Term Papers on THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION

Term Paper Title	THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION
# of Words	1448
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.79

THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION

     Quite possibly one of the most important purchases in the
history of The United States was the one in which Thomas
Jefferson enabled the size of the country to double.  The
territory was the Louisiana Territory, the 820,000 square mile
piece of land was bought for 15 million dollars which equaled
out to about three cents an acre.

     The United States originally only wanted to buy the port of
New Orleans.  Thomas Jefferson wanted to buy this because there
was a risk that the half million Americans living west of the
Appalachian would secede from the Union.  Purchasing the port
would keep them from seceding because they would then have a
port that they could easily use to get to the ocean.  The
people in that region had been using the port until the Spanish
stopped letting them use it.  This posed a serious problem
because then the only way to get goods to the ocean was over
the Appalachian Mountains, and there were few roads that
crossed the mountains.  By adding the land west of the
Mississippi the United States had the potential to become a
very powerful nation.

     Jefferson learned that France had just obtained the
Louisiana Territory from Spain.  He proceeded to send James
Monroe and the ambassador to France, Robert Livingston to the
current leader of France Napoleon Bonapart.  Napoleon needed
money for the upcoming war with Britain, realizing that he had
little hope for an empire in America any time soon he declared
that the united States could have the port if it bought the
entire territory.  Jefferson quickly passed the treaty through
congress and although there doubts about the purchase on April
30, 1803 the United States doubled it’s size.

     Jefferson had been planning to map out and explore the west
for two decades.  Before even acquiring the land Jefferson had
been planning a small trip to explore the land he was so
captivated by.  His personal library had more books on the land
than any other place.  However many of the descriptions of the
land were simply made up in the minds of people that had never
been there in there lives.  Maps of the land were also based on
little or no actual facts from the land. Many showed the Rocky
Mountains as smaller than the Appalachians.  So in 1803
Jefferson proposed to congress that an “intelligent officer
with ten or twelve chosen men ... might explore the whole line,
even to the Western Ocean.”  Thomas Jefferson’s reasons for the
expidition were not just for science he also saw that
commercial growth in the west would be a key to the United
States growing a stronghold on the region.

Jefferson’s proposed expedition would travel through unknown
lands that were owned by the two most poweful nations, France
and Britan with Spain in possesion in the land to the south
west.  Spansh officials administering the region for France had
turned down Jefferson’s request to explore the region. None the
less Jefferson sent his request to Congress.  To make his
request more tempting he asked for only $2,500 to fund the trip
but in acctuality it cost $38,722.  So on Feburary 28,1803
Jefferson’s request was approved.  Jefferson appointed
Meriwether Louis in charge of the expedition.

     When the Louisiana purchase was announced on july 3, just
two days before Lewis was to set out to Pittsburgh to buy
supplies and hire men, the semi-covert mission through foreign
land was turned into a daring survey into newly aquired
American land.  To ensure that Louis could buy every thing he
needed Jefferson gave a signed page that gave the “faith of the
United States” to reimburse anyone for any goods or services
needed by Louis. Before leaving Louis had Albert Gallatin (a
map collector) make a map that showed North America from the
Mississippi to the Pacific.  The only points on the map were
the mouth of the Columbia river, St. Louis and the Missouri
river up to the Mandan Villages.  The rest were to be Filled
out by Lewis and Cla...

This is ONLY a preview of the article. If you would like to view the entire document, you must subscribe to Digital Term Papers. Please register below now!

Digital Term Papers has over 63,000 essays, term papers, and book notes online. Many paper sites will charge you hundreds of dollars for a single paper. Digital Term Papers only charges $14.95 for a one month membership with instant account activation!

Don't waste anymore time! Join NOW!!!

1 Month (automatic renewal) ($14.95)

3 Months (automatic renewal) ($29.95)

6 Months (one-time billing) ($39.95)

Pay by: