Your ever sincere tho wandering Son

I’ve been rereading Stephen E. Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage. I had to buy a new copy because the one I had highlighted and written all throughout has been lost. Such is life, though. And I am now in the process of highlighting a new one, and rediscovering things I love about the history this book tells…anyway. Pretty early in the book, Ambrose references a letter from Meriwether Lewis to his mother, Lucy Marks.

In the letter, from May 22nd 1795, Lewis seems to be apologizing for his wandering nature

“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 affliected by any other cause than that of having inherited it [from] 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 Tho all I shall ask at present is that you will not finally condemn me untill next fall at which time it will be my task personally to plead an excuse for my conduct.” – M.L. to Lucy Marks, May 22nd 1795, Lewis Papers.

Ambrose’s statement after this quote is a little too blasé for me. Ambrose writes, “In other words, it was all her fault”. Which I find an interesting way to read the letter.

In my mind, it is far more interesting to read into what Lewis is saying about himself here. He labels himself as vain and quixotic, meaning exceedingly idealistic, unrealistic and impractical. While he does reference that these passions come from his lineage, I think he is placing far more blame on himself for his behavior and nature…

This letter is *very* interesting to me, and I wish to God that it was digitized. I just don’t trust that Ambrose got every meaty bit out of this letter. And the summary on the Lewis papers website doesn’t even mention that it closes with “Your ever sincere tho wandering Son” which is a banger of a line. If they don’t recognize this banger, how can I trust that they know my boy’s heart?

Someday soon I will make the journey to Missouri and see the Lewis papers archive in person. Someday…