Timeline Thinking Across Decades

"While Jefferson had been wrong on the specifics—so far, at least—he was right on the approach. Under the law of nations, colonizing was a gradual process. A successful claim to a region’s preemption rights might start with a nation sending out scientific explorers, to be followed by privately funded fur traders, a few trading posts, and eventually permanent settlements, ideally on rivers so the claim would include the full watershed. By 1802, British ships, Spanish ships, American ships, even Russian ships were trading along the coast of the Pacific Northwest. They were probing the rivers that snaked into its interior, with the Columbia as the most promising. Jefferson knew what would happen next. So far, he told a senator, “no European nation claimed either the soil or jurisdiction.” But soon someone would try to advance the colonizing process: discovery, then occupation; commerce, then empire; furs, then farms."

"During his visit, they handed Coboway a document. The captains had scaled back their diplomacy on the Columbia—because of their discomfort, but also because they believed this region occupied a different place on Jefferson’s timeline, a place further in the future. The document showed they were still thinking about that future. It listed the members of the Corps, including Sacajawea and York, and it explained their route “by way of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers.” On the back, the captains added a map. They hoped Coboway would give it to “some civilized person.” Lewis and Clark gave copies to other Native leaders. They pasted a copy on the wall of their room at Fort Clatsop. All winter, they’d heard rumors about other traders and posts. That was not what they wanted for the Corps of Discovery—the point was for people to know. Even if disaster struck on the way home, one day this document would buttress America’s preemption claims to the Pacific Northwest. It was a step toward publication. It was also a step toward colonization, if you could even separate the two."

"Turning these ideas into policy kept Washington and his cabinet busy, especially his new secretary of state. Jefferson was a paradoxical politician, a practical visionary. He saw the world in timelines and tools, and he was constantly refining his use of both. Still, his goal remained the same. Jefferson wanted to expand. He wanted even more land, even if it was far in the future. This land, he believed, would support independent farmers and American ideals—an agrarian republic, an agrarian empire."