Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, Secretary of State under Washington and Vice President under John Adams, as President, secured the most important piece of real estate in the history of this nation, The Louisiana Purchase.

The purchase of the Louisiana territory from the French was the making of America as we know it today, a two ocean world power. It gave us control of some of the most fertile territory and some of the richest mines in the world.  It gave us control of the Mississippi River, which was a vital commercial route, free of Spanish influence. 

The Louisiana Purchase made the Mississippi River firmly American, as well as the vast stretch of country reaching to the Rockies.  The United States could now turn its back on the Atlantic world and the troubles in Europe for a century.  We could devote ourselves to developing our own immense resources and internal markets, unhampered by tariffs between the states.  We could provide for a growing population.  Kentucky was no longer the West.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition

No one quite knew what the United States had bought.   So President Jefferson commissioned two men to go and find out. The Lewis and Clark Expedition turned out to be one of the most important exploring adventures in the history of America.  What Lewis and Clark found of our new land was grander than anyone could have imagined; the wonderful stretch of fertile land, the enormous plains, the towering Rockies, buffalo herds, grizzly bears, trees towering two hundred feet in the air, new rivers, and strange plants.  What they did not see was the gold in the sands of the rivers over which their canoes passed.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition told America for the first time what it had acquired by its great Purchase.  After them came trappers, traders, soldiers, settlers, farmers, cattlemen, churches and laid the foundations for the America of today.

Again, Hats-Off to the greatest American who ever stood for the freedom of common man, Thomas Jefferson.