The extent of the new territory of Louisiana was by no means certain. The treaty, unfortunately as it proved, had not defined the boundaries. Did it include Florida on the east and Texas on the west? Jefferson believed that it did, Monroe thought that Texas but not Florida was included. Jefferson took the problem with him to Monticello, and there during two months of the summer spent much time investigating it with the help of old maps and books. To Madison he wrote on August 25, 1803: "I have used my spare moments to investigate, by the help of my books here, the subject of Louisiana. I am satisfied our right to the Perdido is substantial, and can only be opposed by a quibble on form only; and our right westwardly to the Bay of St. Bernard may be strongly maintained."

And on March 31, 1804, he wrote to William Dunbar :

"In the first visit, after receiving the treaty, which I paid to Monticello, which was in August, I availed myself of what I have there to investigate the limits. While I was in Europe, I had purchased everything I could lay my hands on which related to any part of America, and particularly a pretty full collection of the English, French, and Spanish authors, on the subject of Louisiana. The information I got from these was entirely satisfactory, and I threw it into a shape which would easily take the form of a memorial. I now enclose you a copy of it."

This was perhaps the most important of the many occasions on which Jefferson employed the best private library in America for his country's service. In 1804 Congress authorised him to erect the Mobile Bay area into a customs district. It was done in spite of protests from the Spanish Minister, and during the next eight years the United States gradually absorbed more and more of the sea coast.

Jefferson's vision pierced beyond the Mississippi and the Rockies. At the beginning of 1803 he persuaded Congress to make an appropriation for one of his pet projects - an expedition, which should explore the head waters of the Missouri River, and make its way to the Pacific. To lead the expedition he chose his private secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, and as second in command, Lieutenant William Clark, a brother of George Rogers Clark, of Revolutionary war fame. The choice was splendidly justified; Jefferson's character of Lewis, written after the death of that intrepid explorer, helps to explain the success of the enterprise:

"Of courage undaunted; possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which nothing but impossibilities could divert from its direction; careful as a father of those committed to his charge, yet steady in the maintenance of order and discipline; intimate with the Indian character, customs, and principles; habituated to the hunting life; guarded by exact observation of the vegetables and animals of his country against losing time in the description of objects already possessed; honest, disinterested, liberal, of sound understanding, and a fidelity to truth so scrupulous that whatever he should report would be as certain as if seen by ourselves." 1

Here is the character of an ideal explorer, who had carried out with complete success the objects proposed by the President and had done much to promote the 'Manifest Destiny' under which succeeding waves of pioneers carried American energy with the American flag from sea

to sea.

On November 16, 1803, Jefferson wrote to Lewis concerning the details of the exploration:

"The object of your mission is single, the direct water communication from sea to sea formed by the bed of the Missouri and perhaps

1 This is from Jefferson's Memoir of Meriwether Lewis prefixed to a record of the Expedition which was published at Philadelphia in 1814.

the Oregon; by having Mr. Clark with you we consider the expedition as double manned, and therefore the less liable to failure; for which reason neither of you should be exposed to risks by going off of your line. I have proposed in conversation, and it seems generally assented to, that Congress shall appropriate ten or twelve thousand dollars for exploring the principal waters of the Mississippi and Missouri. In that case, I should send a party up the Red River to its head, then to cross over to the head of the Arkansas, and come down that. A second party for the Pani and Padouca rivers, and a third, perhaps, for the Morsigone and St. Peter's."

His instructions to Lewis cover several pages and abound in surprising details showing Jefferson's wonderful combination of science and practical sagacity. They were to find out as much as possible about the Indians — their tribes, languages, traditions, monuments, customs, laws, the diseases prevalent, and the remedies they used, etc., etc.; they were also to examine or notice the soil, climate, vegetables, animals, insects, minerals, and geology of the country, treating the natives in the most friendly way, and telling them of our wish to be neighbourly, friendly, and useful to them. "Should you reach the Pacific Ocean, endeavour to learn if there be any port within your reach frequented by the sea vessels of any nation, and to send two of your trusted people back by sea, in such way as they shall judge practicable, with a copy of your notes."

In May, 1804, the party started from their winter quarters near the present city of St. Louis to ascend the Missouri. On November 7, 1805, after exciting and perilous adventures they reached the Pacific Ocean, the first white men to cross the Continent. A year later they were back at St. Louis, having marched some 8,000 miles. Jefferson had the satisfaction of informing the world of their success in a special message to Congress of February 19, 1806.

In all these steps Jefferson was acting wholly on his own

initiative. It has been said that Gladstone was an opportunist with a conscience. Jefferson was a visionary with the statesman's gift for accomplishing what is practicable. It is his peculiar glory that he saw the future greatness of his country and took the right measures for securing its peaceful development. The "dreamer" and the “philosopher" had studied the geography of his own continent to some purpose. The United States of to-day is the legitimate offspring of Jefferson, the peaceful expansionist, the enterprising explorer.

Meanwhile the date of the Presidential election was drawing near. There was no doubt of Jefferson's renomination, or of his re-election, once he had decided to stand for a second time. He had no rival in the affections of the people. Peace and prosperity had been reflected in the public finances. Henry Adams writes in his history:

"Although the customs produced two millions less than in 1802, yet when the Secretary in October, 1803, announced his financial arrangements, which included the purchase money of fifteen million dollars for Louisiana, he was able to provide for all his needs without imposing a new tax. The treaty required the issue of six per cent bonds for $11,250,000, redeemable after fifteen years. These were issued, and to meet the interest and sinking fund, Gallatin added from his surplus an annual appropriation of seven hundred thousand dollars to his general fund, so that the discharge of the whole debt would take place within the year 1818, instead of eighteen months earlier, as had been intended. . . This was ideal success. On a sudden call, to pay out four million dollars in hard money, and add seven hundred thousand dollars to annual expenditure, without imposing a tax, was a feat that warranted congratulations."

The election took place in November. Jefferson and Governor Clinton of New York were nominated as President and Vice-President by the Congressional caucus for the Republicans, and the Federalists agreed to vote for

C. C. Pinckney and Rufus King. The completeness of Jefferson's victory marks the measure of his success and of popular approval. He carried fifteen of the seventeen states of the Union, and in the electoral college received 162 votes against 14 for the Federalist candidates.

During his four years of office, Jefferson's private correspondence is naturally less voluminous and varied than usual. There are several long and interesting letters to Dr. Priestley, which taken together give a very accurate picture of Jefferson's views on the destiny of the United States, both in America and in relation to Europe. Thus on June 19, 1802, he writes:

"Our people in a body are wise, because they are under the unrestrained and unperverted operation of their own understanding. Those whom they have assigned to the direction of their affairs have stood with a pretty even front. If any one of them was withdrawn, many others entirely equal have been ready to fill his place with good abilities. A nation, composed of such materials, and free in all its members from distressing wants, furnishes hopeful implements for the interesting experiment of self government; and we feel that we are acting under obligations not confined to the limits of our own society. It is impossible not to be sensible that we are acting for all mankind; that circumstances denied to others, but indulged to us, have imposed on us the duty of proving what is the degree of freedom and self government in which a society may venture to leave its individual members."

On April 9, 1803, he transmitted to Priestley a sketch of his religious opinions, and on April 21, he enclosed to Dr. Benjamin Rush, a "Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus compared with those of others":

"In some of the delightful conversations with you, in the evenings of 1798-9," he writes to Rush, "which served as an anodyne to the