Lewis and Clark Timeline
Post Expedition 1821 - 1830

1821

After winning its independence from Spain, Mexico opens the route to Santa Fe, long closed to American trade.

The Santa Fe Trail between Franklin, Missouri and Santa Fe, Mexico is blazed by Missouri trader William Becknell. The trail becomes the principal avenue for manufactured goods and emigrants bound for Santa Fe and the Southwest.

Britain's Northwest Company and Hudson's Bay Company merge.

After Moses Austin's death, Stephen Austin receives a Texas land grant issued to his father by the Mexican government.

Missouri is admitted as the twenty-fourth state in the Union.

1822

William Ashley, a St. Louis trader, places an advertisement in the St. Louis Gazette asking for "one hundred enterprising young men" to join him in a trapping and trading venture in the trans-Mississippi west.

Great Britain passes a law excluding American traders from Canada. The law is in retaliation for an 1816 U.S. law which excluded British trade.

The Indian factory system is abolished, largely through pressure from white traders. The factory system of trade was established to assure Indians of fair prices, but proves too limiting for the overwhelming number of whites eager to engage in this lucrative business.

President Monroe urges recognition of the newly independent Latin American Republics. A Congressional act provides for diplomatic recognition of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Columbia, Mexico, and the Federation of Central American States.

The "Vesey Slave Plot" is uncovered and suppressed in Charleston, South Carolina. The plot, organized by Denmark Vesey, an emancipated slave, involves a large group of African-American city workers. The thirty-seven participants are executed.

Clement C. Moore writes the poem "T'was the Night Before Christmas."

1823

Arikara Indians attack trader William Ashley and his party. The Missouri River is briefly closed to white traders and trappers.

President Monroe declares that any attempt by Europeans to colonize the Americas or interfere with its internal affairs will be interpreted as acts of aggression by the U.S. This policy becomes known as the Monroe Doctrine.

Maj. Stephen Long leads a party that examines the sources of the St. Peter's (now Minnesota) River, and fixes the point where the national boundary crosses the Red River.

1824

The U.S. and Russia sign a territorial treaty. Russia acknowledges the 54° 40' parallel as the southern limit of Russian territory and abandons some of its claims to territory in the Northern Pacific region.

Henry Clay, in a speech supporting the new tariff act, defines the "American system" as a combination of protective tariffs and internal improvements calculated to expand the national economy and make the U.S. more independent.

William Ashley, a Missouri trader, opens a new overland route into western Wyoming, personally piloting a bullboat down the unexplored Green River where he establishes a post at Henry's Fork.

Jim Bridger, a mountainman, encounters and charts the Great Salt Lake.

Texas is incorporated into the Mexican Federal Republic. The State of Texas-Coahuila passes a colonization law permitting the emigration of American settlers.

Illinois abolishes slavery.

The Santa Fe trade has become so important to Missouri after just three years that Sen. Thomas Hart Benton demands that a national road be built over the trail.

1825

John Quincy Adams is inaugurated as the sixth President of the United States.

William Ashley holds the first "Rendezvous" at Henry's Fork in Wyoming. Because Indian hostilities in the West make the permanent trading post system difficult to maintain, the more flexible "Rendezvous" system brings the traders to the trappers in an annual exchange of furs and pelts for supplies needed for the next trapping season.

The Erie Canal is officially opened at Buffalo, New York. With travel time cut by a third and the cost of shipping freight to a tenth of previous figures, this connection between the east coast and the Ohio and Mississippi valleys enables large-scale westward migration.

The Treaty of Prairie Du Chien establishes the boundaries of Indian lands in the Old Northwest, and signals the official adoption of a "removal policy" by the U.S. government; this provides for the transfer of Eastern Indians to the trans-Mississippi regions.

Fort Vancouver is established by Hudson's Bay Company of Great Britain on the Columbia River, solidifying British control of the Oregon country.

President Monroe signs a bill authorizing $10,000 for surveying and marking the Santa Fe Trail, and $20,000 to secure the rights of passage from the Indians. The road is completed in 1827.

1826

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die within hours of each other on July 4, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Jedediah Smith heads an exploratory expedition of fifteen men on the first overland journey from the Great Salt Lake to California.

Joseph Henry begins his first experiments with electricity.

James Fenimore Cooper publishes The Last of the Mohicans, a novel about American Indians and the effect of European colonization.

1827

The U.S. and Great Britain renew their 1818 treaty on the joint occupation of Oregon.

Fort Leavenworth is constructed as a strong point for military units patrolling the Santa Fe trade route.

The Creek Indians cede all their remaining territory in the eastern U.S. This area includes all their lands in Georgia.

The Cherokee adopt a constitution patterned on that of the United States, but it is nullified by the Georgia legislature.

The first state high school law is passed in Massachusetts, calling for a tax-supported high school in every community of 500 families or more.

John James Audubon, ornithologist, publishes the first edition of his engravings of The Birds of America.

1828

The Democratic Party, an extension of the Democratic-Republican (Jeffersonian) party, is formed. It advocates the Jeffersonian principles of personal liberties and attacks the concept of special privilege. Andrew Jackson is swept to victory as President under the banner of the Democratic Party.

The Tariff of Abominations, imposing excessively high duties on imported raw materials, is passed. The issue underlying the measure is the economic rivalry between the northern mercantile interests and the southern agricultural economy.

The Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations is established in Philadelphia, the first city trade council established in the U.S.

Boston traders displace the British in the California hide and tallow trade.

Noah Webster publishes the American Dictionary of the English Language.

The Cherokee Phoenix, a weekly newspaper, is published, using the alphabet developed by Sequoyah.

1829

Andrew Jackson is inaugurated as the seventh President of the United States.

The "spoils system," by which patronage is used for party purposes, is introduced into national politics by President Jackson. At this time, the system is intended as a Democratic device for allowing the common man a voice in the government.

The American Society for encouraging the Settlement of the Oregon Territory is organized in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Delaware & Hudson Canal Company of Pennsylvania builds a railroad. Its British-built engine, the Stourbridge Lion, makes its trial run at the amazing speed of ten miles per hour.

President Jackson offers to purchase Texas from Mexico. The offer is refused.

"Mike Fink, The Last of the Boatmen," first appears in print in The Western Souvenir.

1830

President Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act which calls for the general resettlement of Indians to lands west of the Mississippi.

Jedediah Smith and William Sublette of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company carry supplies in covered wagons from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains along the Platte River Road for the annual rendezvous.

The Pre-emption Act of 1830 authorizes the purchase of up to 160 acres of public land at a minimum price of $1.25 per acre by persons who have cultivated the land within the preceding year. The act makes payment out of the earnings from the homesteader's first year crop possible.

A race to prove which is more powerful and reliable, the horse or the steam locomotive, is run near Baltimore, Maryland, by Peter Cooper. Cooper's little railroad engine, the Tom Thumb, loses the race due to mechanical difficulties.

The first regular railroad service in America begins in South Carolina, with engines built in America at West Point, New York.

Mexico forbids further colonization of Texas by U.S. citizens.

Joseph Smith founds the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (or "Mormon" Church).

Fifth census: U.S. Population - 12,866,000