Stephen Ambrose, in Undaunted Courage, notes that the westward movement of Americans towards the Pacific Ocean was inevitable.
“This absurd notion showed how little Jefferson knew about Americans living west of the Appalachians. With the [Louisiana] Purchase, or even without the Purchase, there was no force on earth that could stop the flow of American pioneers westward. Good, cheap land was a magnet that reached all the way back to Europe. The pioneers were the cutting edge of an irresistible force. Rough and wild though they were, they were the advance agents of millions of Europeans, mostly peasants or younger sons of small farmers, who constituted the greatest mass migration in history” (Ambrose 1996: 124).
On another subject, he discusses the use of flogging in the early years of America. In one case, two soldiers on the Lewis and Clark expedition got drunk while on guard duty (toward the beginning of the trip). One was sentenced to one hundred lashes on his bare back. The other was given fifty lashes “well laid on.”
“Flogging was cruel, but not unusual. Slaveholders had seen it all their lives. Officers in the army saw it done on a regular basis to their own men. In this case, it fit the need perfectly. It allowed the men to let out their anger in a direct, physical way. It caused Collins and Hall great pain. But the expedition didn’t lose their services; both men were at the oars—groaning, but at the oars—that afternoon. After a couple of sleepless nights tossing and turning, they would be all right. Besides, there was no guardhouse on the boat to lock them up in” (Ambrose 1996: 148-49).
Are we better off today, eschewing such a practice? One observation I can make from the book: after a few incidents early on that required punishment, the soldiers were very disciplined and orderly throughout the rest of the very difficult expedition.