Jefferson’s Letter of Credit
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008Imagine being 27 years old and about to embark on a two year transcontinental road trip with a bunch of your best buds. You think you have all the supplies you need, but don’t know exactly who you may encounter, or need to purchase along the journey.
Now imagine that the President of the United States has signed and given you an official Letter of Credit to all tribes and nations of the world, which grants unlimited expenditures, payable by the United States of America.
In today’s times, any store clerk or cashier would laugh at a supposed forgery, but not in 1903, when President Jefferson drafted the letter of credit to Captian Meriwether Lewis. To date it is the most powerful letter of credit ever issued by the U. S. Government.
I think that act shows the true passion that Jefferson held for Western Expansion, and to ensure that the United States would be forever one nation stretching from coast to coast. I do not take that for granted.
(source: Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose)
