By this date in Washington City, Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin asks Thomas Jefferson to include a report on the fertility of the soil and species of trees in the latter’s list of questions for Meriwether Lewis.
Mouth of the Platte River, 900 Miles above St. Louis, 1832
By George Catlin (1796-1872)
Oil on canvas, 11 1/4 x 14 3/8 in. (28.5 x 36.6 cm). Smithsonian American Art Museum, gift of Mrs. Joseph Harrison, Jr., 1985.66.369.
Of this scene, the artist wrote:
The mouth of the Platte (PLATE 124), is a beautiful scene, and no doubt will be the site of a large and flourishing town, soon after Indian titles shall have been extinguished to the lands in these regions, which will be done within a very few years. The Platte is a long and powerful stream, pouring in from the Rocky Mountains and joining with the Missouri at this place.[1]George Catlin, Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians, 4th Ed. (New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1842), 2:12.
Gallatin’s Question for Lewis
[on or before 13 Apr. 1803]
Dear Sir
the future destinies of the Missouri country are of vast importance to the United States, it being perhaps the only large tract of country, and certainly the first which lying out of the boundaries of the Union will be settled by the people of the U. States.
The great object to ascertain is whether from its extent & fertility that country is Susceptible of a large population . . . . Besides the general opinion which may be formed of its fertility, some more specific instructions on the signs of the soil might be given—the two principal of which are the prevailing species of timber whether oak—beech—or pine—or barren, and the evenness or mountainous & rocky situation of the lands.
I think C. L. [Capt. Lewis] ought to take . . . some person who had navigated the Missouri as high as possible & it might not be amiss to try to winter with the traders from that quarter . . . .
Respectfully Your obt. Servt.
Albert Gallatin[2]Albert Gallatin to Thomas Jefferson, Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-40-02-0136-0003 accessed 12 May 2022. [Original source: The Papers of … Continue reading
Notes
| ↑1 | George Catlin, Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians, 4th Ed. (New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1842), 2:12. |
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| ↑2 | Albert Gallatin to Thomas Jefferson, Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-40-02-0136-0003 accessed 12 May 2022. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 40, 4 March–10 July 1803, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013), 173–174.] |
