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Article: Lewis and Clark Expedition
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION
LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION.
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased from France the extensive Louisiana Territory, a vast tract of land comprising nearly two-thirds of the present trans-Mississippi United States. Jefferson was a leading proponent of scientific expansion, a program of planned westward growth that called for the systematic exploration and mapping of new territory prior to settlement. Believing the Louisiana Territory held nearly unlimited potential for the future growth of the United States, Jefferson appointed his personal secretary, a twenty-nine-year-old army captain named Meriwether Lewis, as commander of an expedition to explore the ...