Back to exhibition
Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis
June 20, 1803
To Meriwether Lewis esquire, Captain of the 1st regiment of infantry
of the United States of America.
Your situation as Secretary of the President of the United
States has made you acquainted with the objects of my confidential
message of Jan. 18, 1803 to the legislature: you have seen the
act they passed, which, tho' expressed in general terms,
was meant to sanction those objects, and you are appointed to
carry them into execution.
Instruments for ascertaining by celestial observations the
geography of the country, thro' which you will pass, have
been already provided. light articles for barter, & presents
among the Indians, arms for your attendants, say for from 10 to
12 men, boats, tents, & other travelling apparatus, with ammunition,
medecine, surgical instruments & provisions you will have
prepared with such aids as the Secretary at War can yield in his
department; & from him also you will recieve authority to
engage among our troops, by voluntary agreement, the number of
attendants abovementioned, over whom you, as their commanding
officer, are invested with all the powers the laws give in such
a case.
As your movements while within the limits of the US will
be better directed by occasional communications, adapted to circumstances
as they arise, they will not be noticed here. what follows will
respect your proceedings after your departure from the US.
Your mission has been communicated to the Ministers here from
France, Spain, & Great Britain, and through them to their
governments; and such assurances given them as to it's objects,
as we trust will satisfy them. the country of Louisiana having
been ceded by Spain to France, the passport you have from the
Minister of France, the representative of the present sovereign
of the country, will be a protection with all it's subjects: and
that from the Minister of England will entitle you to the friendly
aid of any traders of that allegiance with whom you may happen
to meet.
The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river;
& such principal stream of it, as by it's course &
communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, may offer
the most direct & practicable water communication across this
continent, for the purpose of commerce.
Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, you will take observations
of latitude & longitude, at all remarkable points on the river,
& especially at the mouths of rivers, at rapids, at islands
& other places & objects distinguished by such natural
marks & characters of a durable kind, as that they may with
certainty be recognized hereafter the courses of the river between
these points of observation may be supplied by the compass, the
log-line & by time, corrected by the observations themselves.
the variations of the compass too, in different places, should
be noticed.
The interesting points of the portage between the heads of
the Missouri & the water offering the best communication with
the Pacific ocean, should also be fixed by observation, &
the course of that water to the ocean, in the same manner as that
of the Missouri.
Your observations are to be taken with great pains &
accuracy, to be entered distinctly & intelligibly for others
as well as yourself, to comprehend all the elements necessary,
with the aid of the usual tables, to fix the. . .
Back to exhibition
|