“ of Richmond my correspondents. accept my thanks for the extra copy sent me and assurances of my respect.”

In a letter to John Vaughan, Treasurer of the American Philosophical Society, dated from Monticello, June 28, 1817, Jefferson wrote: “ . . . you enquire for the Indian vocabularies of Mess ^rs. Lewis and Clarke. all their papers are at present under a kind of embargo. they consist of 1. Lewis’s MS. pocket journals of the journey. 2. his Indian Vocabularies. 3. his astronomical observations, particularly for the longitudes. 4. his map, and drawings. a part of these papers were deposited with D ^r. Barton; some with m ( ^~ r) Biddle, others I know not where. of the pocket journals M ^r. Correa got 4. out of 11. or 12. from m ( ^~ r) s Barton & sent them to me. he informed me that m( ^~ r) Biddle would not think himself authorised to deliver the portion of the papers he recieved from Gen ^l. Clarke without his order; whereon I wrote to Gen ^l. Clarke, & recieved his order for the whole some time ago. but I have held it up until a Secretary at War was [sic] is appointed, that office having some rights to these papers. as soon as that appointment is made, I shall endeavor to collect the whole, to deposite the MS. journals & Vocabularies with the Philosophical society, adding a collection of some vocabularies made by myself, and to get the Sec ^y. at War to employ some person to whom I may deliver the astronomical papers for calculation, and the geographical ones for the correct execution of a map; for in that published with his journal, altho’ the latitudes may be correct, the longitudes cannot be. I wait therefore only for this appointment to begin my endeavors for a compleat collection and distribution of these papers . . . ”

On November 7 of the same year, he wrote to Peter Stephen Duponceau: “ a part of the information of which the expedition of Lewis and Clarke was the object has been communicated to the world by the publication of their journal; but much & valuable matter remains yet uncommunicated. the correction of the longitudes of their map is essential to it’s value; to which purpose their observations of the lunar distances are to be calculated & applied. the new subjects they discovered in the vegetable, animal & mineral departments are to be digested and made known. the numerous vocabularies they obtained of the Indian languages are to be collated and published.

" altho’ the whole expence of the expedition was furnished by the public, and the information to be derived from it was theirs also, yet on the return of mess ^rs. Lewis & Clarke the government thought it just to leave to them any pecuniary benefit which might result from a publication of the papers, and supposed indeed that this would secure the best form of publication. but the property in these papers still remained in the government for the benefit of their constituents. with the measures taken by Gov ^r. Lewis for their publication, I was never acquainted. after his death Gov ^r. Clarke put them, in the first instance, into the hands of the late D ^r. Barton, from whom some of them passed to m ( ^~ r) Biddle, and some again, I believe, from him to m( ^~ r) Allen. while the MS. books of journals were in the hands of D ^r. Barton, I wrote to him on behalf of Gov ^r. Lewis’s family requesting earnestly, that, as soon as these should be published, the originals might be returned, as the family wished to have them preserved. he promised in his answer that it should be faithfully done.

" after his death, I obtained, thro’ the kind agency of m( ^~ r) Correa, from m( ^~ r) s Barton, three of those books, of which I know there had been 10. or 12. having myself read them. these were all she could find. the rest therefore, I presume are in the hands of the other gentlemen. after the agency I had had in affecting this expedition, I thought myself authorised, and indeed that it would be expected of me that I should follow up the subject, and endeavor to obtain it’s fruits for the public. I wrote to Gen ^l. Clarke therefore for authority to recieve the original papers. he gave it in the letters to m ( ^~ r) Biddle and to myself, which I now inclose, as the custody of these papers belonged properly to the War-office, and that was vacant at the time. I have waited several months for it’s being filled. but the office still remaining vacant, and my distance rendering any effectual measures, by myself, impracticable, I ask the agency of your committee, within whose province I propose to place the matter, by making it the depository of the papers generally. I therefore now forward to them the 3. volumes of MS. journals in my possession, and authorise them, under Gen ^l. Clarke’s letters, to enquire for and to recieve the rest. so also the astronomical and geographical papers, those relating to zoological, botanical, and mineral subjects, with the Indian vocabularies, and statistical tables relative to the ”