proposed in my message to congress, and repair yourself, with your
papers, to the seat of government.

"To provide, on the accident of your death, against anarchy,
dispersion, and the consequent danger to your party, and total
failure of the enterprise, you are hereby authorized, by any
instrument signed and written in your own hand, to name the person
among them who shall succeed to the command on your decease, and by
like instruments to change the nomination, from time to time, as
further experience of the characters accompanying you shall point
out superior fitness; and all the powers and authorities given to
yourself are, in the event of your death, transferred to, and
vested in the successor so named, with further power to him and his
successors, in like manner to name each his successor, who, on the
death of his predecessor, shall be invested with all the powers and
authorities given to yourself. Given under my hand at the city of
Washington, this twentieth day of June, 1803.

"THOMAS JEFFERSON,
"_President of the United States of America_."


While these things were going on here, the country of Louisiana, lately
ceded by Spain to France, had been the subject of negotiation at Paris
between us and this last power; and had actually been transferred to us
by treaties executed at Paris on the thirtieth of April. This
information, received about the first day of July, increased infinitely
the interest we felt in the expedition, and lessened the apprehensions
of interruption from other powers. Every thing in this quarter being now
prepared, captain Lewis left Washington on the fifth of July, 1803, and