re: #802 SixDegrees

Until recently, Congress was inhabited by a bunch of old skinflints. They were famously opposed to the Lewis and Clarke expedition, and carped endlessly over it’s cost. When the expedition returned, Congress demanded that all of it’s equipment be returned to the government; it was then resold to recoup costs, depriving us of priceless historical artifacts but helping to keep the Federal budget under constraint.

Stephen Ambrose’s book about that adventure is well worth reading…tremendous story