Harpers Ferry, WV From a letter written in April, we know that Meriwether Lewis is at the Harpers Ferry arsenal securing weapons, powder and lead, and overseeing construction of the iron-framed boat. President Jefferson discusses Louisiana negotiation strategy.
Harpers Ferry Large Arsenal (1803)
Harpers Ferry NHP Historic Photo Collection (HF-21), image in Public Domain.
The Large Arsenal stored the firearms built in the armory pictured lower-left. The two-story brick building measures 125 feet longs by 32 feet wide.[1]“Meriwether Lewis at Harpers Ferry,” Harpers Ferry National Historic Park, https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?pg=2734773&id=2A7D3A84-1DD8-B71C-0704CA9F144A0AB9 accessed 14 … Continue reading
Lewis at Harpers Ferry
Lancaster Apl. 20th. 1803.
Sir
. . . . .
My detention at Harper’s Ferry was unavoidable for one month, a period much greater than could reasonably have been calculated on; my greatest difficulty was the frame of the canoe, which could not be completed without my personal attention
Meriwether Lewis[2]Meriwether Lewis to Thomas Jefferson, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-40-02-0175 accessed 12 May 2022. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas … Continue reading
Livingston’s Honesty
The President discusses with James Madison how French Minister Robert Livingston should best proceed with the negotiators in France.
Monticello Mar. 19. 1803.
Dear Sir
. . . . .
I hope the game mr. Livingston says he is playing is a candid & honourable one. Besides an unwillingness to accept any advantage which should have been obtained by other means, no other means can probably succeed there. An American contending by stratagem against those exercised in it from their cradle would undoubtedly be outwitted by them. In such a field and for such an actor nothing but plain direct honesty can be either honourable or advantageous.
. . . . .
Accept my affectionate salutations.
Th: Jefferson[3]Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/02-04-02-0518 accessed 27 May 2022. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, … Continue reading
Notes
| ↑1 | “Meriwether Lewis at Harpers Ferry,” Harpers Ferry National Historic Park, https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?pg=2734773&id=2A7D3A84-1DD8-B71C-0704CA9F144A0AB9 accessed 14 May 2022. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Meriwether Lewis to Thomas Jefferson, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-40-02-0175 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, pp. 245–250.] |
| ↑3 | Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/02-04-02-0518 accessed 27 May 2022. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Secretary of State Series, vol. 4, 8 October 1802–15 May 1803, ed. Mary A. Hackett, J. C. A. Stagg, Jeanne Kerr Cross, Susan Holbrook Perdue, and Ellen J. Barber. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998, p. 434.]. |
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