The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION
In the journey which you are about to undertake, for the discovery of
the course and source of the Missouri, and of the most convenient
water communication from thence to the Pacific Ocean, your party being
small, it is to be expected that you will encounter considerable
dangers from the Indian inhabitants. Should you escape those dangers,
and reach the Pacific Ocean, you may find it imprudent to hazard a
return the same way, and be forced to seek a passage round by sea, in
such vessels as you may find on the Western coast; but you will be
without money, without clothes, and other necessaries, as a sufficient
supply cannot be carried from hence. Your resource, in that case, can
only be in the credit of the United States; for which purpose I hereby
authorize you to draw on the Secretaries of State, of the Treasury, of
War, and of the Navy of the United States, according as you may find
your draughts will be most negotiable, for the purpose of obtaining
money or necessaries for yourself and men; and I solemnly pledge the
faith of the United States, that these draughts shall be paid
punctually at the date at which they are made payable. I also ask of
the consuls, agents, merchants, and citizens of any nation with which
we have intercourse or amity, to furnish you with those supplies
which your necessities may call for, assuring them of honorable and
prompt retribution; and our own consuls in foreign parts, where you
may happen to be, are hereby instructed and required to be aiding and
assisting to you in whatsoever may be necessary for procuring your
return back to the United States. And to give more entire satisfaction
and confidence to those who may be disposed to aid you, I, Thomas
Jefferson, President of the United States of America, have written
this letter of general credit for you with my own hand, and signed it
with my name.
to Meriwether Lewis, 4 July 1803
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