Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. Two men were to be equipped to ascend the Missouri, cross the Rocky Mountains, and descend the nearest river to the Pacific. Meriwether Lewis and the French botanist, Andre Michaux, were selected to execute this project. But the Frenchman became involved in Genet's plottings to precipitate the West in an attack upon Louisiana, then a Spanish possession. So the expedition of exploration failed to materialize.
Jefferson's repeated efforts as a private citizen in the promotion of westward exploration had resulted only in failure. But the exploration of the water courses affording a route to the Pacific could be regarded as a matter of national concern, and we might expect that Jefferson as president would point this out and urge the organization of an expedition under national auspices. A government exploring expedition, however, was, in Jefferson's time, an innovation. His political principles did not admit of such; but political scruples were brushed aside when his heart was set on a project as a patriotic measure. The confidential message sent to congress January 18, 1803, proposing a transcontinental exploration, betrays a lurking sense of inconsistency with his political professions. The Louisiana purchase, however, a few months later revealed a startling boldness in cutting free from political professions. This latter step, since it involved the payment of millions of dollars and the immediate doubling of our national area, would naturally be challenged in congress, when an expedition costing only a few thousand and promising nothing revolutionary would be indorsed without question. That confidential message, asking for an appropriation by congress for the equipment of this expedition, exhibits wonderful adroitness.
The government was then maintaining trading houses
