Pinckney. Other matters to which Jefferson gave interested
attention include the dispatch of the explorers, Lewis and Clarke, to
report on the features of the Far Western country, then in reality a
wilderness, and to reclaim the vast unknown region for civilization. The
details of this notable expedition up the Missouri to its source, then
on through the Indian country across the Rockies to the Pacific, need
not detain us, since the story is familiar to all. With the Louisiana
purchase, it opened up great tracts of the continent, later on to become
habitable and settled areas, and make a great and important addition to
the public domain. In the appointment of the expedition and the interest
taken in it, Jefferson showed his intelligent appreciation of what was
to become of high value to the country, and ere long result in a land of
beautiful homes to future generations of its hardy people.
At the close of his second term in the Presidential chair (1809)
Jefferson retired once more, and finally, to "Monticello," after over
forty years of almost continuous public service. His career in this high
office was entirely worthy of the man, being that of an honorable and
public-spirited, as well as an able and patriotic, statesman.
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