William Clark wrote from New England to Isaac Goodnow in Manhattan, Kansas Territory. Clark responded to a letter sent to him earlier by Goodnow, in which Goodnow asked Clark if he would act as a financial officer of Bluemont College. Clark declined the invitation. He admitted he had reasons that might motivate him to accept, but that he had "so little adaptation as to that [work] of begging money." He also feared, considering the present economic conditions in New England and within the Methodist Church, that he would not be successful in garnering any support for a college in the Kansas Territory, as local [New England] interests currently prevailed. He stated "Did there exist an immediate want for a College in Manhattan, the case would be entirely different. But I judge that for ten years to come an Academy would meet nearly all the educational wants of that region."