President Jefferson’s Instructions Regarding the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Thomas Jefferson was a man of broad vision. While others had explored the Northwest Territory seeking a practicable route for trade, Jefferson’s vision for the expedition went well beyond commerce. Jefferson instructed the expedition to make careful observations and notes “with great pains and accuracy, entered distinctly and intelligibly” regarding the nature of the land, the rivers, the native peoples, the vegetation, animals, minerals, and all remarkable points along the Missouri River and other water routes to the Pacific Ocean. While exploring and making their way through an unexplored and unknown land, the expedition was to record nearly everything — weather, geography, plants, animals, cultures, languages, traditions, laws, longitude, latitude, geology — and gather samples of all they could.
Read the entire text of Jefferson’s letter to Meriweather Lewis