The Jefferson Conspiracies: A President's Role in the Assassination of Meriwether Lewis

Great book even if a little farfetched. There is some excellent writing hear and frankly the author does an excellent job of capturing a fairly unkown period of American history. He pulls together a lot of different threads before launching his conjecture which was that Merriweather Lewis was murdered by America's top ranking general. Whether or not he played a hand in the death of Lewis he was an unbelievable scoundrel, incometant to boot as well as being a spy for the Spanish. And yet he was still able to rise and become rich. There are some very interesting insights into the politics of the era as well as into Jefferson who had an uneasy but complicit relationship with General Wilkinson. I reccomend the book just for it's great research and writing. The last couple of chapters can be read as interesting movie plot but probably should be dismissed as an imaginative reconstruction of what happened which was probably a suicide, but who knows.

One wonders why Meriweather Lewis is buried in a forlorn grave, out of public's sight, just off the Natchez Trace Parkway south of Nashville instead of Arlington Cemetary. Lewis was the John Glenn (the astronaut) of his day! Chandler, the author, broke historical ground in pulling together the intrigues of an intriguing era. The author persuasively shows the possible motives several powerful men may have had in quietly disposing of Lewis. It is significant that the only mention of Lewis being prone to melancholy (suicidal) was a statement by Jefferson. Great reading: International intrigue (Spain), a corrupt General of the Army (Wilkinson), frontier murder, and retired President concerned about his public legacy.