Letter signed Meriwether Lewis, Pittsburgh, to his mother, Citizen Lucy Marks, Albemarle, Virginia. Has received his brother’s letter and his mother’s kind entreaty to return “yet notwithstanding all, so violently opposed is my governing passion for rambling, to the wishes of all my friends that I am led intentionally to err and then have vanity enough to hope for forgiveness. I do not know how to account for this Quixottic disposition of mine in any other manner or its being affected by any other cause than that of having inherited it in right of the Meriwether Family and it therefore more immediately calls on your charity to forgive those errors into which it may at any time lead me.” Promises to see her in the fall. He has sent money by Mr. Puryear to discharge the taxes of the land already secured and also to defray the expenses of the 4,000 acres. He has joined the Federal Army. (3 pages, transcript included), 1795 May 22

Item — Box: 1, Folder: 3

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The Meriwether Lewis Papers is an artificial, or subject-based, collection gathered to record the Lewis and Clark Expedition. During the re-processing of the Meriwether Lewis Collection in 1999, several items were removed from the collection and returned to the archival collection in which they originally belonged. (Please consult the separation record at the end of this finding aid.)

Dates

1795 May 22

Conditions Governing Access

The Missouri Historical Society asks researchers to assist in the preservation of the collection by using either the microfilm or the published versions of documents at all times. Permission to access the original documents in the Meriwether Lewis Papers must be obtained from a member of the archives staff.