 |
Thomas Jefferson
from American Presidents Watch Clip
|
In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris to help the American minister there negotiate access to a port on the French-controlled Mississippi. Because Napoleon was eager for cash to finance wars on other fronts, he sold the entire Louisiana territory to the United States for $15 million dollars (or four cents an acre!) Some in Congress argued that American law did not allow for such a transaction. Jefferson, who was normally a strict constructionist, pushed the Senate to approve the purchase. What artifact from the Lewis and Clark expedition hangs in the front hall at Monticello? |
|
Lewis & Clark
from American Writers Watch Clip |
President Thomas Jefferson had both a scientist's interest in the natural world and a president's interest in the success of the young republic. After the Louisiana Purchase, and in response to growing British interest in a trade route to the Pacific, he planned an exploration of the lands west of the Mississippi. Jefferson chose Meriwether Lewis, his private secretary and a captain in the army, to command the expedition and trained him in botany, geography, mineralogy, astronomy, and ethnology. |
|
1803
The Louisiana Purchase
1838-1839