PIKE COUNTY, Mo. — Champ Clark once got a Christmas present that would prepare him for national leadership – one that still has relevance for all Americans today.

Clark didn’t remember the book’s name, but it was bound with red cloth and featured the Articles of Confederation, Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and President George Washington’s farewell address.

Clark was born in Kentucky in 1850 and came to Missouri in 1875. He would serve 13 terms in Congress, including eight years as Speaker of the House. His Bowling Green home, Honey Shuck, has been preserved and is available for tours.

“In giving it to me, my father said: ‘My boy, you will not read the Bible and I want you to read this book,’” Clark recalled. ‘“Next to the Bible, it is one of the best I know of.’”

Clark paged through the red book again and again until he “knew the Declaration and most of the other three great documents by heart.” Later, in Washington, the pious politician frequently quoted Scripture. But such passages certainly weren’t favorites growing up.

While attending church as a boy, Clark would reach for the red book “when the long sermon was too dry to interest my youthful mind, or too full of theological technicalities for me” to understand.

“It was a fine mental exercise and laid a broad foundation for understanding the genius of our free institutions, though it did nothing to promote my religious training,” he said.

Clark was as loyal to the Democratic Party as his Republican colleagues were to the GOP. But he realized that true political success took compromise. Not so with the Declaration of Independence. The Speaker said that if he had his way, every kid in America would have to commit it to memory.

“A man of sensibility cannot read it, even now, without having his blood flow faster,” Clark enthused. “I believe that the majestic sweep of the Declaration helped us to gain our liberty.”

Over the course of his 70 years, Clark would own thousands of volumes, but believed the red book, the Bible and William Wirt’s acclaimed biography of Founding Father Patrick Henry “did more to influence my life than all other books I have read put together.”

Clark’s love of writing is showcased in his autobiography, “My Quarter-Century of American Politics,” which is still available in print and online.