Their pay would be going on, whether here or there. 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 the same object, as well as 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 powers and care of Congress, and that it should incidentally advance the geographical knowledge of our own continent, can not but be an additional gratification. The nation claiming the territory, regarding this as a literary pursuit, which it is in the habit of permitting within its own dominions, would not be disposed to view it with jealousy, even if the expiring state of its interests there did not render it a matter of indifference. The appropriation of two thousand five hundred dollars, "for the purpose of extending the external commerce of the United States," while understood and considered by the executive as giving the legislative sanction, would cover the undertaking from notice, and prevent the obstructions which interested individuals might otherwise previously prepare in its way. BOOK IV. MISCELLANEOUS. PART I.--NOTES ON VIRGINIA. " II.--BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF DISTINGUISHED MEN. " III.--THE BATTURE AT NEW ORLEANS. " IV.--JEFFERSON'S MANUAL. " V.--THE ANAS. " VI.--MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. INTRODUCTORY TO BOOK IV.