Corp of Discovery I. Thomas Jefferson (TJ) – 3rd US President
A. 1803 – Wanted a reconnaissance of the West: 1-England held Canada, Vancouver Island, and occupied Oregon Country
2-France – Louisiana Territory and Mississippi River 3-Spain – Pinckney’s Treaty held Florida and the Southwest
4-Russia – Alaska and pushing down the western coast 5-Robert Gray sailed on the Columbia up the Columbia River- USA claim
B. Manifest Destiny – God given right for the USA’s expansion over the entire continentReconnaissance – Military fact finding mission to locate the enemy and plan against them.
C. Napoleon was fighting in Europe and needed $ and sold the New World land holdings to the USA in April of 1803
1. Louisiana Purchase - $15 milliona. Doubled the size of USA
b. Area was unknown and held many myths (18” devils, tribe of Amazon women,
mtns. Salt, crystal, gold, 7 cities of gold,and thought CA an island)
2. Corp of Discovery 1804-1806 AKA as the Lewis and Clark Expeditiona. Meriwether Lewis – friend and secretary of TJ
b. William Clark – Lewis’s army buddyc. 30 Members: 17 soldiers (John Colter); 11 enlistees; York (Clark’s slave);
Scannon (Lewis’s Newfoundland dog) ½ breed interpreter; later Sacajawea and Charbonneau
d. Traveled 7,689 miles and only 1 man died (appendicitis) – the map Clark made was only off by 40 miles
e. Supplied with Harper’s Ferry Rifles, air rifle, swivel cannons, 60 ft keel boat, collapsible canoes, portable soup, $669.50 of gifts & medals of TJ to give to
Nativesf. Congress gave $2500 to finance and they were the first to cross the North
American continent by land – 2 years, 4 months, 10 days – when they returned:
i. 4 journals kept and a dozen notebooks ii. reported 122 new species of the flora and fauna, dino. bones
iii. 50 separate Indian tribesiv. mapped the area
v. MOST IMPORTANT: Beaver everywhere! $$$$
“Lost Pathfinder” “poor man’s Lewis
and Clark”
Father was an officer under George Washington
Moved to St. Louis to serve General James Wilkinson
Wilkinson was the scoundrel partner of Aaron Burr.
Wilkinson accepted $12,000 from Spain for information about the Louisiana Territory purchase and exploration
This was treason
1806 – Wilkinson ordered a secret expedition to the Spanish borderlands. He was to locate the Spanish forts and number of Spanish troops.
Wilkinson had sold Nemesio Salcedo the information about Lewis and Clark – the Spaniards tried to intercept and capture them, but failed.
Wilkinson then sold Salcedo information of Pike’s expedition. He hoped Pike would be captured by the Spanish.
July 1806 – Pike and 17 enlisted men with a Spanish interpreter set out dressed in summer uniforms and followed Spanish cavalry tracks along the future Santa Fe Trail.
After reaching the headwaters of the Arkansas River, Pike tried to reach a large blue peak in the distance; it snowed to his waist. The map maker labeled the peak, Pike’s Peak.
Spainish cavalry and militia captured Pike and his men as prisoners and saved their lives.
Accused of being spies, they were taken to Santa Fe, later moved to Albuquerque, El Paso, and Chihuahua, Mexico.
Pike mapped and noted all military activity, hid the notes in gun barrels.
A strong note of protest was sent to Washington, Madison denied the US spied, but was exploring the source of the Arkansas.
Pike was suspected but later cleared Neither he nor his men were rewarded with
large land grants as was Lewis and Clark Pike’s expedition resulted in an
embarrassing international incident. Pike was promoted to colonel in the War of
1812 ; he was killed on the assault on York, Canada (Toronto).
His men were vindictive after losing the 34 year old general and set fire to public buildings
July 11, 1804; indicted for murder in New York and New Jersey but never tried in either jurisdiction; escaped to South Carolina, then returned to Washington and completed his term of service as Vice President;
arrested and tried for treason in August 1807 for attempting to form a republic in the Southwest of which he was to be the head, but was acquitted;
went abroad in 1808; returned to New York City in 1812 and resumed the practice of law; died in Port Richmond, Staten Island, N.Y., September 14, 1836;
