ACT CREATING
UNITED STATES TERRITORIAL EXPANSION
MEMORIAL COMMISSION.
(Public Resolution—No. 32—73d Congress]
[S. J. Res. 93]

JOINT RESOLUTION

Authorizing the creation of a Federal Memorial Commission to consider and formulate plans for the construction, on the western bank of the Mississippi River, at or near the site of old Saint Louis, Missouri, of a permanent memorial to the men who made possible the territorial expansion of the United States, particularly President Thomas Jefferson and his aids, Livingston and Monroe, who negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, and to the great explorers, Lewis and Clark, and the hardy hunters, trappers, frontiersmen, and pioneers and others who contributed to the territorial expansion and development of the United States of America.

Whereas Thomas Jefferson, as President of the United States, insured, through the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the expansion of our national domain to the Pacific Ocean; and

Whereas the early exploration and occupancy of these vast territorial additions of diversified climate and great riches, down the Ohio and up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and over the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon Trail to the Pacific, stirred and broadened the Nation to a vision of our safety against encroachment from without and of our economic independence from within, that would come with a rounding out of the national boundary by the annexation of Texas and the acquisition of California; and

Whereas the national expansion of our country westward from its original confines along the eastern seaboard to include a continental empire stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific is due in large part to the vision and genius of Thomas Jefferson and the other patriotic citizens who worked to the same end; and

Whereas there exists no adequate permanent national memorial to Thomas Jefferson, the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, or the other important movements and achievements connected therewith in the Mississippi Valley or elsewhere in the United States; and

Whereas the American people feel a deep debt of gratitude to Thomas Jefferson and all those who contributed to the territorial expansion of our Nation; Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is hereby established a commission, to be known as the "United States Territorial Expansion Memorial Commission" (hereinafter designated as the "United States Commission"), for the purpose of considering and formulating plans for designing and constructing a permanent memorial on the Mississippi River, at Saint Louis, Missouri, said Commission to be composed of fifteen commissioners as follows: Three persons to be appointed by the President of the United States, three Senators by the President of the Senate, three Members of the House of Representatives by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and six members of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association to be selected by such association.

Sec. 2. The United States Commission may in its discretion accept from any source, public or private, money or property to be used for the purpose of making surveys and investigations, formulating, preparing, and considering plans and estimates for the improvement, construction, or other expenses incurred, or to be incurred.

Sec. 3. The United States shall not be held liable for any obligation or indebtedness incurred by the United States Commission, the State of Missouri, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association, the city of Saint Louis, Missouri, or any other agency or officer, employee or agent of them, or any of them, for any purpose.

Approved, June 15, 1934.