roved a
report from a committee charged with the subject--"That, in their
opinion, the dissertation on the Odjibwa language with a vocabulary of
the same, contemplated by Mr. Schoolcraft, would be a suitable and
valuable contribution to our collections, and that he be requested to
proceed and complete the work, and transmit it to the society for
publication." This was communicated to me by Hon. Thomas L. Winthrop,
their president, on the 2d of May, and opened an eligible way for my
bringing forward my investigations of this language, without expense to
myself. The difficulty now was, that the offer had come, at a time when
it was impossible to complete the paper. I was compelled to defer it
till the pressure of business, which now began to thicken on my hands,
should abate. It was in this manner, and in the hope that the next
season would afford me leisure, that the matter was put off, from time
to time, till it was in a measure cast behind and out of sight, and not
from a due appreciation of the offer.

_May 17th_ In the letter of appointment to me, of this date, from the
Secretary of War, to treat with the Saginaws, it is stated: "You are
authorized to offer them the proceeds which their lands may bring,
deducting such expenses as may be necessary for its survey, sale, &c.
You will take care that a sufficient fund is reserved to provide for
their removal, and such arrangements made for the security and
application of the residue as will be most beneficial to them." These
instructions were carried out, in articles of a compact, in which the
government furthermore agreed, in view of the lands not being
immediately brought into market, to make a reasonable advance to these
Indians. Yet the Senate rejected it, not, it would seem, for the
liberality of the offer of the nett proceeds of the lands, but for the
almost _per necessitate_ offer of a moderate advance, to enable the
people to turn themselves in straitened circumstances, which had been
the prime motive for selling.

The advance was, in fact, as I have reason to believe, a mere bagatelle,
but the chairman of the Indian Committee in the Senate was rather on the
lookout for something, or anything, to embarrass or disoblige General
Jackson and his agents, having fallen out with him, and being then,
indeed, a candidate for President of the U.S. himself, at the coming
election. If I had not heard the pointed expressions of Hon. Hugh L.
White, on more than one occasion,