Purpose Of The Lewis And Clark Expedition

Meriwether Lewis was a great American explorer and Thomas Jefferson’s private secretary. He is most well known for playing a major role in the Lewis and Clark expedition with fellow explorer William Clark in 1804. The purpose of the Lewis and Clark expedition was to explore the Louisianan territories after Thomas Jefferson had bought the territory from Napoleon. During the expedition, Lewis and Clark found valuable resources such as the Missouri River, the most dependable water communication route for the United States and made good relationships with some of the Native American tribes that lived in the Louisiana territories. Overall the journey was a success. After the expedition, Jefferson gave Lewis the title of Governor of the Louisianan …show more content…
Lewis was a successful Governor, and he was on a mission when he was traveling to Washington. It would be completely preposterous to kill himself with unfinished business. Another fact that doesn’t makes sense is that according Guice is that Lewis had been carrying lots of cash with him on his trip and after the found him there was no money mentioned being with him. Priscilla Grinder also adds doubt to Lewis committing suicide . She was interviewed three times about Lewis’ death and she claimed that he had committed suicide in each interview but each story that she told was significantly different from the other. In all of the stories that she told there where clearly two shots; a shot to the head and a minute later a shot to the stomach. In the first story that she told, she heard the two shots from the cabin that she was staying in and she woke the servants that were with him at the time to check on him and he had somehow managed to crawl to the door and say “Please fetch me some water and heal my wounds” to the servants. Then according to her he had died shortly after. In the second story she said he had weird behavior at dinner and instead of the cabin that she said she stayed in in the first story, she was in the house doors down from Lewis’ room. She heard the two shots and she went to his room herself and he said “Please madam, fetch me some water to heal my wounds.” And he had died after she had got the water. …show more content…
While most say it suicide, it was definitely murder by conspiracy. It has been recorded that Lewis was shot twice, with two different guns and there were plenty of people who did not like and agree with him including General James Wilkinson and James Neely who may have killed him because they didn’t like that Lewis was exchanging secrets with Jefferson without giving them any