A Vision

Napoleon Bonaparte sold Louisiana to President Jefferson, for the United States government, in 1803.

The fifteen million dollars paid for a far greater territory than the State that goes by that name to-day. The Louisiana which Jefferson purchased, stretched westward "from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, and from the border of the British possessions on the North to Mexico on the South."

This new possession doubled the national territory, and more than doubled the national vision. Only the outskirts of the Louisiana of those days had been visited by white men, but Jefferson was not the type of man to let this unknown region of great possibilities go unexplored.

He wanted to know a great many facts about the new land,—how the country lay, what great rivers watered it, what mountains capped it, what its wealth of animal, vegetable, and mineral life might be; and most important of all, in taking initial steps on the American continent, what tribes of Indians were to be found there, and their tendency toward peace or war.

In a message to Congress, the President wrote: "An intelligent officer, with ten or twelve chosen men fit for the enterprise, and willing to undertake it, taken from posts where they may be spared without inconvenience, might explore the whole line, even to the Western Ocean, have conferences with the natives on the subject of commercial intercourse, get admission among them for our traders as others are admitted, agree on convenient deposits for an interchange of articles, and return with the information required in the course of two summers."

Congress favored the enterprise, and thereupon the President planned an exploring expedition, headed by his private secretary. Captain Meriwether Lewis, together with Captain William Clark.

They started for St. Louis in the fall of the same year, laden with provisions, camp outfit, fire-arms, and gifts for the Indians. To these were to be added material for keeping detailed journals by several of the party, the "paper of the birch" being recommended, as "less liable of injury from the damp than common paper."

The party was gone nearly three years, camping three winters in the wilderness. It was a wonderful journey, full of hardships; full also of inspiring discoveries. They ascended the Missouri in boats, reaching the great falls, upon which no other white man had yet looked. Tracing the great river to its sources, they more than once found themselves forced to choose their way between two or three forking streams. Making the most careful examination in advance, they moved bravely forward; fortunate each time in selecting a correct water-course.

Captain Lewis named one of these branching streams "Maria's River" after his young cousin, Maria Wood, left far back in the east. "It is true," he wrote, "that the hue of the water of this turbulent and troubled stream but illy comports with the pure, celestial virtues of that lovely fair one, but on the other hand, it is a noble river."

The Missouri at its initial source—a spring of ice-cold water, issued from the base of a low mountain. Just before reaching it, "McNeal, one of the party, stood with one foot on each side of the river, thankful, he said, 'that he had lived to bestride the mighty, and heretofore deemed, endless Missouri.'"

They crossed the Rockies, which they called "the Stony Mountains," with the guidance of the Shoshoni Indians, a member of whose tribe they had with them, Socojawea, a young woman who had been captured by the Minitarees five years earlier, and who had gained her freedom, and now with her husband, Charbonneau, the interpreter, were members of the exploring party. They passed over the mighty range through the deep gorges of the Bitterroot Mountains, a trail through which the Indians had passed from time immemorial, from the head waters of the Missouri to the head waters of the Columbia.

Their joy was great when they struck a navigable branch of the Columbia, which eventually brought them in sight of the Pacific Ocean. Here Captain Robert Gray, of Boston, had preceded them in 1792, in his discovery of the great river, which he had named after one of his vessels, 'the Columbia." When Lewis and Clark reached the mouth of the Columbia, they knew they had accomplished their purpose. They had carried the American flag across the continent, and reached the spot where Gray had planted the flag by way of the sea.

John Jacob Astor was among those who awaited the result of this journey of exploration with intense interest. Cook and Gray and Vancouver had told of "sea otter, seal and beaver in large numbers to be found on the shores of the Pacific." Lewis and Clark's story of three years in the fur country would settle many things for the great fur merchant.

He did not wait for the official report of the leading explorers, but read eagerly the journal of Patrick Gass, one of the members of the expedition, which was published as early as 1807.

The party had seen great herds of buffaloes, one in particular so large that it occupied the whole breadth of a river a mile wide, and it had taken an hour for the herd to pass by. They had discovered Indian tribes, previously unknown, some of them wretchedly poor, and some with good homes and plenty of horses. One of the latter, a traveler could often buy for a few beads.

They learned that there was a wealth of furs to be obtained by trading with some of these Indian tribes; for elks, bears, antelopes, beaver, big-horn sheep, and deer abounded on this overland route to the sea.

This would make it possible to shift the fur market from the partially exhausted forests of Michigan and Canada, to the broad sweeps of the unexplored land now known as Oregon, Washington, Vancouver's Island, and British Columbia. At the same time the demand for furs in China had reached vast proportions.

A great scheme had been forming in John Jacob Astor's mind, simultaneously with the journey and discoveries of the explorers. The development of this broad American domain, would be advanced by the strengthening of his posts along the Great Lakes to the Mississippi, the forming of a new line of fur stations along the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains, and still others by way of the Columbia to the Pacific, with "a great central collecting and distributing station at St. Louis." The latter place was a frontier town, whose in habitants were already engaged in the fur trade.

There could be a settlement at the mouth of the Columbia River, and one of the Sandwich Islands might be procured as an intermediate station. It would be possible to open communication with all these points, through a line of vessels connecting New York, the Sandwich Islands, the fort at the mouth of the Columbia, the Russian station further North, and China and India across the ocean.

Mr. Astor laid his project before President Jefferson, who recognized in it a scheme for giving America control of all the fur trading on her Northern and Western borders, and he promised the financier to lend all the governmental aid legitimately in his power.

The social and political side of the enterprise warmly appealed to Jefferson. At the time, the country only contained seventeen States, and not one of these was west of the Misissippi. The opportunity for the favorable settlement of American citizens along the pathway which Mr. Astor would open up, and the advantage to them of a successful business enterprise on a large scale, already at home in the wilderness and along the waterways, struck Jefferson's humanitarian sympathies and ideals.

In speaking of Astoria, later, Jefferson said: "I considered as a great public acquisition the commencement of a settlement on that point of the Western coast of America, and looked forward with gratification to the time when its descendants should have spread themselves through the whole length of that coast."

In 1808, John Jacob Astor obtained a New York Charter, for the American Fur Company, under which name he was to carry on his vast enterprise, and to which lie subscribed its entire capital of one million dollars.

Meanwhile the war between England and France had caused so much disaster to American shipping, through the capture of their ships by first one, then the other of the combatants, that Congress laid an "embargo" in 1807, forbidding American shipping from leaving American ports.

This was still less pleasing to American merchants with shipping interests, than fear of possible capture on the high seas. John Jacob Astor found himself in the same plight with the rest of the shippers. All American ships were lying idle at their docks. The owners were equally idle without, but boiling within. Still "not an oyster boat had been allowed to go outside of Sandy Hook" when August 13th, 1808, the "Commercial Advertiser" contained this brief line of soul-stirring news.

Yesterday the ship 'Beaver,' Captain Galloway, sailed for China.

Walter Barrett continues the story:

Every one who knew anything at all about shipping, knew that the ship 'Beaver' was built and owned by John Jacob Astor, and that short paragraph caused a prodigious ferment among ship-owners, when they were fully convinced that a ship of Mr. Astor's had really put to sea, on a long India voyage.

Why should one ship-owner be favored and not the rest?' they questioned in a chorus.

The reply was the astonishing statement, that Mr. Astor had obtained special permission from the President of the United States, to send his ship 'Beaver' with thirty seamen on a voyage to Canton, in order to carry home a great Chinese Mandarin. Many believed that John Jacob Astor had picked up a Chinaman in the Park, made up the story, obtained permission from the President, and got his ship out to sea before his plans were suspected.

A rival house wrote a letter to President Jefferson, telling him 'that the great Chinese personage was no Mandarin—nor even a Hong Kong merchant—but a common Chinese dock loafer, smuggled out from China.' They also stated that 'he had departed from China contrary to the laws of that country; that when he reached home he would put ashore privately from the 'Beaver,' and that his obscure condition in life would probably be his only chance of escaping a summary death.'

It was likewise hinted that if the Government had been surprised into giving this permit, that they could rectify their error, and vindicate the honor of the Administration by arresting Astor, and causing him to take the consequence of his action.

It was a difficult case. The motives of the President in granting permission could not be ascertained. It was the general opinion that it was a dodge on Mr. Astor's part. What helped to give color to this belief, was the fact that the successful ship-owner had offered a month before, to make contracts with other merchants to bring home goods from Canton as freight. No one doubted that it was his intention to sail for China at a time when other merchants were restrained by the embargo.

The 'Commercial Advertiser' came out with a caustic editorial in reference to the 'strange permission of President Jefferson.'

Next day the owner of the 'Beaver' became aroused and wrote the following letter:

To the Editor of the Commercial Advertiser: —

I observed in your paper of the 13th instant, an article inviting public attention to a transaction (as you state it, of a most extraordinary character) relative to the ship "Beaver" and the Mandarin.

If whoever wrote that article will give me his name, and if he is not prejudiced against any act of the Administration, nor influenced from envy arising from jealousy, he shall receive a statement of facts relative to the transaction in question, which will relieve him from the anxiety under which he appears to labor for the honor of the Government, and the reputation of all concerned. He shall be convinced that the Government has not been surprised by misrepresentation in granting permission, and the reputation of those concerned cannot be in the slightest degree affected.

By giving the above a place in your paper, you will oblige,

Your humble servant,
JOHN JACOB ASTOR.

Mr. Astor 's friends dropped in upon him that evening at his home on Broadway, and congratulated him upon his letter.

The author of the editorial in the 'Advertiser' does not seem to have divulged his name, and Mr. Astor never made any further public explanation.

The 'Beaver' made a great voyage, returning home with two hundred thousand dollars more than she carried with her. She made two other Canton trips, one in 1809, and another in 1810, and was one of the ships connected with the great American enterprise.