Original manuscripts and contemporary copies of correspondence and records, 1784-1792. In the opening pages are a printed proclamation of the articles of peace between the United States and Great Britain as ratified by Congress (January 1784), signed by Charles Thomson; Clark's commission (1784) as principal surveyor of the Virginia land grant for the Illinois Regiment, signed by Governor Harrison; and records (1784) of Clark's election by Congress as commissioner to negotiate with the Indians, including letters from Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Mifflin, as well as the congressional certificate of election and commission, both signed by Thomson. Numerous letters from Clark's fellow commissioners, Arthur Lee and Richard Butler, and related papers from the spring of 1784 through March 1786, pertain to travel and negotiations, which resulted in treaties at Fort McIntosh in January 1785, and at Fort Finney in February 1786. As the treaties failed to quell Indian troubles, Clark's correspondence later in 1786 largely concerns the Indian threat to Fort Finney, hostilities at Vincennes, and the preparations for and execution of Clark's Wabash campaign.

Also found are proceedings (1786) of the Board of Officers of the Kentucky District selecting Clark to command the Wabash offensive, signed by Benjamin Logan. Letters by John Small and Daniel Sullivan in Vincennes and John Edgar in Kaskaskia comment on the dissatisfaction expressed by the French inhabitants toward the weak American government, and an undated proclamation [circa 1786?] by Clark to the citizens of Vincennes shows his attempt to restore legal government functions through cooperation of both civil and military authorities. A letter and proclamation from Governor Edmund Randolph of Virginia and proceedings of the Virginia Council, all dated in 1787, disavowed Clark's actions in recruiting men and seizing Spanish property (a Spanish merchant ship) during his defense of Vincennes in the preceding year.

Scattered through the correspondence of the 1780s are occasional references to Clark's land claims and interests; one letter (August 1784) from Governor Harrison expressed disapproval of Clark's attempt to settle Clarksville (Indiana) for fear it would involve the United States in a war with the Indians north of the Ohio. A letter (1786) from George Mason sought information from Clark on land on Panther Creek, Kentucky, to which Mason had a claim. Economic conditions in the Mississippi Valley and relations with the Spanish are touched upon in letters by John Williams (to his father William Williams, 1784) and by Thomas Green (to Clark, 1786), and in a proclamation (1788) by George Morgan promoting his proposed settlement at New Madrid in Spanish territory. Letters (1789-1791) to Clark by John Brown and a contemporary copy of a portion of a letter (1791) by Jefferson to Harry Innes mention Clark's writing of his, memoir. Several letters (1787-1792) by Jonathan Clark concert his brother's business affairs, particularly the rejection of his claims against the state of Virginia. Other writers of letters in this volume are: James Alder, Archibald Blair, Abraham Chapline, Isaac Cox, John Crittenden, Joseph Crockett, William Croghan, A.B. Crump, Valentine T. Dalton, Walter Finney, Christopher Greenup, John Harvie, Moses Henry, James Innes, John May, and Benjamin Sebastian. One printed handbill contains “AN ACT Concerning the erection of KENTUCKY into an INDEPENDENT STATE,” dated December 29, 1788. This volume Draper cited as “Clark Papers, Volume VII.”