Manuscripts
This collection contains out-going letters of the Secretary of State Henry Clay and his Chief Clerk Daniel Brent to foreign ministers in the United States. The correspondence concerns international trade and commerce; the foreign relations of the United States, particularly those with Great Britain, routine State Department matters, and letters to resident representatives of various countries. Topics include negotiations relative to the abolition of discriminating duty of import and tonnage in the commercial intercourse of the United States with: Austria, Brazil, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Netherlands, Prussia, Sicily and the Papal States, Russia, Sweden. American-British diplomatic relations covered include the Northeast boundary dispute (Maine and New Brunswick) 1828-29; letters and instructions to U.S. agents Albert Gallatin and William Pitt Preble; West India trade; and impressed seamen. Letters related to Latin-American republics include the Panama Congress and U.S. neutrality related to the independence of Brazil and Columbia including privateers with prizes in U.S. ports and rights of hospitality. There is also correspondence related to claims for indemnity and points on international law in regard to shipping, extradition, piracy, etc. Countries addressed in four or more pieces:
Austria (6 pieces)
Brazil (30 pieces)
Free city of Bremen (4 pieces)
Chile (4 pieces)
Central America (and Guatemala) (6 pieces)
Colombia (30 pieces)
Cuba (4 pieces)
Denmark (16 pieces)
France (34 pieces)
Great Britain (120 pieces)
Mexico (16 pieces)
Netherlands (13 pieces)
Portugal (9 pieces)
Prussia (9 pieces)
Russia (38 pieces)
Saxony (6 pieces)
Sicily and the Papal States (13 pieces)
Spain (28 pieces)
Sweden (and Norway) (21 pieces)
Some notable items include:
Clay, Henry. To Henry U. Addington, Chargé d'affaires from Great Britain in respect to the Convention for more effectually suppressing the Slave trade. Apr. 6, 1825
_____. To Don Antonio Jose Cañaz, minister from Guatemala, respecting a Canal through the Province of Nicaragua. Apr. 18, 1825
_____. To the Baron de Mareuil, Minister from France, relative to Institutions in the U. S. for the deaf and dumb. Apr. 18, 1826
_____. To Charles R. Vaughan, Minister from Great Britain relative to the execution of the Convention of St. Petersburg. Oct. 12, 1826. ...Your note of the 20th. ult.
_____. To Don Hilario de Rivas y Salmon, Chargé d'affaires from Spain, concerning alleged violations of neutrality by the United States in allowing the building of ships employed against Spain, and in the conduct of Commodore David Porter's Mexican squadron in the port of Key West, June 9, 1827
_____. To Don José María Salazar, Minister from Colombia, that the United States join Great Britain and Colombia in an offer of mediation to put an end to the war between Brazil and Buenos Ayres. Oct. 31, 1826
These letters were published in: The Papers of Henry Clay/ James F. Hopkins, ed. [Lexington] University of Kentucky Press, [c1959]-c1992, vol. 4-7.
