“the great influence which this exploration will exercise over the Indian tribes, the exceeding efficiency which it will give to me in discharge of my duties as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and the interesting information which it will enable me to collect in regard to their numbers, customs, locations, history, and traditions. This I design making the subject of a special communication to the Department of the Interior. Should my views meet the approbation of the department, I will earnestly request that the necessary communication be had with the War Department to arrange the exploration in conformity with the plan which I have thus rapidly sketched. I ask that it be done with the least possible delay, so as to insure its complete success. I think it important that my arrangements here should be brought to a close in sixteen days, that previous to that time competent men be dispatched to the Mississippi River to assure the expedition, and thus we shall all be hard at work in the field the first week of May.”
As governor he was under the jurisdiction of the State Department. On the same day he addresses a similar letter to the Secretary of the Interior, Robert McClelland, for, as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, he came under that department. Governor Stevens enforced his views by personal interviews with the secretaries and the President; and his earnestness, zeal for the public service, sound judgment, and strong, convincing way of expressing his views, carried all before him. Within four days his proposal to lead the expedition was accepted, and all his suggestions adopted. The administration were only too glad to find such a man to head the most important of the explorations and insure its success. Perhaps no part of his career more clearly stamped Governor Stevens as a born leader of men than this. At a time when the new President and cabinet were overwhelmed with the pressing questions and personal claims ever engrossing the incoming administration, a mere subordinate, not content to simply await the instructions of his superiors, surveys the whole field of Western exploration intrusted to him, and its attendant problems of white settlement, Indians, etc., with comprehensive and far-sighted vision, decides upon the measures and action required by the needs of the country and the public service, and then so impresses his views upon the President and three great departments by sheer force of character, earnest patriotism, and sound, good sense, that all his recommendations are adopted without delay, and he is given carte blanche to carry them out. The bare conception, if broached in March, when the new administration assumed charge, of obtaining both the governorship of Washington Territory and the charge of the Northern Pacific exploration, of inducing three secretaries to adopt his measures, of completely organizing and outfitting and starting in the field a great expedition for the survey of two thousand miles of wilderness, and all to be accomplished within two months, would have seemed not merely bold, but visionary and presumptuous, and nothing could have relieved Governor Stevens from such reproach but the fact that all this he actually accomplished.
The following letter to Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, shows how energetically Governor Stevens was already gathering information and assistance for the exploration. The last part touches upon a delicate question, the placing army officers under the command of a civilian, as Governor Stevens now was, a thing repugnant to all military ideas and usages, and almost without precedent. But Governor Stevens held that his case was altogether exceptional, and found no difficulty in securing the voluntary services of as many able officers as he needed. It is believed that there is no similar instance in our history where twelve army officers came under the command of a civilian:—
Washington, March 25, 1853.
Hon. Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War.
Sir,—I am now quite certain that a sufficient number of army officers will volunteer to go with me on the proposed exploration from the headwaters of the Mississippi to Puget Sound, as will much reduce the force of civilians to be employed. Several accomplished officers would be glad to be detailed, and would do effective service as astronomers, engineers, artists, naturalists, draughtsmen, etc. I can make arrangements both with the American Fur and Hudson Bay Company for active coöperation and assistance. The distinguished geologist, Dr. J. Evans, who has gone over the greater portion of the country between the Mississippi and the Pacific, has explored two of the passes in the Rocky Mountains north of the South Pass, and has received much information of the topography of the country, has kindly given me much valuable information, and is ready to coöperate with all his energy in a plan whereby each shall render to the other every possible facility, and best promote the public service without an unnecessary expenditure of means.
I think it exceedingly important that the whole exploration from the Mississippi River to Puget Sound, including a thorough examination of the passes of the Cascade Range, should be placed under the charge of the same person, he, under general instructions from the department, giving the necessary direction to the several parties, thus securing united and energetic action, and guarding against the almost certain failure of the expedition should it be divided into two independent commands. As soon as the department shall decide upon the scale of the operations, and shall issue its orders assigning me to the duty, which I presume from the correspondence with the Department of State to be definitely decided upon, I will at once submit a more detailed plan of operations, and make the necessary requisition for the detail of officers, and for the various facilities which may be extended by the administrative branches of the service. As in the Coast Survey, I propose no assignment of officers except by their own desire, and of officers who have especial adaptation to the particular duty.
Very respectfully your obedient servant,
Isaac I. Stevens.
Among his first acts Governor Stevens, on March 31, applied for Brevet Captain George B. McClellan, then in Texas, to be “at once assigned to duty with me as my principal officer. I design to put him in charge of the exploration of the Cascade Range, and I can not only speak with confidence of his great ability for the particular duty, but as his friend can say that the duty will be in the highest degree agreeable to him.”