The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-25
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES
 AND HISTORY OF ALABAMA
THOMAS M. OWEN, DIRECTOR.
NO. E. DEPARTMENT NOTES.

It is felt that no better work can be done by the Department than in diff fusing date in reference to, i'm of the State, as wen as on related subejcts. The, present num- Der will. therefore. begin a discussion of the very interesting subject of the Louisiana Purchase" with full re- view of the authorities and early refer ences. by an assistant in this Depart ment. The centennial of this great ter ritorial acquisition is near at hand, and interest Is being aroused all over the South and Southwest, as in fact over the whole country, touching history of the foundation event. This makes the discussion all the more valuable. and it is hoped that 1t may be read with h. terest. One more number on the same general subject will follow. The writer here is the author of the Life and Times of Yancey. 50 widely and favor ably known to the entire world of let- tes.
 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE.
 John Witherspoon DuBose.
 Thomas Jefferson went to school to Rev. James Maury. of the Church of County, Virginia. The teacher was a brother of the father of Mathew Fon- taine Maury. the immortal. and 1t would appear from what happened in his school, that an instinct of inquiry in the field of geography had permeat- ed the Maury blood for some genera tions. See the mountains over "there," said the old man. teaching the red headed pupil and pointing to the Rock les. of which he had heard vague re- ports. There must be a great river xk ne it must be a great movement to the West" It was the Missouri; then un- known. which doomed up to this teach CTS fancy. The ardent pupil never for got this first lesson in the geography of the West.
 In I7S5 Mir. Jefferson was in Paris. in the service of the Congress ofthe Con- federation. John Ledyard, a man of Connecticut of adventurous spirit, one who had been with Cook to the Pacific. came to him. Il suggested to Led yard" wrote the minister. "the entet- prise of exploring the western part of our continent" How? From what starting point?" Go to St. Petersburg" said the minister, "cross Asia to Kam- chatka, cross the Pacific to America, and arrived on our shores, explore the country through to the settlements on the East" Profoundly excited. Led yard lost no time in setting out. He got within two hundred miles of Kam- chatka. was halted there by the snow. and when spring arrived, a close car riage came for him. sent by order of the imperious Catherine of Russia, to take him back to Poland. Colonial Governor Spotswood of Virginia had once gone on an exploring expedition. He had taken a party of young Vir- ginians to the summit of the Blue Ridge. and pointed out to them the measureless expanse of wilderness to the westward. Thus ignorance of the West remained. That was in 1724. In 1792. MT. Jefferson being Secretary of State and an active member of the American Philosophical Society, with headquarters in Philadelphia. moved the Society to investigate the land be- yond the Mississippi. He pledged him. self to raise 1,e00 guineas G5. .0o0) toward the expense of exploration. An dre Michaux. a French botanist, an author of literature in his science. who was then under orders from the French minister to pursue botanical studies in America. consented to be the explorer under the auspices of the Society. but under the special direction of Jefferson. He was instructed to take with him into the untrodden wilderness but single companion, the better not to ex- cite the suspicious of the Indians. The French minister forbade Michaux to go. He had already reached Kentucky on the way. Several years later Judge Breckenridge of Kentucky told MT. Jef- ferson that they had found out in that State that Michaux had a commission in that French army in his pocket which Genet was planning to send into the American settlements, along the Mississippi. to assist them to declare for France. Report Smithsonian h. stitute. 1897. p. 29o).
 Nothing discouraged, MT. Jefferson sent a confidential message to Congress January IS. 1903. and Congress yielding to his advice, appIn nYiated sum to ex- plore Louisiana Tne President select ed his former secretary. Lewis, to lead it. Lewis and Clarke set out on this expedition July 5. 1903. before ratifca- ton of the purchase of the territory in Paris. had been rna and even before the treaty papers had Narived here. They made a successful study of the country from the headwaters of the Missouri to the Columbia and down that stream to the Pacific. They reach ed St. Louis on their return Septembe 1S05 amidst the joyful demonstrations of all the people of the town.
 The &rench had owned Louisiana to the Rio Grande in the extreme South western boundary and to Perdido on the East. The colony had been un-