I do not know whether your view extends to official papers of mine which have been published. Many of these would be like old newspapers, materials for future historians, but no longer interesting to the readers of the day. They would consist of reports, correspondences, messages, answers to addresses; a few of my reports while Secretary of State, might perhaps be read by some as essays on abstract subjects. Such as the report on measures, weights and coins, on the mint, on the fisheries, on commerce, on the use of distilled sea-water, &c. The correspondences with the British and French ministers, Hammond and Genet, were published by Congress. The messages to Congress, which might have been interesting at the moment, would scarcely be read a second time, and answers to addresses are hardly read a first time.
So that on a review of these various materials, I see nothing encouraging a printer to a re-publication of them. They would probably be bought by those only who are in the habit of preserving State papers, and who are not many.
I say nothing of numerous draughts of reports, resolutions, declarations, &c., drawn as a Member of Congress or of the Legislature of Virginia, such as the Declaration of Independence, Report on the Money Mint of the United States, the act of religious freedom, &c., &c.; these having become the acts of public bodies, there can be no personal claim to them, and they would no more find readers now, than the journals and statute books in which they are deposited.
I have presented this general view of the subjects which might have been within the scope of your contemplation, that they might be correctly estimated before any final decision. They belong mostly to a class of papers not calculated for popular reading, and not likely to offer profit, or even indemnification to the re-publisher. Submitting it to your consideration, I tender you my salutations and respects.
TO GEN. WM. CLARKE.
Monticello, September 10, 1809.
Dear General,—Your favor of June 2d came duly to hand in July, and brought me a repetition of the proofs of your kindness to me. Mr. Fitzhugh delivered the skin of the sheep of the Rocky Mountains to the President, from whom I expect to receive it in a few days at his own house. For this, as well as the blanket of Indian manufacture of the same material, which you are so kind as to offer me, accept my friendly thanks. Your donations, and Governor Lewis', have given to my collection of Indian curiosities an importance much beyond what I had ever counted on. The three boxes of bones which you had been so kind as to send to New Orleans for me, as mentioned in your letter of June 2d arrived there safely, and were carefully shipped by the collector, and the bill of lading sent to me. But the vessel put into the Havana, under embargo distress, was there condemned as unseaworthy, and her enrollment surrendered at St. Mary's. What was done with my three boxes I have not learned, but have written to Mr. Brown, the collector, to have inquiry made after them. The bones of this animal are now in such a state of evanescence as to render it important to save what we can of them. Of those you had formerly sent me, I reserved a very few for myself; I got Dr. Wistar to select from the rest every piece which could be interesting to the Philosophical Society, and sent the residue to the National Institute of France. These have enabled them to decide that the animal was neither a mammoth nor an elephant, but of a distinct kind, to which they have given the name of Mastodont, from the protuberance of its teeth. These, from their forms, and the immense mass of their jaws, satisfy me this animal must have been arbonverous. Nature seems not to have provided other food sufficient for him, and the limb of a tree would be no more to him than a bough of a cotton tree to a horse. You mention in your letter that you are proceeding with your family to Fort Massac. This informs me that you have a family, and I sincerely congratulate you on it, while some may think it will render you less active in the service of the world, those who take a sincere interest in your personal happiness, and who know that, by a law of our nature, we cannot be happy without the endearing connections of a family, will rejoice for your sake as I do. The world has, of right, no further claims on yourself and General Lewis, but such as you may voluntarily render according to your convenience, or as they may make it your interest. I wrote lately to the Governor, but be so good as to repeat my affectionate attachments to him, and to be assured of the same to yourself, with every sentiment of esteem and respect.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
Monticello, September 12, 1809.
Dear Sir,— * * * * *