In
these ways he was acting out his belief that the President should be
simple in dress and manner.
Many things which Jefferson did proved that he was an able statesman, but
the one act which stands out above all others as the greatest and wisest
of his administration, was the "Louisiana Purchase."
Let us see how this purchase came to be made. Before Jefferson became
President many pioneers, we know, had already settled west of the
Alleghany Mountains. Most of them lived along the Ohio and the streams
flowing into it from the north and the south. In the upland valleys of the
Kentucky and Tennessee Rivers settlers were especially numerous.
These lands were so fertile that the people living there became very
prosperous. As their harvests were abundant, they needed a market in which
to sell what they could not use.
We have seen how in the autumn it was their custom to load the furs on
pack-horses, and driving the cattle before them along the forest trail, to
make the long journey over the mountains to cities and towns along the
Atlantic coast.
[Illustration: A Flatboat on the Ohio River.]
But to send their bulky products by this route was too expensive.
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