 Bates helped determine whether conflicting French, Spanish, and American land claims in the territory would be upheld, as it had been subject to three differing political systems.Jefferson had already decided on the returning explorer and fellow Virginian Meriwether Lewis as governor of the huge new Louisiana Territory, which approximately equaled the size of the existing United States.Bates preceded Lewis to St. Louis and became a powerful political force in the new territory; he was a political rival of Lewis until the latter's death while traveling from St. Louis to Washington on business in 1809.