LVIII. LVIII
PART OF PRESIDENT JEFFERSON'S MESSAGE
TO CONGRESS, 1806
LVIII. [From Richardson's Messages and Papers of the Presidents, i, p. 398.]
Feb. 19, 1806.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
In pursuance of a measure proposed to Congress by a message of
January 18, 1803, and sanctioned by their approbation for carrying it
into execution. Captain Meriwether Lewis, of the First Regiment of infantry,
was appointed, with a party of men, to explore the river Missouri
from its mouth to its source, and, crossing the highlands by the
shortest portage, to seek the best water communication thence to the
Pacific Ocean; and Lieutenant Clarke was appointed second in command.
They were to enter into conference with the Indian nations on
their route with a view to the establishment of commerce with them.
They entered the Missouri May 14, 1804, and on the 1st of November
took up their winter quarters near the Mandan towns, 1,609 miles above
the mouth of the river, in latitude 47° 21′ 47″ north and longitude
99° 24′ 45″ west from Greenwich. On the 8th of April, 1805, they
proceeded up the river in pursuance of the objects prescribed to them.
A letter of the preceding day, April 7th, from Captain Lewis is herewith
communicated. During his stay among the Mandans he had been
able to lay down the Missouri according to courses and distances taken
on his passage up it, corrected by frequent observations of longitude
and latitude, and to add to the actual survey of this portion of the river
a general map of the country between the Mississippi and Pacific from
the thirty-fourth to the fifty-fourth degree of latitude. These additions
are from information collected from Indians with whom he had opportunities
of communicating during his journey and residence with them.
Copies of this map are now presented to both Houses of Congress.
With these I communicate also a statistical view, procured and forwarded
by him, of the Indian nations inhabiting the Territory of
Louisiana and the countries adjacent to its northern and western
borders, of their commerce, and of other interesting circumstances
respecting them.
