The Territorial Papers of the United States; Volume XV, The Territory of Louisiana-Missouri 1815-1821 Continued

Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1951. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good. v, [1], 834 pages. Footnotes. Folding Map. Symbols. Index. Cover has slight wear and soiling. Some edge soiling. Publication No. 51-9. This volume is the second of three pertaining to the Territory of Louisiana-Missouri and draws from the documents relative to the administrations of Acting-Governors Joseph Browne and Frederick Bates, and Governors Meriwether Lewis, Benjamin Howard, and William Clark. After the admission of the State of Louisiana in 1812, the remaining portion of the territory was reorganized as the Territory of Missouri under the two last-named governors. This accounts for the hyphenated designation and in some measure for the different emphases in the character of the problems addressed. The first six hundred pages, covering the period up to the end of October 1812, carry oblique references to the Burr-Wilkinson connivances and to Spanish border threats, but are mainly concerned the movement toward statehood of the New Orleans area. Indian relations are, of course, subjects of numerous reports and letters. But the outbreak of the War with England coinciding with the reorganization of the Territory, the outstanding problem is the defense against British Indian allies and policies affecting friendly tribes. The correspondence of Meriwether Lewis during his brief active governorship (1808-1809) deals largely with matters of general Indian policy and the principles basic to the functioning of the government's Indian trade and that General Agent of Indian Affairs, William Clark, more typically frontiersman, is occupied with details of posts and armed establishments. Over the course of more than four decades, through the administrations of seven U. S. presidents, a critical national treasure was reclaimed from the depths of government archives in a series of 28 books that document the expansion of the United States from 1787 to 1845. The first book in the series was published in 1934 during the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the last, in 1975 during the Ford administration. This remarkable series comprises thousands of pages of documents relevant to the creation of states to the west and south of the original colonies, including Mississippi, Indiana, Florida, and Wisconsin. Each book is packed with intriguing papers relating to the government in that particular territory, such as a listing of its territorial officials and chronological data. The books were published in the sequential order of the territories, one by one. The first volume provides an overview to the series, along with the Preface and Introduction. Some volumes were published in quick succession, while others were separated by a number of years. The first territories were the pioneers; succeeding territories inherited not only the experience of its predecessors, but also the changing policies of the national governments. Some territories were covered in one book; Florida's papers are contained in five. States were created after being territories for about 20 years. Publication of the Territorial Papers was prompted largely by lobbying from the nation's historians, who recognized their significance. The government finally gave in to a public outcry following the 1911 publication of David W. Parker's Calendar of Papers in Washington Archives Relating to the Territories of the United States (to 1873). In his Introduction to the Series,Clarence Edwin Carter noted the Calendar's role as a catalyst to their publication. Amazing for its scope and magnitude of historic documents gathered from the files of the National Archives and other U.S. government departments,