University of Virginia Library

An interesting query

Neglected manuscripts

Why did not General Clark surrender this wealth of manuscripts
either to the American Philosophical Society or to
Jefferson, when the latter was searching for all the
documents of the expedition, stoutly claiming them
as the undoubted property of the government? The
probable answer is, that Biddle found the four Clark-Voorhis
morocco note-books of no service to him; for practically all
the facts contained in them are either in Lewis's journals of
similar dates or in other drafts by Clark. He doubtless returned
the books to Clark, in the early stages of the work,
keeping only those which later were placed in the Society's
archives. It is probable, also, that the engraver having completed
such maps as he deemed necessary for the publication,
all the charts made upon the expedition were returned to
Clark. As for the skin-bound field-book, this having already
been transcribed into a red morocco note-book, very likely
the original did not go to Biddle at all; the orderly book, the
various fragments, the Lewis-Clark correspondence, and the
letter of credit, were doubtless also retained at St. Louis as being
deemed, for Biddle's purpose of a popular narrative, unusable


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material. On his part, it is probable that Clark had either
forgotten the existence of these documents, or, like Biddle,
considered them as of relatively slight historical value.
His seemingly careless treatment of them would
appear to bear out the last conclusion. In all events,
they remained among his papers untouched, until tied into
packets and labelled by his son and executor, George Rogers
Hancock Clark.[51] The manuscripts again suffered a long
period of neglect, and eventually were sent to New York,
where they became the property of Mrs. Voorhis, the story
of whose connection with them has already been told.

 
[51]

General William Clark's appointment as Superintendent of Indian Affairs and
Brigadier General of Militia for the Territory of Louisiana (1807) has already been
noted in the text. In this dual part, he was eminently successful. Governor Lewis
had been succeeded in that office by Benjamin Howard, and the following year (1810)'
the name of the territory was changed to Missouri. July 1, 1813, Clark was appointed
by President Madison as governor of Missouri Territory, being several times
recommissioned as such—in 1816, 1817, and 1820. In the last-named year, Missouri
entered the Union, and Clark was a candidate for the first State governor, but
was defeated in the election by Alexander McNair. In 1820, President Monroe
appointed him to the newly created office of federal Superintendent of Indian Affairs;
two years later, he was commissioned as Surveyor General for the States of Illinois and
Missouri and the Territory of Arkansas. He died at St. Louis, September 1st, 1838,
in his sixty-ninth year, and was given an impressive funeral, in which the entire community
took part. Governor Clark was twice married—first, at Fincastle, Virginia,
January 5, 1808, to Julia Hancock, who died in 1820, leaving four sons and a
daughter; second, at St. Louis, November 28, 1821, to Mrs. Harriet Kennerly Radford,
who died in 1831, leaving one son by William Clark.