Excerpt from The Works of Henry Clay, Vol. 4 of 10: Comprising His Life, Correspondence and Speeches; Part 1. Private Correspondence, 1801-1832 Mb. Clay was not in the habit of keeping copies of his own letters. It may easily be imagined, therefore, that the time and trouble required to collect original and authenticated copies, so as to compose an epistolary history of his life, have not been inconsiderable. From some three thousand documents, more or less, collected at Ashland and elsewhere, the editor has sifted and shaken out the correspondence contained in this volume. For the first fifteen years of the present cen tury, down to the treaty of Ghent, embraced in the first chapter, very few of Mr. Clay's letters could be obtained. From that period they begin to appear more abundantly. It was thought proper to introduce letters of the correspondents of Mr. Clay to some extent, especially those of distinguished persons, and on occa sions of especial interest. It was not possible generally to obtain the immediate counterparts of the correspondence. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.