[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 82 (Thursday, May 14, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2296-S2297]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





 RECOGNIZING AND HONORING MERIWETHER LEWIS AND WILLIAM CLARK, AND THE 
   CORPS OF DISCOVERY, FOR THEIR EXPEDITION TO EXPLORE THE LOUISIANA 
                                PURCHASE

  Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I rise today because America needs to 
remember that our Nation was not built by men who asked permission from 
history. It was built by men who looked into the unknown and saw more 
than danger. They saw destiny.
  Mr. President, 222 years ago today, on May 14, 1804, Meriwether 
Lewis, William Clark, and the Corps of Discovery departed from the St. 
Louis area and began one of the most consequential journeys in the 
history of our Republic.
  But before they ever set foot in that wilderness, our Nation made its 
boldest wager yet. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson doubled the size 
of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase. He bought a continent 
on paper, sight unseen, believing that the future belonged to a people 
willing to bet on themselves, endure hardship, and build something 
greater than themselves.
  America 250 cannot become a yearlong exercise in nostalgia. It must 
be a national summons to remember what we inherited, to recover the 
courage that built it, and to rededicate ourselves to it.
  Jefferson understood something too many in this city have forgotten. 
Nations are not forged by committees of caution. They are forged by men 
with enough faith to act before every risk has been removed. Jefferson 
gave that honor to a small band of men who turned their restless, 
adventurous, and fearless American spirit into something that could be 
passed down for centuries. These were not soft men. They were not 
managed men. They were men born close enough to the Revolution to 
understand that freedom is not a theory. It is something fought for, 
defended, and carried forward across generations.
  But on the banks of the Missouri that day, there was no great 
spectacle, no crowds, no fanfare, and no guarantees. From the first 
settlements in Jamestown to the edge of the frontier in Missouri, every 
generation of Americans has carried a simple promise forward: that this 
Nation, this Republic, would belong to her people.
  Meriwether Lewis and William Clark came from those first families of 
Virginia in Jamestown. They were raised in the shadow of the American 
Revolutionary War. They were descended from those who bled for this 
budding Nation. Their kith and their kin had already fought to carve a 
nation out of the wilderness--an empire. They inherited not just land 
but virtue, discipline, leadership, and a willingness to stake 
everything on uncertain ground. Every mile they gained was earned--
through hunger, through bitter cold.
  Lewis and Clark faced rivers that threatened to sweep them away. They 
encountered Tribes whose intentions they could not know. They came face 
to face with grizzly bears, unlike anything Americans had seen before, 
and still they pressed forward--not because the path was easy but 
because their mission demanded it. That is what courage looks like--not 
one dramatic act but a habit formed mile by mile, hardship by hardship, 
by a people proving themselves worthy of the inheritance that they have 
received.
  That first summer, as they passed what would one day become Jefferson 
City and, later, near present-day Kansas City, they passed on the 
Fourth of July and paused. Hundreds of miles from civilization, 
surrounded by uncertainty, they celebrated the birth of this great 
Republic. They fired their rifles into the sky. They shared an extra 
ration of whiskey. And they toasted a nation that existed in that 
moment more in their hearts than in the world around them.
  Think about that. In the middle of an unknown wilderness, they 
celebrated freedom. That is America--not comfort first, not fear first. 
America is men in the wilderness raising a toast to liberty because 
they knew the Republic was real even when civilization was far away.
  And the expedition continued. The challenges only grew. Winter came 
hard and unforgiving. The mountains rose before them. The land itself 
seemed to push back against every step westward. Avalanches, freezing 
winds, starvation, exhaustion--staring fate directly in the eye in the 
high passes of the Rocky Mountains, the Corps of Discovery learned 
something that has defined the American story ever since: that progress 
is not given; it is earned--that destiny is not inherited whole; it 
must be claimed through sacrifice, endurance, and through faith.
  And so they climbed, they crossed, they endured until, in November of 
1805, after more than a year of hardship, on the other side of the 
Continental Divide, William Clark wrote three simple words: ``Ocean in 
view.'' In those three words was the answer to every frozen mile, every 
doubt, every hardship endured along the way. The unknown had given way 
to proof. The continent was not a barrier. It was, in fact, a bridge.
  What had been uncertain before became the foundation of a nation 
stretching sea to shining sea. And from that journey flowed the America 
that we know today: the river cities of the Midwest and, of course, my 
hometown of St. Louis, that later was christened the ``Gateway to the 
West,'' and the beautiful and majestic Gateway Arch that now 
commemorates that heritage; the industries, the railroads, the 
settlements, and the towns that would rise across the continent. And 
the mighty Mississippi became the first economic superhighway.
  Lewis and Clark did not build all of that with their own hands, but 
they made it possible. And that path began in my State of Missouri.
  We often speak in this Chamber about budgets and programs and 
legislation, but beneath all of that lies a much deeper question: Who 
are we? Are we still the kind of people who build, who explore, who 
dare, who believe enough in ourselves to shape the future?
  Or have we become a nation content to manage decline, a people more 
comfortable explaining why greatness isn't possible rather than 
summoning the courage to pursue it?
  Lewis and Clark did not cross a continent so that their descendants 
would learn to live small. America was founded on a bold declaration 
and revolutionary ideas, but not just ideas; it is a nation; it is a 
people; it is an inheritance purchased by the sacrifice of generations 
who refused to accept the limits placed before them and entrusted to 
them to carry forward.
  From the pioneers who crossed the frontier to the workers who built 
our industries to the innovators who reshaped the modern world, this 
country has always been defined by people who honor the past by 
building something worthy of it.
  They did not worship ashes, but instead, preserved fire. That is the 
legacy of Lewis and Clark; not merely that they explored a continent, 
but that they revealed the character of the people capable of building 
a civilization upon it, a people who moved forward, a people who 
endure, a people who built.
  As America approaches 250 years of independence, that spirit is being 
called upon once again, the spirit of `76, the spirit of discovery, 
obtaining a continent, the spirit of St. Louis, the American spirit.
  Take the inheritance, carry the flag, and build the future. We face 
different challenges today, sure, but the test is the same. Do we have 
the courage to still act, the discipline to endure, the confidence to 
shape our own destiny, or will we allow the flame carried across this 
continent through hardship and danger to flicker and to fade?
  I do not believe the American people have forgotten who they are. I 
believe that spirit still burns. And like Lewis and Clark before us, it 
is now our responsibility to carry it forward faithfully, courageously, 
and without apology, not for ourselves alone but for the generations 
yet to come so that when they look back on us, they will see a 
generation that merely didn't just curate the future ruins of a great 
nation; they will see a generation that remembered who we were, a 
generation that took up the trail, a generation that carried the flag, 
a generation that kept the flame alive, and a generation who handed 
this Republic on stronger, freer, and more faithful to its inheritance 
than we received.
  Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent 
that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 729, which was 
submitted earlier today.

[[Page S2297]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hagerty). The clerk will report the 
resolution by title.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 729) recognizing and honoring 
     Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and the Corps of 
     Discovery, for their expedition to explore the Louisiana 
     Purchase.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. SCHMITT. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed 
to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be 
considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or 
debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 729) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  (The resolutions, with its preamble, is printed in today's Record 
under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')

                          ____________________