e means pursued are such as must influence
all the Indian tribes in that quarter strongly in favor of the political
power wielded by that company, and as strongly against the government of
the United States, which has not a shadow of a power of any kind on the
Pacific. Silently, but surely, a vast influence is being built up on
those coasts, adverse to our claims to the territory, and it cannot be
long till those intrepid factors, sustained by the government at home,
will assert it in a manner not easy to be resisted. I embodied these
ideas strongly in my paper. The Secretary was arrested by the justice of
my conclusions, and seemed disposed to do something, but the subject
was, apparently, weighed down and forgotten in the press of
other matters.

_13th_. Hon. E. Whittlesey, Chairman of the Committee on Claims, House
of Representatives, remarks in effect, in a letter of this date, that to
create a just claim against the United States, it must be shown that
property and provisions taken by the troops, when operating in an
enemy's country, were applied to the subsistence or clothing of the
army or navy, although it was private property, and the orders of the
commandant were, in all cases, to respect "private property."
Consequently, that the disrespect of such orders might make the
commander or his troops _personally_ liable to amercement; but the
government is not justly liable. Certainly, that officer is to be pitied
whose sovereign will not stand by him in the execution of written
orders! Nor do I see how the strict legality and morality of the
question is to be got along with. May the government turn pirate with
impunity? Does it war against women and children, and the ordinary
private and domestic rights guaranteed to the citizen by the original
rights of society defined in Blackstone?

_14th_. A soldier, in garrison at Fort Mackinack, writes to me, wishing,
on the expiration of his term of enlistment, to become "a soldier of
Christ," and to enter the missionary field. That is a good thought,
Sergeant Humphrey Snow! Better to fight against human sins than to shoot
down sinners.

_18th_. Dr. C.R. Gilman inquires, "Is the rock at Gros Cap granite? Can
you give me particulars about the Indian fairies?"

_27th_. I am requested, from a high quarter, to furnish an article for
the _Southern Literary Messenger_. "You are in for a scrape," says a gay
note on the subject. "I have told Mr. White all about it. I am greatly