The Purchase of Louisiana: Missouri and Western

The vexed question of the existence of the salt mountain was soon to be put at rest. Many months before, while the country was excited over the closing of the Mississippi, Jefferson urged Congress to send a party of explorers up the Missouri to its source, and thence overland to the Pacific Ocean. The idea was a happy one, was approved, an appropriation made, and Meriwether Lewis and William Clark chosen to carry out the plan. Jefferson drew their instructions, and on May fourteenth, 1804, the party entered the Missouri. In time thy crossed the mountains, reached the Pacific, and wandered over that fine region which came afterwards to be known as Oregon.

In 1792 the mouth of the Columbia River had been discovered by Robert Gray, a merchant-captain trading between Boston and China by way of Cape Horn, and the first American to carry the flag of the United States around the world.

With the purchase of Louisiana is connected an important incident in the life of the celebrated Aaron Burr, which may be mentioned here. This personage, after serving a term as Vice-President of the United States, killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel growing out of a political quarrel. Burr next, having lost his property and having incensed the people against him, made his way to the West, and while there organized what was supposed to be a scheme for making war on the Spanish territories adjoining the newly-gained district of Louisiana. It is said that the intended to make himself monarch of this region, and also that he designed separating the Western Territories from the United States. His suspicious movements alarmed the government, and a proclamation was issued, warning the Western people against his illegal enterprises, and ordering the arrest of Burr and his followers. He was eventually arrested in Mississippi Territory, and sent to Richmond, where he was tried for treason, in a case that excited wide-spread attention. No overt act was proved against him, and he was acquitted. Upon his acquittal he went to Europe, where he lived for some time in extreme poverty. Returning to America, he practised law in an obscure manner for many years, and died in 1836.]