Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/48

42 42 REUBEN GOLD TIIWAITES. the expences of the expedition incurred by the United States in that expectation." October 10, Clark responds to Jefferson 25 by inclosing "an Order on my friend M r. Biddle for the papers in his possession "; Biddle being at the same time instructed as his agent, "to collect all the Books, papers, specimens, &c.," in the hands of Doctor Barton's heirs or others. Clark expresses interest in Jefferson's desire to collect the papers, and adds: " From the mortification of not have- ing succeeded in giving to the world all the results of that expedition, I feel Relief & greatitude for the interest which you are willing to take, in effecting what has not been in my power to accomplish." Curiously enough, as we shall soon see, Clark appears to have had at the time in his possession at St. Louis five of his own original journals, nearly all the maps of the expedition, and many miscella- neous documents concerning it; these he did not sur- render. June 28, 1817. Jefferson writes to Dr. John Vaughan, of the society, saying that although Mr. Da Serra had ob- tained several notebooks from Mr. Biddle and Mrs. Barton, there was still experienced considerable difficulty in col- lecting all of the documents. Evidently much annoyed, he proposes to bring pressure to bear through the Secre- tary of War, "that office having some rights to these papers." The further suggestion is made that the society publish u in their Transactions or otherwise," a digest of the "zoological, vegetable & mineralogical papers & sub- jects." On the 8th of April, 1818, we learn from the manuscript minutes of the society that " Mr. Nicholas Biddle deposited the original journals of Lewis and Clark, with an account of them and of those journals and documents which he ^Original MS. in possession of American Philosophical Society.