of Louisiana

the President without consulting the Senate, and was to 1 8 0 4 be convened and prorogued by the governor as he might 1 8 0 5 think proper. The judicial officers, also appointed by the President, were to hold office for four years, instead of the usual term of good behavior." A strange measure for Thomas Jefferson to father and for a Jeffersonian congress to adopt! William C. C. Claiborne, who had been appointed governor of Mississippi Territory in 1802, was made governor and held that office until, in 1812, the territory of Orleans became the state of Louisiana. The congressional act of the twenty-sixth of March, The Territory 1804, left the district of Louisiana temporarily subject to the territorial government of Indiana; the district was not made a part of Indiana or a dependency thereof, the provision being merely that the governor, judges, and secretary of Indiana should make laws for the district and administer its affairs. The district government was inaugurated in October, but the white settlers, dissatisfied with the arrangement, petitioned for the erection of the district into a territory of the second grade. By an act of congress, the president was empowered to appoint a March 3, governor and three judges to govern Louisiana Territory 1805 and to act together as a territorial legislature. James Wilkinson, who, since Wayne's death in 1796, had been the commanding general of the army, was appointed the territorial governor.

Germ

Some men told tales of the resources of the new country, The Fruitful and some seers saw visions of the greatness that the purchase would surely bring, but they all fell far short of the reality. From whatever point of view it is regarded, the purchase of Louisiana stands among the most important events in American history. "It made the acquisition of Florida a necessity. It brought about the annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, the thirst for more slave territory to preserve the balance of power, the Civil War, and the abolition of slavery. It led to our Pacific coast possessions, the construction of the transcontinental lines of railway and our marvelous Rocky Mountain development, the demand for the Isthmus Canal, the

1 8 5 purchase of Alaska, the annexation of Hawaii. It opened up to us the great field of commercial development beyond the Pacific, in Japan, China, and the islands of the sea. It fixed our destiny as a great world power, the effects of which we are today just beginning to realize."

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THE NEW DOMAIN

Western

S early as 1783, Thomas Jefferson proposed to Jefferson's George Rogers Clark that he lead an expedition Interest in "for exploring the country from the Mississippi Exploration to California," but nothing came of it. In 1792, he proposed to the American Philosophical Society, of which he was then vice-president, that it should set on foot a subscription to send some competent person to explore the far Northwest "by ascending the Missouri, crossing the Stony Mountains, and descending the nearest river to the Pacific." Captain Meriwether Lewis, a nineteen-yearold Virginian, sought the position but André Michaux, a French botanist then in America,

was engaged. Michaux, however, became entangled in Citizen Genet's abortive scheme for an invasion of Louisiana and the exploring plan came to nothing.

Early in 1803, the act for establishing trading houses Plan

January 18

66

1803 among the Indian tribes being about to expire, Jefferson sent a message to congress, recommending some changes and an extension of trade among the Indians along the Missouri River. To prepare the way for such a trade, he proposed to send an exploring expedition to trace the river to its source and perhaps to cross the highlands even to the Western Ocean." The task was to be performed by soldiers from the army, who, in addition to their ordinary pay, should receive a bonus of land. Twenty-five hundred dollars, "for the purpose of extending the external commerce of the United States," were to be spent in buying scientific instruments and presents for the Indians. Congress approved the plan and voted the appropriation. At this time, Louisiana was still in the hands of Spain, the excitement over the withdrawal of the right of deposit was at its height, and Monroe had just been nominated as special envoy to France. What

the president proposed, therefore, was to send a detachment of the United States army into the territory of a friendly power. "The Louisiana purchase came in the nick of time to save Jefferson from violating the code of international ethics. Whether the expedition was planned partly with a view to possible seizure of the country cannot be stated; the conjunction of dates is remarkable."

As commander of the expedition, Jefferson appointed