Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/41

38 President Jefferson's Estimate of the Oregon Expedition. In his message, January 18, 1803, President Jefferson said to Congress: "An intelligent officer with ten or twelve men fit for the enterprise and willing to undertake it, might explore the whole line, even to the Western Ocean, have conferences with the natives on the subject of commercial intercourse, get admission among them for our traders, as other traders are admitted, agree on a convenient deposit for an interchange of articles, and return with the information acquired, in the course of two summers.

MERIWETHER LEWISWILLIAM CLARK

Lewis and Clark Placed in Command of the Expedition. Congress voted only twenty-five hundred dollars for the expedition to the West. But, inasmuch as the purchasing power of money then was three times greater than at the present time, Congress was much more liberal with the explorers than would at first appear. Jefferson placed Meriwether Lewis in charge of the expedition. Lewis, who had been the President's private secretary, was thirty years of age, robust of constitution, accustomed to outdoor life, well