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SECTION I - JEFFERSON AND THE WEST  Secret
Message to Congress
1800
by Rembrandt Peale
Courtesy White House Collection
White House Historical Society |
Have students step into the role of Senators and members of the
House of Representatives on January 18, 1803, when the President’s
Confidential Message
was delivered.
Make a list
of bullet points outlining the vital information in the
President’s message.
Can you determine from the message the reasons for its
confidentiality? List those reasons
on the board for discussion.
What did Jefferson ask Congress to fund and at what cost?
The actual expenditures totaled $38,722. How much over budget was the expedition?
What percent over budget was the expedition?
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Examine the documents that list purchases: miscellaneous
purchases, wine
and kegs, tobacco.
What additional items would the Corps need that would put them over
budget? What unexpected expenses
might be responsible for being over budget?
Record the students answers on the board for more discussion.
Have students research to discover expenditures and costs for our
current program for space
exploration. Have students find out
the expenditures and costs for their locality’s educational program.
Population
and Land
In
1801, the nation’s boundaries reached from the Atlantic Ocean (east) to the
Mississippi River (west), from the Great Lakes (north) to almost the Gulf of
Mexico (south).
On
the map (available here):
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Shade
in the nation’s 1801 boundaries with a colored pen
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Label
the 17 States, the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of
Mexico, Pacific Ocean
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The
nation’s population in 1801 was 5,308,483.
Two-thirds of this population lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic
Ocean. Create a legend on the map
to illustration this information.
Research
and find out the population of the nation today, nationwide and by States (use
the US 2000 Census). Assign
students several States to research. As
a class create an information chart that lists each state, its population, and total area
in square miles.
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Using the information chart, create a bar graph to show the
population by State.
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Using the information chart, create a bar graph to show
the total area by State.
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Which
State has the smallest population?
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Which
State has the largest population?
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Compare
the population of the east coast States with the west coast States.
Can you make any inferences about where people live based on the
population information?
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Which
State
has the largest area (land and water)?
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Which
State has the smallest area (land and water)?
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Can you make any inferences about where people live based on the land
and water area of the States?
What
has been the percentage of increase in the population since 1801? (Population
percent change is derived by dividing the difference between the population in
2000 and 1801 by the 1801 population.)
Teacher
Note
Speculations and Myths
Expeditions into uncharted areas face the unknown.
For Christopher Columbus (1492), there were speculations of sea
monsters, a flat world where one would sail off the edge, boiling waters at
the equator, and a search for a water route to the riches of China.
Lewis and Clark ventured forth with a similar list:
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wooly
mammoths (current event)
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Peruvian llamas
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blue-eyed Welsh speaking Indians
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Northwest passage
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mountains of salt
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erupting volcanoes
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mountains the same size of the Blue Ridge
Mountains -- a range of the Appalachian Mountains (elevation, 6,684 feet)
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Have students select one of the Lewis and Clark speculations to
research and to present their findings to the class.
Have students make a list of speculations and questions that they
would like to discover about outer space.
What speculations have the astronauts and cosmonauts already proven or
disproved about outer space?
Louisiana Purchase
Have students create a timeline that reflects the ownership of the
Louisiana Territory from 1682 through December 1803.
In 1801 Jefferson names Robert R. Livingston as the U.S. Minister
to France. Jefferson kept Livingston advised of the concerns the nation had
pertaining to the foreign ownership of the Louisiana territory, the control of
the port of New Orleans, and American commerce through the port.
Look at Jefferson’s letter to Livingston to determine what
those concerns were. List the concerns on the board for further class
discussion.
Negotiations with France for Louisiana
Courtesy Library of Congress |
Jefferson sent James Monroe to France as Minister Extraordinary to
join Livingston in negotiations over the port of New Orleans.
Monroe’s mission was to obtain land east of the Mississippi with an
allocated amount of $10 million for the purchase of New Orleans and all or
some of the Floridas.
Have students research the lives of Robert Livingston and James
Monroe to determine the qualifications and skills that would be attributes to
their role as ministers to France and particularly as negotiators.
Make a chart of their attributes.
Do you find these attributes today in the Governor of your state; in the
President of the United States?
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Have students identify the French representatives involved in the
negotiations and write short biographies of these individuals.
Teacher
Note
Assign students to play the role of the individuals involved in the
Louisiana Purchase. Re-enact the event beginning with Jefferson’s
instructions to James Monroe through the negotiations to the signing of the
Louisiana Treaty. Use the
student's timelines and these documents to help develop the script:
Click image for a larger version.
Courtesy Library of Congress |
To keep vital information from falling into the hands of the enemy,
Jefferson, Monroe and Livingston made use of secret codes.
The cipher system substituted numbers for words in a sentence.
The cipher’s key was a standard published book.
The word to be encoded was found in the book and then translated to:
page number, line number, and the number of the word counting over from the
left. So that the word to be
encoded would look something like this: 358.8.10. That would be the word on
page 358 at the eighth (8th) line and the tenth (10th) word from the left.
Have students use the Social Studies textbook or a Reading textbook
and encode a word for a classmate to decode. Try coding a sentence this way.
Have the students write a letter and encode a secret message within the
letter.
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| Image note: Jefferson
designed this cipher to be use by Lewis during the Corps' expedition
for sending information back to Jefferson. As it turned out, Lewis
did not have to make use of the cipher. |
Invisible ink was also used. Invisible
ink would be used to write a secret message between the lines of a letter.
Have students try their hand at writing with invisible ink by using orange
juice, milk or lemon juice. To
reveal the code, hold the paper close to a source of light (light bulb).
The heat from the light source will make the message appear.
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Examine the Louisiana Treaty documents to determine the
conditions that were agreed to by France and the United States concerning the
Louisiana Purchase. Students
should list their answers on the board.
Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory of 827,000 square acres
for $15 million. How much did he
pay per square acre?
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Cover of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty (1803)
Citation: Louisiana Purchase Treaty, April 30, 1803; General Records
of the U.S. Government; Record Group 11; National Archives.
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Transportation
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The Corps of Discovery, as the expedition was called, took with them
2 piroques, 6 dugout canoes, a keelboat and the “experiment”, an ironboat.
(Click each image to view a larger
version.)
The
three color images in this segment are courtesy Mrs. John F. Clymer
and the Clymer Museum of Art.
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| Have students look for illustrations of these types of vessels (early 1800s).
Examining the student's illustrations, determine how the Corps
used these vessels.
Examine
the map at this link of the Lewis and
Clark Trail and make a list of the rivers the Corps would have to use
in order to reach the Pacific Ocean (starting point: St. Louis).
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Look at a modern day map
and list the states the Corps of Discovery journeyed through to get to
the Pacific Ocean. In addition to the vessels, the
Corps made use of horses and their own feet.
When would the Corps need to use horses and when would it be more advantageous to walk?
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| The ironboat was a collapsible boat made up of an iron frame that
would be assembled when needed. The
iron frames weighed 99 pounds. The boat would be covered with skins and hides
and sealed with pine pitch. The ironboat passed its trials at Harper’s Ferry
carrying 4 tons of cargo, but at the Great Falls (Missouri) it sprung too many
leaks to be usable.
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Illustration by Kirsten Sihlanick |
| Have the students theorize on why it was successful at
Harper’s Ferry but not at the Great Falls.
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Recording information
Lewis and Clark were instructed to keep detailed accounts of the
westward expedition:
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compass records
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measure distances
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notes on botanical and zoological specimens
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notes on minerals
and soil
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observation of landmarks and surroundings
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climate/weather
Using the same instructions, have students visit an area near the
school or their home (parks or nearby fields) and make journal notations. They
should use a compass to note directions, note observation of any landmarks,
measure distances, make notes on plants and animals they encounter, take
notes on rocks or other features, and record the weather. Encourage
students to describe their findings with illustrations as well as the written
word.
Latitude and longitude
Review with students the definitions of latitude and longitude.
On the globe (click link
to view) have students label:
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Latitude
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Longitude
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North Pole
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South Pole
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Equator
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Prime Meridian
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 Determine the latitude and longitude (from center point) of each of
the objects on the map shown at right (click the image to view a
larger version). Record your answers
on a chart similar to that below.
| Image
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Latitude
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Longitude
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| Canoe |
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| Compass |
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| Sextant |
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| Officer |
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| Buffalo |
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| Peace Medal |
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| Clark recorded distances with latitude
and longitude in his Field Notes. Use a modern map and locate three
or four of the Rivers Clark noted.
Image courtesy Yale Collection of
Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library |
Click image for larger version
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Find the latitude and longitude
of the following places on the
Lewis and Clark Trail:
(hint: use an atlas)
Printer-friendly
version of chart
| Location |
Latitude |
Longitude |
| St. Louis, Missouri |
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| Bitterroot Mountains (Hamilton, Montana) |
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| Fort Mandan (Washburn, North Dakota) |
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| Fort Clatsop (Astoria, Oregon) |
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| White Cliffs (Missoula, Montana) |
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| Great Falls, Montana |
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| Mandan-Hidatsa Villages
(Bismarck, North Dakota) |
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| Council Bluffs, Iowa
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| Chinook, Washington |
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| Lewiston, Idaho |
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| Pierre, South Dakota |
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| Walla Walla, Washington |
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| Find the latitude and longitude of your city or town |
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Lewis and Clark used a sextant and octant along with
charts and formulas to determine latitude and longitude.
Lewis had been trained by Andrew Ellicott (astronomer) and Robert
Patterson (mathematician) as well as Jefferson to determine latitude and
longitude. What other tools would
have been useful in determining direction and gathering information?
Use a chart similar to that below to make a list.
Are these tools still used today? If not what has replaced them?
| Navigational
Tools/Equipments-Lewis & Clark
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Navigational Tools/Equipment-21st century
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| There are 88 constellations.
Using a check list, have students mark off the ones they can identify
in the night sky. (current event)
Have students chose a constellation to
research and write a report on. The ancient Greeks used mythology to
explain the various constellations. Students should include in their
reports how the constellation they selected got its name.
Click image at
right for an additional enrichment activity regarding constellations. |
Image taken from Cosmographicus Liber
Petri Apiana..., Gemma Frisius, Antwerp, 1533 |
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Military Dress
Use the descriptions of the words below to label the uniform:
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Gorget: a remnant of the armor knights wore to protect the throat
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Hat: worn well forward over the eyebrows and turned to the left to
give freedom when using muskets and rifles
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Sash: a long length of cloth wrapped around the waist
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Sword: carried within a shoulder or waist belt
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Spontoon/Espontoon: a six foot staff carried when walking
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Epaulette: indicated the officer’s rank; a descendant of
the shoulder strap
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Cockades: mark of a military man, worn on the hat
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(Click image for a larger version with lines
for identification.)
Army Officer's Uniform
Courtesy C. Keith Wilbur, M.D., Picture Book of the Continental Soldier,
Stackpole Books
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Captain Lewis made use of his spontoon/espontoon on several occasions.
Read his journal entries about it: Sunday,
May 26th, 1805 | Friday,
June 7th, 1805 | Friday,
June 14th, 1805
If Lewis had been without his spontoon/espontoon, what might have been the
outcome of the situation he was faced with.
Speculate the outcome in the area below.
| Entry One
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| Entry Two
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| Entry Three
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Can
you spell?
Even though Lewis and Clark had taken along a
four-volume dictionary, A New and
Complete Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences, the Captains' journals
reflect creative spelling. In his
journal Clark spells the book "Deckinsery of arts an ciences"; he
spells mosquito 19 different ways and Sioux 27 different ways. (Spelling would
not be standardized until two decades after the journey with Noah Webster's
dictionary.) Have students correct the spelling and grammar in Lewis' journal
entry of Friday,
June 7th, 1805.
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