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Historian's Corner

On January 18, 1803, Thomas Jefferson sent a confidential letter to Congress seeking funds for an expedition west to the Pacific Ocean.In that letter, he requested $2,500 that was to be reported publicly "for the purpose of extending the external commerce of the United States."

The goal of the expedition was two-fold. First, he wanted to increase trade and improve relations with the Native American tribes of the West. Secondly, he wanted to see if the elusive Northwest Passage could be found.Whatever new flora and fauna the explorers discovered was of tertiary importance.

Jefferson wanted this letter to be confidential because it was a foray into foreign soil. The United States would not purchase the Louisiana Territory from France until April 30 of that same year. Jefferson was willing to risk this breach because he was more worried about the British at the time.

In 1802, a Scotsman by the name of Alexander Mackenzie led a small party west across Canada to the Pacific Ocean.Jefferson found renewed hope in an expedition west when he read Mackenzie's account of the expedition's relatively easy mountain passage.Mackenzie also urged Great Britain to seize control of the land around the Columbia River. Jefferson did not like this, for he feared British colonization.

Jefferson first proposed the idea of an expedition west in 1783 to George Rogers Clark, who refused. Clark instead suggested his younger brother William who was "well qualified for almost any business."

William Clark and Meriwether Lewis explored the continent from 1804 to 1806.They send many artifacts and fossils back to Jefferson in the White House. When Jefferson built his University, he displayed many of these artifacts on the First Gallery in the Dome Room of the Rotunda where they remained for much of the 19th century.

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