The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-02-02
THE CHARTER COMMITTEES A NOTABLE CENTENNIAL.
EXPLORING EXPEDITION or
LEWIS AND CLARKE
oregon Historical Society Preparing TO
celebrate one of the Most Romantic
OF Western Adventures


The oregon Historical Society pro-
poses "a commemorative celebration at
Portland, i'm 1908. of the centenary of
? the Lewis and Clarke expedition to the
Pacific coast Invitations viii be ex-
tended To the governors of oregon,
. Washington, Idaho. Montana and wy
Oming TO share in the interesting his
torical festival
The reflection is fascinating that
every notable and great achievement
i'm the worlds history sprang from an
idea born in the mind Of one person.
The fact is interesting that the thought
which led up to the Lewis and Clarke
expedition, and to which is traceable
/ the history and growth and romance Of
I the Pacific northwest came into the
fertile mind of jefferson when that
eminent statesmen ives serving as
United States minister to France.
Thomas jefferson says one histo-
rian was the father of United States
explorations. While lesser minds were
absorbed in pTONimate events, his pro-
found sagacity penetrated forests and
sought to reveal the extent and re-
. sources of the new nation And chief
among the incidents which aroused in
him a more than ordinary interest i'm
/ the subject was the appearance in 1856
at the United States legation in Paris,
"
Of that most remarkable man, John
/ Ledyard of Connecticut"
Ledyard was with Captain Cook in
his voyage to the Pacific when the Ha-
waian Islands were discovered, and
had been the first in Europe or Ameri-
ca to propose a trading voyage to the
northwest coast land was now in Paris,
painting for fresh adventure"
| A constant guest of Jefferson, he in
spired in that great American the noble
dream Of exploration that was to add
an empire to the young republic.
Returning in 1889 to the United States
the thought grew upon jefferson, and
in 1892, while Secretary of State, he
proposed to the American Philosophical
Society that some competent person be
engaged to ascend the missouri river,
cross the Stony mountains, and follow
a western river to the sea. The plan
was attempted but was not carried to
contamination Jefferson however, new
. eT lost sight of his faVorite project,
and when he entered the White House,
in 1901, the idea developed into the stu
pendous diplomacy which gave us
Louisiana, and put our western border
in contact with the distant Pacific
northwest, the mysterious No Mans
Land of the Oregon. But Jefferson was
resolved that it should not long con-
tinue as No Mans Land, and in a con-
fidential message of January 49, 1903,
ne ulBeu congress TO dulnOIlZe mill
tary expedition across the continent.
The measure was sanctioned by Con-
gress and the Lewis and Clarke ev-
petition followed.
Besides fourteen United States sol
diers the party included nine young
Hentuckians two French vOyageurs, a
hunter, an interpreter, and negro SER
want of Captain Clarke. 1t passed the
winter of 1904 at the mouth of the
/ Missouri In the spring of 1904 it was
reinforced by a detail of six soldiers
under a corporal, with nine boatmen,
and proceeded by leisurely stages up
the Missouri river. 1t went into winter
quarters in October, in the country of
the Mandans.
In the spring of 1905 the party push
ed its toilsome way up the Missouri,
crossed the Rocky mountains, and af-
ter enduring severe hardships and en-
cOuntering innumerable perlls, follow
ed a tributary of the Clearwater, and
after that the larger stream to it's con-
| fluence with the Snake: passed down
the Snake river to the Columbia, and
thence down the great river of the west
until on November I, 1905, they be-
held, to their great joy, the horizon line
of the Pacific ocean"
The party passed the winter of 1906
6 near the Columbia's mouth, the spot
selected for the fort being 200 yards
from the bank of Lewis river, near its
entrance INTO the Day, on Jne CIdISOD or
oregon shore. The winter was passed
in hunting for food in making treaties
with the surrounding tribes and dis
tributing medals and certificates of
kindness to the leading chiefs. Before
starting on the long return journey Lee
wis and Clarke posted this notice in the
fort:
1.-THE object of this last is that,
through the medium of some civilized
person, who may see the same, it may
J be made known to the world that the
I party consisting of the persons whose
names are hereunto annexed and who
were sent out by the government of the
United States to explore the interior of
! the continents of North America, did
penetrate the same by the way of the
! Missouri and Columbia rivers, to the
discharge of the latter into the Pacific
ocean, where they arrived on the 14th
| day of November 1905, and departed
the 23d day of March, 1906 by the same
route by which they had come out"
The assertion is occasionally heard
that Lewis and Clarke claimed the Pa
cific northwest as territory of the
United States, but is not well founded.
, The time was not yet opportune for
so bold and sweeping a claim, and it's
advancement then would have alarmed
the powers of Europe, and might have
lost us the great empire which is now
our noble heritage.
There is strange fascination in re-
hecting on what might have been. We
wen the Oregon country by a narrow
margin, with nothing to spare in state
craft and diplomacy. If Jefferson had
not conceived the great idea, nurtured
it in his fertile mind and advanced it
to the point of daring action, history
might record a very different story. If
Ledyard, had not met our ambassador
at Paris, nor poured into his ready ear
the ambitious plan of northwestern ex-
ploration and conquest, a different pur-
pose might have controlled the lofty
spirit of jefferson. The red ensign of