peace medal by President James Madison, sided with the Americans.

Hard Heart came with 50 or 60 of his warriors and their families to the Omaha-Council Bluffs area to live near the Otoe and Missouria, during the War of 1812.The Ioway were kin to the Otoe and Missouria, speaking the Chiwere Sioux dialect. It seems likely that Hard Heart may have been following orders from William Clark, who as Brigadier General of the Militia, was in command of the area’s military defense. Clark was moving Indian groups around the region, separating out those who remained neutral or friendly to the American cause.  Afterwards, Heart remained in the area until his death in 1823, and established trading posts on both sides of the river.

Fort Atkinson Heart, who spoke English, told Colonel Henry Atkinson, the commander of the military post established near the site of the original Council Bluff, about an old Indian trail to Chariton, Missouri. He showed Sgt. Gabriel Field the trail, who marked it out, and the trail then became known as “Field’s Trace.” Fort Atkinson was in existence from 1820-1827.The reconstructed fort is now a Nebraska State Historical Park, with living history weekends on the first weekends of the month from Memorial Day through October.

Heart’s daughter Nicomi married Surgeon John Gale of Fort Atkinson. After Dr. Gale left the area when the fort closed in 1827, Nicomi married fur trader Peter Sarpy, who ran the American Fur Company post in Bellevue. Sarpy helped raise Nicomi’s daughter Mary Gale, who married Joseph La Flesche, Jr., the Chief of the Omaha Indians. Two of their children became the famous La Flesche sisters: Susette La Flesche Tibbles , the Indian Rights activitist who toured the U. S. and Europe with Ponca Chief Standing Bear; and Susan La Flesche Picotte, who became the first Native American woman medical doctor.  Several books have been written about the La Flesche sisters, but their famous great-grandfather, Hard Heart, has been lost to history. 

The original Council Bluff Lewis and Clark met with the Otoe and Missouria on August 3, 1804 at the site of today’s Fort Atkinson State Historical Park, about ten miles north of Omaha, Nebraska. This site on the west side of the river was called “Council Bluff.” In the following years, both sides of the river became known as “Council Bluffs.” In 1853, the Mormon town of Kanesville changed its name to Council Bluffs, Iowa. The naming of the town on the east side of the river has somewhat confused the idea of where the original council with Indians took place. It took place in Nebraska, and was the first council of the United States government with Indians living west of the Missouri River. It was commemorated as a Bicentennial Signature Event at Fort Atkinson in 2004. 

The Ancient Villages of the Otoe and Ioway William Clark noted on July 28th, the remains of ancient villages of the Otoes and Ioways in the modern cities of Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa which are situated across the Missouri River from each other. The village sites dated to the 1750’s-1770’s. After that time, the Otoe moved to the junction of the Platte and Elkhorn Rivers, where the Missouria joined them; and the Ioway moved back to the Mississippi River area of eastern Iowa.

Heart’s Trading Post in Omaha Sometime during the War of 1812, Hard Heart established a defensive outpost on the Omaha plateau. Clark had described the area as “well situated for defense” when he explored mounds covering 2 to 300 acres in today’s downtown Omaha. The mounds were the collapsed earth lodges of the Otoe village which had been abandoned in the 1770’s. The first postmaster of Omaha, Alfred D. Jones, wrote an article about the mounds in the 1892 Nebraska State Historical Society Journal; explaining that they were not burial mounds, but rather old earth lodges. He was the first surveyor of Omaha and laid out the city streets in 1854.  Jones described the remains of an old fort that was located between 9th and 10th Street and Dodge and Capitol Streets, the location today of Omaha’s Qwest Convention Center. He wrote:  “The probabilities are that the old fort was that of Hart’s trading establishment, and the Indian village that of the Otoes, who occupied this part of the country at the same time, and who were here as late as 1835. Hart’s trading house, the fort, and Otoe village was located here about 1817, when Hart moved over to Iowa, above what is now the city of Council Bluffs.”

The Stephen H. Long Report Hard Heart was present at the Otoe Council held on October 3, 1819 at Engineer Cantonment about five miles south of Fort Atkinson. The dozen engineers, scientists and artists accompanying the more than 1,000 soldiers stationed at Fort Atkinson established their own winter camp, or cantonment, where they lived for about eight months. The site is now the subject of an archeology dig by the Nebraska State Historical Society.  Hard Heart was discussed in the 1823 Stephen H. Long Expedition Report, which stated that:  “During our late contest with Great Britain, he turned his back upon his nation, in consequence of their raising the tomahawk upon our citizens, and crossing the Missouri, united his destiny with the Otoes, who treated him with distinguished respect. Last autumn his nation joined him, and submitted to his guidance, so that the Otoes, Missouries, and Ioways were then united.”

It is most likely that he was the subject of a portrait drawn by artist Titian Peale, the youngest son of artist Charles Willson Peale. The drawing was discovered in the collection of the Iowa State Historical Society in 1993 and is shown here. 

Heart’s Trading Post at the Lewis and Clark Monument Bluff The Ioway had formerly lived in a village south of today’s Lewis and Clark Monument Bluff and Big Lake in Council Bluffs, Iowa for a period of years up until the 1770’s. When Heart’s tribe rejoined him after the war in 1817-18, they moved back to their old village site. A U. S. census of 1821 reported 400 Ioway living there.  Big Lake is now a very small pond. It is a “cut-off” lake created from a former bend of the Missouri River, which was made when the river cut a new channel for its flow. This lake used to be called “Heart’s Cut-Off,” and the bluff was called “Heart’s Bluff.”

Father Pierre-Jean De Smet established his first Indian mission in Council Bluffs in 1838. He wrote in a letter to Alfred Jones in 1867 stating:  “The remains alluded to must be the site of the old trading post of Mr. Heart. When it was in existence the Missouri River ran up to the trading post. In 1832 the river left it, and since that time it goes by the name of ‘Heart’s Cut-Off,’ leaving a large lake above Council Bluffs.”

Hard Heart was also called “Grand Batture” or “Big Sandbar.” On May 4, 1833 the Yellowstone steamboat collided with a big sandbar, and artist Karl Bodmer had the opportunity to sketch “Ard’s Hills.” Prince Maximilian noted in his journals “Ard’s Hills, also incorrectly called Hard’s Hills….Here was once situated a trading house which has gone out of business….someone showed us a green prairie ridge a site where an Ayaway village once stood; the chief died and the people returned to their kin.”

The site of Heart’s trading post was marked on a plat map prepared by Charles Babbitt, who published Early Days in Council Bluffs in 1916. Babbitt’s father was the first register of deeds in Council Bluffs.  He took his young son duck hunting at Heart’s Cut-Off Lake during the 1850’s and showed him the site of an “old Indian trading post.” Babbitt described the site as: “remains of buildings of considerable size, surrounded, or partly so then, by what appeared to have been a sod fence…The area of land embraced in the original enclosure had been two or more acres.” This site is located about half a mile north of the Lewis and Clark Monument. It is a beautiful large valley, now enclosed by a chain link fence. 

Lewis and Clark Day Trips On July 5, 2008 I led a tour of Hard Heart’s Trading Post sites. We toured the Lewis and Clark Monument Bluff, the Pioneer Courage and Spirit of Nebraska Wilderness outdoor sculpture parks of First National Bank, and visited Joslyn Art Museum, where we viewed the eastern watercolors of artist Karl Bodmer and a portrait of Otoe Chief I-etan by Charles Bird King. The First National Bank sculpture parks are located a few blocks from the site of Heart’s old trading post and on the land where the Otoe Village once stood. 

Earlier today I went by myself to take photos of the Independence Day living history celebration at Fort Atkinson. I am preparing to give a PowerPoint slide talk on Lewis and Clark Day Trips at the annual White Catfish Camp Festival at the Western Historic Trails Center in Council Bluffs. My talk will be at 10 AM on Sunday morning, July 27th.  I will post a few photos taken this weekend.

Shown here scenes from Fort Atkinson’s Fourth of July weekend:  the Council House, Grand Parade, soldiers and musicians, the marker for the site of Council Bluffs, and Surgeon Gale’s office at the fort.  Florence Clouse is petting the buffalo at First National Bank’s Spirit of Nebraska Wilderness, and the wagon train is part of the Pioneer Courage outdoor sculptures. This is one of the world’s largest outdoor sculpture gardens. The loess hills cliff is located south Big Lake near 8th Street. It is the site of the old Ioway village.  The view from the Lewis and Clark Monument shows Big Lake, which is no longer very big.



            









           





     



     











   

Posted by Kira Gale on 07/06/2008 at 09:33 PM

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Sunday, June 22, 2008

Was Meriwether Lewis Assassinated? The 1850 Grave Exhumation Report

In the late 1840’s a movement got underway to place a monument at the gravesite of Meriwether Lewis. Until then, his gravesite consisted of a simple marker enclosed by a wooden rail fence. Lewis was buried at Griner’s Stand, a wayside inn near Hohenwald, Tennessee on the Natchez Trace Federal Road, where he met his death on October 11, 1809. Though as Governor of Louisiana Territory he might be considered the third ranking member of the federal government, his death was never investigated, nor was there an effort to rebury him in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia. His death was labeled a suicide by second hand accounts and accepted as such by President Thomas Jefferson.  It was said in later newspaper accounts that a county coroner’s jury investigation was held at the time of his death; but this 1809 report has not been found. Reportedly the local jury members thought Robert Griner had participated in the killing of Meriwether Lewis, but were afraid to indict him. It has always been stated by the residents of Tennessee that Meriwether Lewis was murdered. 

I have been doing extensive research on the death of Meriwether Lewis, tracking down primary documents referred to in two books, Suicide or Murder? The Strange Death of Governor Meriwether Lewis by Vardis Fisher, published in 1962; and By His Own Hand? The Mysterious Death of Meriwether Lewis, edited by John D. W. Guice, published in 2006. Richard Dillon’s biography, Meriwether Lewis, with a foreword by Stephen Ambrose, also states he was murdered. John Bakeless is another biographer of Lewis and Clark who believed he was murdered. You may purchase these books and others through my website’s Amazon’s Associates bookstore.

I am planning to share some of my research on blogs at http://www.lewisandclarktravel.com in the months to come. This is one of the most important documents I have found.  The document reveals that the Tennessee monument committee actually opened the grave of Meriwether Lewis to confirm that they had the right gravesite, and examined his upper torso. One of the members of the committee, Samuel B. Moore, was a physician. (History and Genealogy-State Records-Acts of Tennessee, 1831-1850). It was not their purpose to investigate the cause of Lewis’s death. However, later in their 1850 Monument Committee Report to the General Assembly of Tennessee, they stated: 

“The impression has long prevailed that under the influence of disease and body—of hopes based upon long and valuable services—not merely deferred but wholly disappointed—Governor Lewis perished by his own hands. It seems to be more probable that he died by the hands of an assassin.”

Here follows the complete text of the Report, found in the Meriwether Lewis Memorial Association Papers, 1880-1931 at the Tennessee State Archives (Microfilm #13-74). 

R E P O R T of the L E W I S M O N U M E N T C O M M I T T E E

To the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee: By the 9th section of an act, passed at the last session of the General Assembly of this State, entitled an act to establish the County of Lewis the sum of $500 was appropriated, or so much thereof as might be necessary, to preserve the place of interment where the remains of GEN. MERIWETHER LEWIS were deposited; and the undersigned were appointed the agents of the General Assembly to carry into execution the provisions of the act, and report to the present General Assembly. Looking upon the object to be accomplished to be one highly honorable to the State, the undersigned entered upon the duties assigned them cheerfully and with as little delay as possible. They consulted with the most eminent artists and practical mechanics as to the kind of monument to be erected, and a plan being agreed upon, they employed Mr. Lemuel W. Kirby, of Columbia, to execute it for the sum of five hundred dollars. The entire monument is twenty and a half feet high. The design is simple but is intended to express the difficulties, successes, and violent termination of a life which was marked by bold enterprise, by manly courage and by devoted patriotism. The base of the monument is of rough, unhewn stone, eight feet high and nine feet square where it rises to the surface of the ground. On this rests a plinth of cut stone, four feet square and eighteen inches in thickness, on which are the inscriptions given below. On this plinth stands a broken column eleven feet high, two and a half feet in diameter for the base, and a few inches smaller at the top.  The top is broken to denote the violent and untimely end of a bright and glorious career.  The base is composed of a species of sandstone found in the neighborhood of the grave. The plinth and shaft, or column, are made of a fine limestone, commonly known as Tennessee marble.  Around the monument is erected a handsome wrought iron rail fence.
Great care was taken to identify the grave. George Nixon, Esq., an old Surveyor, had become very early acquainted with its locality.  He pointed out the place; but to make assurance doubly sure the grave was re-opened and the upper portion of the skeleton examined, and such evidence found as to leave no doubt as to the place of internment.  Witnesses were called and their certificate, with that of the Surveyor, prove the fact beyond dispute. 

The inscription upon the plinth was furnished by Professor Nathaniel Cross of the University of Nashville.  It is beautiful and appropriate.  It is placed on the different sides of the plinth, and is as follows:  M E R I W E T H E R L E W I S BORN NEAR CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA, AUGUST 18, 1774 DIED OCTOBER 11, 1809; AGED 35 YEARS; An Officer of the Regular Army – Private Secretary to President Jefferson – Commander of the Expedition To The Oregon in 1803–1806 – Governor of the Territory of Louisiana – His Melancholy Death Occurred Where This Monument Now Stands, And Under Which Rests His Mortal Remains. 

In the language of Mr. Jefferson: “His Courage Was Undaunted; His Firmness and Perseverance Yielded To Nothing But Impossibilities; A Rigid Disciplinarian, Yet Tender As A Father To Those Committed To His Charge; Honest, Disinterested, Liberal, With A Sound Understanding, And A Scrupulous Fidelity To Truth.

Immaturus Obi; Sed Tu Felicior Annos Vive Meos, Bona Republica!  Vive Tuos.  ERECTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF TENNESSEE, A. D., 1848.

In the Latin diatich, many of your honorable body will no doubt recognize as the affecting epitaph on the tomb of a young wife, in which by a prosopopocia, after alluding to an immature death, she prays that her happier husband may live out her years and his own. Immaturus pari: sed tu felicior annos. Vive meos, conjux optime!  Vive tuos. Under the same figure, the deceased is represented in the Latin diatich as altered, after alluding to his early death, as uttering as a patriot a similar prayer, that the republic may fulfill her high destiny, and that her years may equal those of time. As the diatich now stands, the figure may be made to apply either to the whole Union, or to Tennessee, that has honored his memory by the erection of a monument.

The impression has long prevailed that under the influence of disease of body and mind – of hopes based upon long and valuable services – not merely deferred, but wholly disappointed – Governor Lewis perished by his own hands.  It seems to be more probable that he died by the hands of an assassin.  The place at which he was killed is even yet a lovely spot.  It was then wild and solitary, and on the borders of the Indian Nation.

Maj. M. L. Clark, a son of Governor Clark of Missouri; in a letter to the Rev. Mr. Cressey of Maury County says: “Have you ever heard of the report that Gov. Lewis did not destroy his own life, but was murdered by his servant, a Frenchman, who stole his money and horses, returned to Natchez, and was never afterwards heard of?  This is an important matter in connection with the erection of a monument to his memory, as it clearly removes from my mind at least, the only stigma upon the fair name I have the honor to bear.”

The undersigned would suggest to the General Assembly, the propriety of having an acre of ground, or some other reasonable quantity, around the grave secured against the entry of private persons. This can be done, either by reserving the title in the State, or by directing a grant to be issued in the name of the Governor and by his successors.  The first mode would perhaps be the best.

All of which is respectfully submitted, EDMUND DILLAHUNTY, BARCLAY MARTIN, ROBERT A. SMITH, SAMUEL B. MOORE.

Posted by Kira Gale on 06/22/2008 at 11:31 AM

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