The roots of the expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were already lengthy by the time of the Louisiana Purchase in April 1803. Thomas Jefferson's curiosity about the West was lifelong, sustained by his broad scientific interests and his hopes and dreams for the future of the United States. For at least twenty years before he launched Lewis and Clark across two thousand miles into immortality, Jefferson had planned for a transcontinental expedition starting up the Missouri River. In 1783, while serving in Congress, he asked the frontier Revolutionary War hero George Rogers Clark (the older brother of William) to consider leading a privately sponsored expedition to explore the West. Then, as later, he feared that Britain might secure a foothold west of the Mississippi (then the western boundary of the United States) and forestall American expansion. George Rogers Clark declined the offer. [1]
A few years later, while minister to France, Jefferson encouraged the hopes of John Ledyard, an American veteran of Captain James Cook's third voyage to the Pacific. Ledyard planned to travel eastward across Siberia, secure passage on a ship to some point on the western coast of North America, and then strike out alone across the continent. It was a far-fetched project at best, and the suspicious Russians frustrated it by expelling Ledyard from their country. [2]
In 1792 Jefferson, then secretary of state under Washington, and various friends and associates in the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia tried to interest Dr. Moses Marshall, a physician and botanist from Philadelphia, in undertaking an expedition up the Missouri. They offered a reward of a thousand guineas to Marshall if he could provide proof of having reached the "South Sea," but apparently nothing came of the suggestion. [3]
The following year, Jefferson sponsored a more promising effort by André Michaux, a French botanist. Acting for the American Philosophical Society, Jefferson sent Michaux west to "find the shortest & most convenient route of communication between the U. S. & the Pacific ocean, within the temperate latitudes, & to learn such particulars as can be obtained of the country through which it passes, it's productions, inhabitants & other interesting circumstances." Avoiding Spanish authorities who might try to stop him, Michaux was to ascend the Missouri and, from its headwaters, locate the easiest route to some major stream flowing into the Pacific. Here already was the basic outline of the Lewis and Clark exploration. To appreciate how ambitious the scheme was it must be remembered that most of the territory Michaux was to traverse and the people who inhabited it were either little known or wholly unknown to Europeans. Moreover, Jefferson had every reason to believe that the Spanish government, which claimed jurisdiction over Louisiana, would be hostile to the project. Only ten years later Jefferson could provide Lewis and Clark with far more information about the lower Missouri and the Pacific Coast than he was able to give Michaux. In any event, Michaux became involved in international intrigues and never crossed the Mississippi. [4]
