 There's a lot of knowledge of this land out here that they don't have access to yet, and someone's going to have to go out and get that knowledge. William Henry Seward, of course, also famous, and most people remember him, right, from your AP US history class for being the dude that bought Alaska and then got made fun of for the rest of his life. Seward's folly, right? So he was deeply invested in the idea of expansion.