As time passes, the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition, fathered by the
great President Jefferson, should shine brighter and brighter amidst
the other pages of American history.
The purchase of the Province of Louisiana was opposed by many
citizens. They were ignorant and short-sighted; they asserted that
here was a useless burden of waste land fitted only to the Indian and
the fur-trader; that the people of the United States should occupy
themselves with the land east of the Mississippi.
But wiser men prevailed. The expedition launched boldly out into the
unknown, to carry the flag now into the new country, and perhaps to
make possible the ownership of still a farther country, at the Pacific
Ocean.
Time proved the wisdom of President Jefferson’s preparations made
even before the territory had been bought. Just at the right moment
the trail across the continent was opened. Louisiana Territory was
valued at its future worth; the people were informed of its merits and
possibilities; after the return of the explorers, the American citizens
pressed forward, to see for themselves. And in due course the flag
floated unchallenged in that Oregon where, also, the Lewis and Clark
men had blazed the way.
I should like to have been under Captain Meriwether Lewis, turning
thirty, and Captain William Clark, scant thirty-four. They were true
leaders: brave, patient, resourceful and determined. And the company
that followed them were likewise, brave, patient, resourceful and
determined. These qualities are what bound them all together――the
American, the Frenchman, the Indian――as one united band, and brought
them through, triumphant.