On the Cusp of Greatness, a 26-Year-Old Meriwether Lewis, 3 Months Before His Calling from Thomas Jefferson, Crosses Frontier America By Ferry With His Troop

An extremely rare and early holograph and signature of America’s greatest explorer showing his work in Michigan as paymaster for the First Regiment

 

Meriwether Lewis served in the Virginia militia during the Whiskey Rebellion and enlisted in the regular Army in May of 1795. His career advanced rapidly from ensign (1795) to lieutenant (1799) to captain (1800). Initially assigned to General Anthony Wayne’s 2nd Legion, he marched to Fort Greeneville in Ohio Territory arriving in time for the signing of the Treaty of Greenville, which formally brought an end to the Northwest Indian War. In 1800, Lewis was appointed regimental paymaster at Detroit, an important position, attached to the 1st United States Regiment. His job took him to various northwest forts and outposts, and he roamed throughout the Ohio River valley. The present document offers a glimpse of his activities. Lewis was promoted to Captain on December 5, 1800, less than a month after issuing this document. In 1801 President Jefferson asked Lewis to be his personal secretary and aide-de-camp, and in 1803 asked him to head the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

In August 1800, James Wilkinson was put in charge of the 1st regiment and was therefore Lewis’s superior in the fall of that year and through the winter. In February 1801, Wilkinson, back East, received from Jefferson a now famous letter, for the former to hand deliver to Lewis. “I take the liberty of asking the protection of your cover for a letter to Lieutt. Meriwether Lewis, not knowing where he may be. In selecting a private secretary, I have thought it would be advantageous to take one who possessing a knowlege of the Western country, of the army & its situation, might sometimes aid us with informations of detail, which we may not otherwise possess.”

It is interesting to note here that Jefferson has no fixed address to which to address Lewis, who was either recruiting or, as was the case during this stretch, in what was then the American frontier.

Autograph receipt signed “Meriwether Lewis” in the text, in camp near of Detroit, Northwest Territory, November 19, 1800. “Received of Meriwether Lewis, Paymaster of the 1st Regiment three dollars and fifty five cents ferrying himself and party over the River Rogue.” [The River Rouge, a tributary of the Detroit River]. The receipt is also signed by Cicot (likely to be Jean Baptiste Cicot, an early settler of Detroit). It is docketed “No. 11: $3.55: ferriage” in a contemporary hand on verso.

Meriwether Lewis’s signature is notoriously rare; we have had just a few in our decades in the field. And this particular document is rare for another reason: it’s one one of the earliest of Lewis to reach the market. A search of public sale records going back over 40 years shows just three other examples, the last comparable one being sold almost thirty ago.