Lewis and Clark are two names forever linked. These two names, the last names ofMeriwether and William respectively, are that of two of the greatest explorers in thehistory of the United States. With the help of Indians and a group of brave men, the vastarea west of the Mississippi River was the object of their exploration. Lewis was born to a Virginia planter family in 1774. His father, who had been an officerin the American Revolution, died when Lewis was five years old, and for a brief time helived in Georgia when his mother moved there with her second husband. After assuming the management of his family's Virginia plantation, Lewis joined thestate militia in 1794 to help put down the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania. Hecontinued his military career as an officer in the regular army, serving on the frontier inOhio and Tennessee, and rising to the rank of captain by 1801, when he accepted aninvitation from President Thomas Jefferson, an old family friend, to serve as his privatesecretary. Even before the Louisiana Territory was purchased from France, Jefferson was ready tosend an expedition into the frontier. In January of 1803 Congress approved a plan for anexpedition. Jefferson had many reasons for employing the explorers. A boundlesscuriosity for botany, zoology, and geography was one of Jefferson’s main reasons. AlsoJefferson wanted to establish communication and some interaction with the Indians. The purchase of the Louisiana Territory was an entirely unexpected outcome. RobertLivingston, an ambassador to France, was told to discuss the purchase of the port of NewOrleans from France. After weeks of fruitless efforts to buy the port, Livingston gotlucky. The French, in need of money to wage wars in Europe, offered him the entireLouisiana Territory. A surprised Livingston purchased the entire territory for fifteenmillion dollars. The Louisiana Purchase affected the expedition greatly. First, the party would...
