Science Funding Is an American Tradition. Just Ask Lewis and Clark.

Mr. Fehrman is the author of “This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark.”

Last year, the Trump administration paused or canceled 7,840 research grants, the journal Nature found — and those were just the scientists funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Each week seems to bring a new proposed cut to the Forest Service or to NASA. These cuts betray not just America’s future but its past — because big public investments have strengthened our nation from the start. Consider the men who received what was arguably the first major federal research grant: Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

In 1804, the men set out to find a trade route up the Missouri River, across the Rocky Mountains and to the Pacific Ocean. But the president, Thomas Jefferson, had to convince Congress to fund the expedition first. America’s politicians, it turns out, have been arguing about research funding from the start. It took a few tricks for Jefferson to secure the funding. He asked for $2,500, but he knew the........

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