Congressional Appropriation

On January 18, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson sent a confidential message to Congress in which he discussed the need for the United States to strengthen through commerce their relations with the Indians who resided in the United States and were finding themselves "growing more and more uneasy at the constant dimunition of the territory they occupy". In the final paragraph of the message, he requested that Congress appropriate the sum of $2,500 "for the purpose of extending the external commerce of the United States". Ultimately the journey would cost $38,000, but even that amount may have seemed insignificant compared to the millions that Congress had approved just a week before for the purchase of New Orleans. But the appropriation sanctioned Jefferson's long held desire to send an expedition west to search for an all water passage to the Pacific Ocean, and began the adventure of the Corps of Discovery led by Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

View Jefferson's original letter: page 1 2 3 4 (from the National Archives) View Jefferson's message as printed in the Annals of Congress: page 1 (title page) 2 3 The Annals of Congress Seventh Congress, Second Session