1In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis a…
1In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on a very difficult expedition. 2He wanted them to explore the massive 828,000 square miles of territory west of the Mississippi that the United States had bought from France for $15 million in an exchange known as the Louisiana Purchase. 3Public opinion on the Louisiana Purchase was mixed, and many citizens had concerns about the constitutionality of the exchange. 4This purchase nearly doubled the land area of the United States, and Jefferson felt it was important to explore this newly acquired land. 5Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery were charged with finding a route from the east through this enormous and uncharted new terrain all the way west to the Pacific Ocean. 6Opening a route to the west would increase trade opportunities with China, particularly for the lucrative fur business—and Jefferson needed his purchase to pay off. 7However, in order to succeed, the explorers needed to interact with Native American tribes they did not know and who’s languages they did not speak. 8They had to pass over treacherous mountains and rivers that were unfamiliar to them. 9To complete the job, Lewis and Clark relied on the tracking, language, and negotiation skills of a Native American woman, Sacagawea. Which of the following sentences distracts from the main idea of the first paragraph?