COMPILING FIRST OFFICIAL RECORD OF BIRTH OF U.S.: "AMERICAN ARCHIVES" CALHOUN, JOHN C. Autograph Letter Signed, "J.C. Calhoun," as Senator, to Secretary of State John Forsyth ("Dear Sir"), introducing the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives [Matthew St. Clair] Clarke, and encouraging him to assist in Clarke's project to compile the records of the colonies up to the adoption of the Constitution. 1¼ pages, 4to, with integral address leaf; faint bleedthrough, folds. "Fort Hill" [Clemson, SC], May 1838 "I take the liberty of introducing . . . Mr. Clarke, . . . whose object in visiting Columbia is to inspect the early records of the State with the view of publishing a documentary record of the State, with the other States, to the period of the adoption of the Federal Constitution. . . ."
Together with Peter Force, Matthew St. Clair Clarke compiled records from the early American government into a 9 volume book, published in Washington by Congress between 1837 and 1853: American Archives: Consisting of a Collection of Authentick Records, State Papers, Debates, and Letters and Other Notices of Publick Affairs, the Whole Forming a Documentary History of the Origin and Progress of the North American Colonies; of the Causes and Accomplishment of the American Revolution; and of the Constitution of Government for the United States, to the Final Ratification Thereof.