Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/426



The origin of the Lewis and Clark expedition gives strong support to the great man theory of history. Exploration of a route to the Pacific in the latitude of the United States was a long-cherished project, promoted by Jefferson alone, just as the sale of Louisiana to the United States resulted from the sudden impulse of one man—Napoleon Bonaparte. There was an interval of twenty years between Jefferson's first efforts for such an expedition and his success in sending out Lewis and Clark. As early as December 4, 1783, he wrote as follows to Gen. George Rogers Clark, the virtual savior of the old Northwest to the United States, and a brother of the William Clark who afterwards was associated with Meriwether Lewis in the exploration:

"I find they have subscribed a very large sum of money in England for exploring the country from the Mississippi to California. They pretend it is only to promote knowledge. I am afraid they have thoughts of colonizing into that quarter. Some of us have been talking here in a feeble way of making the attempt to search that country; but I doubt whether we have enough of that kind of spirit to raise the money. How would you like to lead such a party? Though I am afraid our prospect is not worth asking the question."

Nothing seems to have come of this effort. But only about two years later Jefferson was enlisting other services for the accomplishment of this pet project of his. In his memoir of Meriwether Lewis he says:

"While I resided in Paris (1786), John Ledyard of