among the Northwestern Indians. Through these agencies goods were sold to the Indians on terms as liberal as possible without diminishing the capital stock employed. The good will of the Indians was thus secured and undesirable private traders were eliminated. As the act under which these public trading houses were established was about to expire and the question of the continuance of the system would come up before congress, Jefferson naturally took occasion to explain his policy in the administration of the law, and to point out how, through these government establishments, the Indians could be induced to provide themselves with the implements of husbandry and gradually be brought to a state of civilization. The substitution of agriculture for hunting would also relieve a feeling becoming intense among them that their lands were too restricted for their needs; but private traders would, by such a system, be debarred from former opportunities. To make amends for this, Jefferson proposed that the tribes on the Upper Missouri should be visited for the purpose of getting our traders admitted among them. Thus most cautiously and ingeniously did he lead up to his real designs in proposing this expedition. Almost at the close of his message he comes out with them:
"While other civilized nations have encountered great expense to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge, by undertaking voyages of discovery, and for other literary purposes, in various parts and directions, our nation seems to owe to its own interests to explore this the only line of easy communication across the continent, and so directly traversing our own part of it. The interests of commerce place the principal object within the constitutional power of congress, and that it should incidentally advance geographical knowledge of our continent can not but be an additional gratification."
That permission might be the more readily gained to
