Facing West.

The early national period was marked by a fascination with the West. Thomas Jefferson said in his first inaugural address in 1801 that Americans possess a "chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the hundredth and thousandth generation." In pursuit of that vision, Jefferson created the Corps of Discovery, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's amazing expedition up the Missouri River across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. This journey set the tone for the nationalist expansion of the first half of the century, offering white Americans the promise of new lands, vast wealth, and great opportunity for those brave and strong enough to move west and open up the territory. Walt Whitman, a former newspaperman and the first truly American poet, also saw hope and progress in the West. In one of his "songs" from Leaves of Grass (1855), Whitman imagined the satisfaction of the...