Laura Stargel
AMH1010
Professor Schneider
October 23, 2013
Lewis and Clark: The Corps of Discovery In April of 1803 Thomas Jefferson made the “greatest land deal in history” with the Louisiana Purchase buying each acre for merely 3 cents. The land purchased was west of the Mississippi river and therefore largely unexplored. President Jefferson then had Congress approve $2,500 to fund what would later be known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Captain Meriwether Lewis was chosen to lead the expedition because he had knowledge of the west and was an experienced Army officer. Lewis decided he wanted a co-captain and chose Army Officer William Clark. Lewis possessed skill as a frontiersman and Clark possessed much higher skill as a draftsman and frontiersman. A Constitutional concern arose when Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson was an advocate for a small government and the elastic clause. The purchase would usually be made using a constitutional amendment but there was not time. Jefferson decided to follow through with the purchase and was then praised by the American citizens as an excellent deal. Justification of the Lewis and Clark expedition was made to see exactly what America had bought. Congress was unsure if America was going to be a sea to sea nation and what of the territory was Spain’s. On May 14, 1804, the "Corps of Discovery" departed from Camp River DuBois and put in along the banks of the Missouri River. Unlike Apollo’s expedition to the moon, Lewis and Clark did not have “Houston” to report to, nor did they have any idea of what to expect. Besides land, Lewis and Clark discovered animals, plants, resources such as timber and fertile land, and Indians. They also discovered the Continental Divide which is commonly known as the Rocky Mountains. The Divide is a mountain range running from Alaska to Mexico separating waters that flow into the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico from those that flow into the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and Clark were the first Americans to cross the