Day-by-Day / March 9, 1804

March 9, 1804

Lowering the Spanish, raising the French

Winter Camp at Wood River, IL Lewis serves as a witness to the delivery and receipt of the Upper Louisiana from Spain to France. With speeches and ceremony, the Spanish flag is lowered, and the French flag is raised.

Upper Louisiana’s Transfer

Inhabitants of Upper Louisiana:

By the King’s command I am about to deliver up this poet and its dependencies.

The flag under which you have been protected for a period of nearly thirty-six years is to be withdrawn. From this moment you are relieved from the oath of fidelity you took to support it.

The fidelity and courage with which you have guarded and defended it will never be forgotten; and in my character of representative, I entertain the most sincere wishes for your perfect prosperity.[2]Walter Barlow Stevens, St. Louis: The Fourth City 1764–1911 (St. Louis: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911), 1:396

Carlos Dehault Delassus, Lt. Governor

 

Delivery and Receipt

Now be it known that I, the above Don Carlos Dehault Delassus, in quality of Lieutenant Governor of the same, at the requirements duly made to me by the said Amos Stoddard, agent and commissary of the French Republic, have delivered. the full possession, sovereignty and government of Upper Louisiana, with the military posts, quarters and fortifications thereto belonging; and I, Amos Stoddard, commissary as such, do acknowledge to have received the said possession on the terms mentioned of which I acknowledge myself satisfied as possessed of on this day. In testimony whereof the Lieutenant Governor and myself have signed these presents, sealed with the seal of our arms, being attested with the witnesses signed below, of which proceedings six copies have to be made out, to wit, three in the Spanish and three in the English languages.

Given in the town of St. Louis, of Illinois, 9th of March, 1804.

Amos Stoddard.

CARLOS DEHAULT DELASSUS

In the presence of: Meriwether Lewis, Captain First United States Regiment Infantry; Antoine Soulard, Surveyor General; Charles Gratiot.[3]Ibid., 397.

 

Weather Diary

Therm at sun symbol rise weather wind Therm at 4 Oclk weather wind River
18 above 0 cloudy N W 28 above 0 cloudy N W rise 2 in.

Cloudy in the morning
—Meriwether Lewis and William Clark[4]To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the date column, merged the “River” columns, and spelled out some abbreviations.

 

Notes

Notes
1 Baron de Carondelet, Governor of Spanish Louisiana, to Zenon Trudeau, Lieutenant Governor of Spanish Louisiana, May 11, 1796; Trudeau to Carondelet, May 22, 1796. A. P. Nasatir, Before Lewis and Clark: Documents illustrating the History of the Missouri, 1785-1804, Bison Book Edition, 2 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990), 2:426, 430. The Cross of Burgundy still flies as a historical symbol over San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico, and at Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in St. Augustine, Florida.
2 Walter Barlow Stevens, St. Louis: The Fourth City 1764–1911 (St. Louis: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911), 1:396
3 Ibid., 397.
4 To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the date column, merged the “River” columns, and spelled out some abbreviations.

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  • 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.