Day-by-Day / December 9, 1803

December 9, 1803

Cahokia connections

Cahokia, IL While in Cahokia, Lewis receives mail and newspapers sent to him by Thomas Jefferson. In St. Louis, the Spanish Governor of Upper Louisiana updates his superiors about Lewis’s mission.

News from Home

National Intelligencer

November 7th, 1803

Early American newspaper

Library of Congress.

The headline in the figure reads:

CONGRESS.
House of Representatives.
Tuesday, Oct. 25.
Debate on the Louisiana Treaty[1]The National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser (Washington City [D.C.]), 07 Nov. 1803). Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress, … Continue reading

Related: Louisiana’s Purchase

While at Cahokia, Lewis received a letter from President and newspapers from Washington City and Philadelphia.

Washington Nov. 16. 1803.

Dear Sir

I will direct the Aurora & National Intelligencer to be forwarded to you for 6. months at Cahokia or Kaskaskia, on the presumption you will be there.

TH: JEFFERSON[2]Jefferson to Lewis, Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 138.

Related: Eastern Beginnings

Lewis’s Mission

. . . I believe that his mission has no other object than to discover the Pacific Ocean, following the Missouri, and to make intelligent observations, because he has the reputation of being a very well educated man and of many talents.

May God keep Your Excellencies many years.

St. Louis, Illinois, December 9, 1803

Carlos Dehault Delassus

Señores Brigadiers of the Royal Armies
Don J. Manuel de Salcedo and Marqués de Casa Calvo.[3]Delassus to Salcedo and Casa Calvo, St. Louis, 9 December 1803 in Before Lewis and Clark: Documents Illustrating the History of the Missouri 1785–1804, ed. A. P. Nasatir, Bison Books edition. … Continue reading

For more of this letter, see December 7, 1803.

 
logo: Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail logo: National Park Service

Old Cahokia Courthouse is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The site is managed by the State of Illinois and is open to the public.

 

Notes

Notes
↑1 The National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser (Washington City [D.C.]), 07 Nov. 1803). Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045242/1803-11-07/ed-1/seq-1
↑2 Jefferson to Lewis, Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 138.
↑3 Delassus to Salcedo and Casa Calvo, St. Louis, 9 December 1803 in Before Lewis and Clark: Documents Illustrating the History of the Missouri 1785–1804, ed. A. P. Nasatir, Bison Books edition. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990), 720.

Discover More

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.

This page was funded in part by the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, U.S. National Park Service.

This site is provided as a public service by the
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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).