# Meriwether Lewis to William Eustis (Secretary of War), St. Louis, 18 August 1809 — FRAGMENTS ONLY (phrases quoted by secondary authors); with what is known of Eustis to Lewis, 15 July 1809

CITATION (primary): Lewis to the Secretary of War, St. Louis, 18 Aug. 1809, Letters Received, Secretary of War, RG 107, NARA; printed in Clarence E. Carter, ed., The Territorial Papers of the United States, vol. 14 (Louisiana-Missouri, 1806-1814), pp. 289-93, and in Donald Jackson, ed., Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 2d ed. (1978), vol. 2, no. 294, pp. 456-61 (with Eustis to Lewis, 15 July 1809, Territorial Papers 14:285-86; Jackson 2:456-57). Not in Lewis's hand: written for him by Jeremiah Connor, sheriff of St. Louis (Danisi, WPO 40:4, p. 21, n. 75).
CITATIONS (secondary texts used here): (A) John D. W. Guice, "Fatal Rendezvous," We Proceeded On 24:2 (May 1998) (text near n. 11-12); (B) Kira Gale, "A Cold Case Mystery," We Proceeded On 42:4 (Nov. 2016), p. 21 and n. 14/16 ("Jackson, Letters, #294, Lewis to Eustis, August 18, 1809, 459-61"); (C) E. G. Chuinard, "It Was Murder (Part 2)," We Proceeded On 17:4 (Nov. 1991), n. 44; (D) the Madison Papers editors' note in sources/1809-09-16_lewis_to_madison.md ("Some irregularities in his public accounts drew a mild rebuke from the secretary of war, who told Lewis he had discussed the matter with JM (Secretary of War to Lewis, 15 July 1809, Carter, Territorial Papers, Louisiana-Missouri, 14:285–86). Greatly embarrassed by this action, Lewis determined to carry his case and the supporting documents to Washington. 'All I wish is a full and fair Investigation' (Lewis to Secretary of War, 18 Aug. 1809, ibid., 14:290–91)").
URL fetched: https://lewisandclark.org/wpo/pdf/vol24no2.pdf ; vol42no4.pdf ; vol17no4.pdf (text extracted with PyMuPDF); Founders Online (Madison/03-01-02-0420) via Wayback.
DATE FETCHED: 2026-09-14
TRANSCRIPTION: FRAGMENT. Neither Carter vol. 14 nor Jackson was reachable (no open scan of Territorial Papers vol. 14 on archive.org; Jackson 1978 lending-only; Google Books API quota exhausted; HathiTrust blocked). Only the phrases inside quotation marks are Lewis's words as quoted by the authors named; each author quotes the "Burr" sentence a little differently (Gale, who says she copies "an exact copy of the text", is probably closest).

---- What the fragments establish ----
Eustis's letter of 15 July 1809 refused to honour Lewis's draft of $500 (for Pierre Chouteau's expedition returning the Mandan chief) and said the President had been consulted; Lewis's reply of 18 Aug. 1809 (his 35th birthday) defended every expenditure, said the territory was in "the most perfect state of tranquility ... it has ever experienced" (Guice), asked for "a full and fair Investigation" (Madison Papers editors, citing Territorial Papers 14:290-91), and contained the sentence quoted below; it announced that he would come to Washington with his vouchers.

---- (A) Guice, WPO 24:2 (May 1998), verbatim as extracted ----
In his reply of August 18, 1809 
the stunned Lewis expressed his 
outrage and insisted every penny 
expended by his administration 
was done so correctly. After imply-
ing that Bates was at the source of 
his trouble, Lewis assured Eustis 
that the territory presently was in 
"the most perfect state of tranquil-
ity ... it has ever experienced." His 
most poignant line read: "Be as-
sured, Sir, that my country can 
never make 'a Burr' of me. She 
may reduce me to poverty, but she 
can never sever my attachment to 
her." 12 In order to preserve his 
honor and prevent financial disas-
ter. Lewis felt he must plead his 
case in Washington without delay. 

---- (B) Gale, WPO 42:4 (Nov. 2016), p. 21, verbatim as extracted ----
On August 18, 1809, in St. Louis, the day of his 
35th birthday, Lewis was ill with malarial fevers. He 
had someone else write a letter to Secretary of War Wil-
liam Eustis in his defense. Lewis, and many others, 
routinely suffered from malarial fevers, caused by the 
bites of infected mosquitoes. Lewis had received a letter 
from Eustis denying him reimbursement for govern-
ment expenses. He dictated:
Be assured Sir that my country can never make “A Burr” 
of me—She may reduce me to Poverty but she can never 
sever my Attachment from her.14

---- (C) Chuinard, WPO 17:4 (Nov. 1991), verbatim as extracted ----
One thing to be noted in Lewis's letter of 
remonstrance to Eustis is ''Be assured Sir, that my 
Country can never make 'a burr of me,' ' '44 which 
gives support to the story that he was acting as 
a "hearing aid" for Jefferson at Burr's trial for 
treason at Richmond

---- Related, obtained in full elsewhere ----
Lewis to Stoddard, 22 Sept. 1809 (sources/1809-09-22_lewis_to_stoddard.md): "the protest of some bills which I have lately drawn on public account form the principal inducement for my going forward at this moment, an explanation is all that is necessary I am sensible to put all matters right".
Clark to Jonathan Clark, 26 Aug. 1809 (sources/1809_clark_to_jonathan_clark_excerpts_holmberg_wpo1992.md): "Govr. L. I may Say is r[uine]d by Some of his Bills being protested for a Considerable Sum which was for Moneys paid for Printing the Laws and Expenses in Carrying the mandan home all of which he has vouchrs for".