Chiefly correspondence, together with drafts of Clay's dispatches and instructions as U.S. secretary of state. Topics relate primarily to politics and to most phases of Clay's public career, including his years in Congress, service as commissioner at Ghent, the elections of 1824, 1832, and 1844, tariffs, the Bank of the United States, the Panama Congress, slavery, nullification, public lands, Whig politics, and other issues of national political interest.
Reels 1-8 reproduce original material found in containers 1-34 of the Henry Clay papers in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division; reels 10-19 reproduce documents presumably in containers 41-49 of the Henry Clay papers; reels 20-23 reproduce Clay documents found in various other collections of the Library of Congress. An additional reel was added in 1971 which reproduces the card index to the correspondence contained in the Henry Clay papers.
A supplemental reel of documents filmed by National Archives and Records Service constitutes reel 23 of the microfilm edition, reproducing materials omitted in the earlier filming, and is available under shelf no.: Microfilm 17,343.1