Lewis & Clark: Journey to Another America

Topic 10: Public Perception of the Expedition
By Betty Houchin Winfield, University of Missouri-Columbia
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The following text is excerpted from the essay in Lewis & Clark: Journey to Another America

"Huzzard! Huzzard! Huzzard! Here they come!" the boatmen shouted as they "plyed thear ores with great dexterity," wrote William Clark during those last expedition days of 1806.

The La Charette, St. Charles, and Cantonment Belle Fontaine settlers standing along the riverbanks cheered in the midst of the bursts of the blunderbuss and cannon booms. Forewarned, St. Louisians had waited and waited and waited. For some two and half years, they had waited. Not even President Thomas Jefferson knew the fate of the expedition. Like Ulysses, these travelers disappeared, only to return rugged in appearance and full of great adventures to tell.

And what a sight these men were that September 23 afternoon! They appeared to be Robinson Crusoes dressed entirely in buckskins. Strong in their movements and confident in their manner, the explorers swiftly rowed toward land. The original "voyage of discovery" of thirty-three men was missing only Sergeant Charles Floyd, who had died just months into the trip, and John Colter, who had turned back to the wilderness. The settlers could not wait to hear what had happened. Plied with questions, Captain Clark admitted, "I sleped but little last night."

Two days later at a St. Louis banquet and ball, these backwoodsmen awkwardly consumed wine and long-forgotten delicacies of French pastries. At that Christy's Inn celebration, the captains joined the toasts to Jefferson, his administration, the expedition, the men, the United States, and "Captains Lewis and Clark--Their perilous services endear them to every American heart."

Now, two centuries later, how did we know of these happenings? The exploration occurred before the telegraph, Associated Press, radio, television, satellite, and Internet. In 1806, St. Louis did not even have a newspaper. No reporter traveled with the expedition; only later nineteenth-century explorations included an official correspondent. America's early national era was a public oral culture and primarily a private recorded one. The men's accounts told in St. Louis taverns and the banquet toasts were faithfully recorded in letters sent east, then shared and subsequently printed in the nearest newspaper. Other newspapers reprinted those single-column stories over and over again, with small headlines and no visual images. Without the later cooperative news-gathering and wire services, newspapers freely exchanged news without fear of copyright infringement. The news stories would help the country understand and interpret the exploration. The initial newspaper accounts of the corps' return became the basis for a public perception about the far-off Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Photo credit: Portrait of Lewis wearing his Shoshone cape. Engraving by Stickland after St. Memin (painted 1807) published in Analectice Magazine and Naval Chronicle, 1816. Missouri Historical Society Photo and Print Collection.

l. What might the public perception have been had Lewis published the journals by 1808 as he promised?

2. Why might the story of Sacagawea become important by the 20th century?

3. Why might the story of York become important by the 20th century?

4. How might have the existing press played a role in the public knowledge?

5. What would it have taken for the accomplishments of the Lewis & Clark Expedition to be included in school textbooks?

6. While there were celebrations in honor of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, why weren't they called heroes in 1806-1807?

7. Why was a hero designation used in the 20th century for a corps member such as Meriwether Lewis?

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Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the
Opening of the American West. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.

Ames, William E.. History of the National Intelligencer. Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1972.

Appleman, Roy E. Lewis & Clark's Transcontinental Exploration, 1804-1806. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1975.

Betts, Robert. In Search of York: The Slave Who Went to the Pacific with Lewis and Clark. Denver: Colorado Associated University Press, 1985.

Ronda, James P. Lewis and Clark among the Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984. Reprint. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002.

Ronda, James P., ed. Voyages of Discovery, Essays on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Helena: Montana Historical Press, 1998.