Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/8

2 and parcel with his aims for negro emancipation, complete freedom of conscience, a system of universal education, with a great university at its apex, promotion of science and invention and normal conditions of life for every American.

Dr. Elliott Coues, in his edition of the Lewis and Clark Journals, speaks of the story of the expedition as "our national epic of exploration." So it is. But the expedition in the design of its author—and therefore in fact—was more than a mere geographical exploration. It was a consciously purposed step toward securing this continent for the home of freedom and of peace and good-will. So imbued was this project with the central purposes of Jefferson's life that it objectively typifies all. It prefigures an enlargement of the bounds of the known, an extension of the realm of enlightenment, science, and the arts, a widening of the sway of peace and good-will, and the securing of a grander home for the institutions of liberty and equality. Our history has been a progress toward democracy. Jefferson was the seer and prophet of democracy as a form of society. The idea exemplified in the Lewis and Clark expedition was representative of Jefferson; we have in it, therefore, the quintessence of democracy and the spirit of our age. Whatever may be the significance of this achievement viewed objectively, considered in its plan and purpose, as every achievement must be, its import is much higher.

The external phases of this undertaking, or the execution of what was but a preliminary feature in the design of Jefferson by Lewis and Clark and their company, are being exploited and celebrated as a heroic achievement should be. During the last three or four years the presses