ADDRESS. 75 



already alluded, and which you will find pointed out in all the 

 memorials and reports hitherto made on this subject, and which 

 may be found among the printed documents on your tables. 

 Some might say, and we have heard such things said, that this 

 equipment would savour of individual pride in the commander ; but 

 they forget, that the calculations of the wise are generally secured 

 by the strength of their measure. The voyage is long the rest- 

 ing places uncertain, which makes the employment of a storeship, 

 also, a matter of prudence and economy. It would not do to be 

 anxious about food, while the expedition was in the search of an 

 extended harvest of knowledge. 



The expectations of the people of the United States from such 

 an expedition, most unquestionably would be great. From their 

 education and past exertions through all the history of our national 

 growth, the people are prepared to expect that every public func- 

 tionary should discharge his duty to the utmost extent of his 

 physical and mental powers. They will not be satisfied with any 

 thing short of all that men can perform. The appalling weight 

 of responsibility of those who serve their country in such an ex- 

 pedition, is strikingly illustrated by the instructions given to Lewis 

 and Clarke, in 1803, by President Jefferson. The extended 

 views and mental grasp of this distinguished philosopher no one 

 will question, nor can any one believe that he would be unneces- 

 sarily minute. 



The sage, who had conceived and matured the plan of the ex- 

 pedition to the far west, in his instructions to its commander under 

 his own signature, has left us a model worthy of all imitation. 

 With the slight variations growing out of time and place, how appli- 

 cable would those instructions be for the guidance of the enterprise 

 we have at present in view ? The doubts of some politicians, that 

 this government has no power to encourage scientific inquiry, 

 most assuredly had no place in the mind of that great apostle of 

 liberty, father of democracy, and strict constructionist ! We 



