remarkably complementary pair.
Planning and recruitment of personnel took place in 1803, but the expedition did not
actually set out until May 1804. Its composition ranged from 30 to 45 soldiers and
frontiersmen, including one black, and it eventually included one woman. The last, a
Shoshone Indian named Sacagawea, joined the company in April 1805 and earned her
subsequent share of fame as an interpreter and peacemaker.
The expedition started at St. Louis and headed north along the Missouri River. In
the summer and fall of 1804 its members proved themselves equal to all
challenges-finding food, managing equipment, navigating unknown rivers, passing
natural obstacles, pushing through wilderness, preserving specimens, making peaceful
contact with the native inhabitants, and, above all, maintaining physical and mental
health. The first winter was spent among the Mandan Indians of the Dakotas. In the
spring of 1805 the expedition again toiled up the Missouri to its headwaters, then across
the eastern slopes of the Rockies, over the Continental Divide, and in November 1805 it
reached the Pacific.
The winter of 1805-6 was spent on the banks of the Columbia River. The return
journey presented difficulties of its own-prolonged winter weather, occasional
conflicts with Indians, growing physical and mental exhaust. Despite everything, the
expedition, representative of American culture in its successful blend of self-reliance
and agreement, of rank authority and democratic equality, rose to every occasion. Once
having reached the Missouri, they made rapid progress downstream. On September 23,
1806, Lewis and Clark, two years and four months and more than 8000 miles after
starting out, returned to St. Louis.
In 1809 Jefferson second term as president ended and it began for a man named
James Madison.
James Madison
Madison was elected president in 1809 with 122 electoral votes to 47 for the
Federalist candidate Charles Pinckney. Madison approved the repeal of the penalty by
which Jefferson had tried to avoid war through a ban on trade with the warring
European powers. Tensions between the United States and Britain continued, however,
and Madison’s behavior towards foreign policy was increasingly criticized both by the
Federalists and by members of his own party. In 1812 Madison asked Congress for a
declaration of war against Great Britain. On the day that war was declared (June 12,
1812), the British repealed their trade restrictions. Because they would not abandon
impressment, however, Madison refused to conclude a compromise pending formal
peace negotiations.
The War of 1812 was badly managed by Secretary of War John Armstrong, who
failed to take seriously the threat of a British invasion. When a British invasion force
captured Washington in 1814, Armstrong was replaced by James Monroe. Peace
negotiations at Ghent in Belgium resulted in a treaty that settled none of the
outstanding issues. Andrew Jackson’s victory over the British at New Orleans, although
it occurred after the signing of the peace, was widely regarded as a clearance of
American arms in a war many considered a second American revolution.
In domestic affairs Madison yielded to the rising tide of nationalist sentiment.
Before leaving office he signed a bill for a protective tariff and agreed to the chartering
of a national bank (the Second Bank of the United States), a measure he had
vehemently opposed in 1791. In foreign affairs his most important action after the war
was to negotiate an agreement (the Rush-Bagot Agreement) for permanent
demilitarization of the frontier between the United States. and Canada. The Rush-
Bagot Agreement was ratified after Madison left office.