Archives West Finding Aid

Thomas Jefferson's 1806 Message provided the U.S. Congress, the American people, and interested parties throughout the world with a summary not only of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but of the explorations William Dunbar and George Hunter on the Ouachita, and Dr. John Sibley's researches on the Red River territory, and an introduction by Jefferson. The book was first published in Washington and New York in 1806. Later in the same year, William Dunbar of Natchez, Mississippi reprinted the Message in an extremely small edition (of which this book is an edited and annotated facsimile). The Natchez edition included extracts from Dunbar's journal, as well as significant botanical observations not printed in those earlier editions. As such, the Natchez reprint is distinctly valuable in providing this unique information. The value of this Message from the President, in addition to its rarity, is in the wealth of information it provided to individuals in the early nineteenth century about the wilderness in the unknown West, and the insights provided to today's reader.