Description:

Rare Pair of Documents Signed by Explorers William Clark and Meriwether Lewis, the first, a manuscript Justice of the Peace appointment of H.M. Guyol, signed "William Clark", as Governor of Missouri Territory, St. Louis Oct. 10th 1817, with paper seal, 7 3/4 in. x 7 1/2 in.; the second a partially-printed appointment of Thomas Oliver as Judge Advocate of the 2d Regiment of Militia, 1809, signed "Meriwether Lewis" as Governor and Commander in Chief of the Territory of Louisiana, with paper seal, 7 3/4 in. x 12 1/2 in., framed together with portraits after the paintings of Charles Wilson Peale. Note: William Clark and Meriwether Lewis are best known for their roles as leaders of the Lewis and Clark Expedition from May 1804 to September 1806, the first American expedition to cross the western portion of the United States. President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the expedition shortly after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to explore and to map the newly acquired territory, to find a practical route across the western half of the continent, and to establish an American presence in this territory before Britain and other European powers tried to claim it. The campaign's secondary objectives were scientific and economic: to study the area's plants, animal life, and geography, and to establish trade with local American Indian tribes. The expedition returned to St. Louis to report its findings to Jefferson, with maps, sketches, and journals in hand. Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) was an American explorer, soldier, politician, and public administrator. He was born in Albemarle County, near Monticello, August 18, 1774. He joined the Virginia militia during the Whiskey Rebellion, was promoted to ensign and transferred to the regular army, later serving in the Chosen Rifle Company under Captain William Clark. In 1801 he became President Thomas Jefferson’s private secretary, and was selected by the President to command an expedition to explore the western territories acquired from France in the Louisiana Purchase (1803). President Thomas Jefferson appointed him Governor of Upper Louisiana in 1806, serving until his death by gunshot wounds at Grinder’s Stand, seventy miles southwest of Nashville, Tennessee (October 11, 1809) in what was either a murder or suicide. His signature is extremely scarce as a result of his untimely death at the age of 35. William Clark (1770-1838) was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A much younger brother of George Rogers Clark, he was born in Caroline County, Virginia (August 1, 1770) and grew up in pre-statehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Missouri. Clark was a planter and slaveholder- he even brought one of his salves, York, with him on the Expedition. Prior to the Expedition, he served in a militia and the United States Army under General Anthony Wayne and fought at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Although subordinate to Lewis on the Expedition he made major contributions especially concerning river navigation, cartography (Clark drew all the expeditionary maps). He was especially significant in the relations he developed with the Shoshone Indians. He hired a Canadian trapper, Toussaint Charbonneau, whose wife, Sacagawea, a Shoshone who Charbonneau supposedly had won gambling. Sacagawea proved invaluable to the Expedition because of her rapport with the Indian tribes they encountered across the West. Afterward, Clark served as Brigadier General of the Louisiana Territory militia and as governor of the Missouri Territory. From 1822 until his death in 1838, he was Superintendent of Indian Affairs.

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