Biographical Notes
William Clark
In October 1814 Clark organized the Missouri militia. Prominent members included Auguste Chouteau, William H. Ashley, Manuel Lisa, and Daniel Boone. The Treaty of Ghent ending the war was signed on December 24, 1814. On January 8, 1815, Jackson won the Battle of New Orleans. The Treaty of Ghent required both the British and the Americans to do everything possible to restore peace among the Indians. President James Monroe appointed Clark, Auguste Chouteau, and Ninian Edwards as Peace Commissioners and instructed them to inform the tribes of the treaty. Ignoring the treaty, Indians hostile to Anglo-European encroachment on their lands continued their attacks on settlers. In the summer and early fall of 1815 Clark convened meetings with many of the principal chiefs and managed to get a number of agreements to end hostilities. Congress ratified the Portage des Sioux treaties on December 26, 1815. A few of the chiefs, including the Sauk leader Black Hawk, however, were reluctant to make peace. After Portage des Sioux, immigration into the Missouri Territory increased dramatically and demand for Indian lands intensified accordingly. Clark was severely criticized for being too friendly to the Indians when he attempted to use force to evict squatters from Indian land. Two political factions emerged in St. Louis. Clark was aligned with the old line creole families against the new settlers. In the 1816 election for territorial delegate to Congress, Clark was criticized for using the influence of his position as territorial governor to influence the elections. In May 1816, Julia gave birth to their third son, George Rogers Hancock Clark.
In November 1817 Clark traveled to Washington D.C. to consult with President Monroe, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, and Secretary of War John C. Calhoun. On his return to St. Louis he was faced with charges of nepotism for having given too many family members lucrative government positions and contracts. In July Julia gave birth to a fifth child, John Julius. Missouri started campaigning for statehood in 1818, but slavery quickly became an issue. In 1820 Henry Clay's Missouri Compromise bill resolved the issue and Missouri was granted statehood. Julia died on June 27, 1820. Clark neglected his gubernatorial campaign and was defeated in his bid to be elected governor of the new state. Clark stayed on as Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Missouri joined the Union as the twenty-fourth state on March 21, 1821. On July 25, 1821, William Becknell advertised in St. Louis for men to join the trading expedition that opened the Santa Fe Trail. On November 28, 1821, Clark married Julia's widowed first cousin, Harriet Radford. Harriet bought three young children to the marriage. In May 1823 the system of government operated trading posts (factories) was eliminated by a bill advocated by John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company and sponsored by Thomas Hart Benton. That same legislation created the position of Superintendent of Indian Affairs and William Clark was appointed to fill it. Superintendent Clark reported to the Secretary of War and was responsible for licenses and passports for everyone trading and traveling in the West.
In 1822 William H. Ashley advertised for 100 "Enterprising Young Men" to trap the upper Missouri River and men like Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger, Mike Fink, and Thomas Fitzpatrick responded. The next several decades saw the emergence of the "mountain man," the development of the annual mountain rendevouz, and the full flowering of the fur trade in the region. William Clark remained an important official as well as an interested businessman primarily dealing in dry-goods but also involved in the fur trade. With regard to Indian Affairs he supported the governmental policy of moving the Indians out of the way of Anglo-European settlers. On February 29, 1824, Harriet gave birth to their first son, Thomas Jefferson Clark. In April 1825, Clark entertained the Marquis de Lafayette when he visited St. Louis. In August 1825 Clark negotiated a series of important treaties (Treaty of Prairie du Chien) by which a number of tribes gave up 100 million acres of land in return for annual subsidies. In 1826 Clark met with President John Quincy Adams and advocated a policy of leniency toward Native Americans. In 1826 Harriet gave birth to another son, Edmund, but the child died less than a year after his birth. In 1826, Clark assisted General Henry Atkinson in siting and laying out Jefferson Barracks south of St. Louis. In 1827, friction between Indians and encroaching settlers erupted in a series of violent incidents. Known as the "Winnebago War," hostilities were ended after a show of force by a mixed command of regular army and local militia. In February 1828, Clark went to Washington where he submitted a plan to revamp Indian policy to the outgoing Adams administration. In March President Jackson took office with the intent of moving all Indian tribes in the South and East across the Mississippi River.
The Indian Removal Bill of 1830 was designed to implement Jackson's Indian policy and the president looked to Clark to help implement it. That year Clark convened another grand council of Native American leaders at Prairie du Chien and succeeded in obtaining more cessations of Indian lands. Mary Radford, daughter of Harriet by her prior marriage, married Major Stephen Watts Kearney in September 1830. That same month the movement of displaced Native Americans across the Mississippi began in earnest and continued into 1831 with the Indians enduring great hardship, hunger, sickness, and increasing poverty. In 1831 Clark reported that hostile tribes in the southwest were endangering the Santa Fe trade, while the fur trade was falling on hard times due to over-trapping. His report emphasized the evil effect of liquor on Native Americans and recommended a total ban. On December 25, 1831, Harriet died. In 1831 the Sauk war leader, Black Hawk, became increasingly threatening and in 1832 conflict between regular army units and Black Hawk's warriors broke out. Abraham Lincoln, and Jefferson Davis were both involved in the subsequent campaign and General Winfield Scott commanded the U.S. Army forces committed to the affair. Clark urged that Black Hawk be dealt with sternly and organized Sioux warriors to assist in putting the Sauks down. In July U.S. Army General James Henry and Militia Commander Colonel Henry Dodge caught up with the main body of Black Hawk's band and decimated them in the Battle of Bad Axe River. Later a Winnebago war party captured Black Hawk and turned him over to Colonel Zachary Taylor at Prairie du Chien.
On July 9, 1832, in a move to ameliorate conditions among Native Americans, Congress enacted a complete ban on liquor in "Indian Country," but the Black Hawk War had hardened Anglo-European opinion against Indians and the policy of moving indians west of the Mississippi River was accelerated. Clark negotiated more a few treaties and more Indians joined the flood of people moving across the Mississippi. In the spring of 1834, in Washington, Clark worked on the restructuring of the Indian Department. In September 1836, Clark negotiated some of the treaties that were signed with the Otoes, MIssouris, Omahas, Sioux, Iowas, Sauks and Foxes for what became known as the Platte Purchase. Clark wrote his will on April 14, 1837. That same year small pox broke out along the Missouri River. Although Clark worked hard to get an effective vaccination program initiated, thousands of Indians died. In the spring of 1838 he traveled to Washington to call on Joel Poinsett, Secretary of War in the new Martin Van Buren cabinet. On September 1, 1838, William Clark died at the St. Louis home of his son, Meriwether Lewis Clark. William Clark was buried on John O'Fallon's farm at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The military funeral was attended by a huge throng of people - the procession stretching for four miles. At about the same time the Cherokee Nation was being moved from Georgia and Tennessee across the Mississippi River by the United States Army. Seventeen thousand people were walking the "Trail of Tears" and four thousand of them were to die before they reached present day Oklahoma.
