36 REUBEN GOLD THWAITES. St. Louis, had been appointed governor of Missouri Ter- ritory. Despite Biddle's determination to claim no credit for the great narrative which has long been regarded a classic in American history, it is quite apparent that Allen's connection with the enterprise was but that of a reviser for the press. He himself modestly states in the preface that he does not wish "to arrogate anything from the exertions of others"; that "he found but little to change, and that his labor has been principally confined to revis- ing the manuscript, comparing it with the original papers, and inserting such additional matter as appears to have been intentionally deferred by the writer [Mr. Biddle] till the period of a more mature revisal." Allen secured from President Jefferson an admirable memoir of Lewis; possibly he also blocked out the chapters; and the me- chanical form may in a measure be due to him. His labors were doubtless important from the typographical and clerical side ; but of course the credit for the enter- prise should chiefly rest with Biddle. That the latter had finished the work, ready for the final touches of a prac- tical reviser for the press, is evident from his own letters to Clark, as well as the confirmatory statement which has come down to us from Conrad. In his admirable edition of the Travels (New York, 1893, 4 vols.) Dr. Elliott Coues spends much space and energy in persistently heaping vituperation on Allen for fathering a work mainly performed by another. Biddle had the undoubted right to withdraw his name from pub- lic connection with the narrative. We may consider his reasons Quixotic, but he was entitled to be guided by them, and they certainly bespeak a nature more generous than we are accustomed to meet. As for Allen, it is quite evident that he did his part with becoming modesty ; and
