Day-by-Day / July 4, 1803

July 4, 1803

Jefferson's letter of credit

In Washington City, the news of the Louisiana Purchase is made public and President Jefferson issues Meriwether Lewis an open letter of credit to pay for supplies or passage should he meet any ships at the Pacific Ocean.

Washington City—Official

National Intelligencer, July 4, 1803 article transcribed on this page

National Intelligencer.

Jefferson’s Letter of Credit

Washington, U.S. of America.

July 4.1803.

Dear Sir

In the journey which you are about to undertake for the discovery of the course and source of the Missisipi, 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.

[Y]our resource in that case can only be in the credit of the US. for which purpose I hereby authorise you to draw on the Secretaries of State, of the Treasury, of War & of the Navy of the US.

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.

TH: JEFFERSON[1]Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis, 4 July 1803, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-40-02-0500 accessed 8 May 2022. [Original source: The Papers of … Continue reading

Related: The Empty Anchorage: Trade Ships at the Columbia | Jefferson’s Secrecy

Louisiana Treaty Announced

Washington City

Monday, July 4

Official.

The Executive have received official information that a Treaty was signed on the 30th of April, between the ministers Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary of the United States and Minister plenipotentiary of the French government, by which the United States have obtained full right to and sovereignty over New Orleans, and the whole of Louisiana, as Spain possessed the same.[2]National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), 3 July 1803.

Related: Louisiana’s Purchase

 

Notes

Notes
↑1 Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis, 4 July 1803, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-40-02-0500 accessed 8 May 2022. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 40, 4 March–10 July 1803, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013, pp. 655–656.]
↑2 National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), 3 July 1803.

Discover More

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.

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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).