higher view, there is no
blessing which is not pronounced in connection with _labor_ and _faith_.
These the nation falter at.

_18th_. Finished my report on the additional debt claim, under the
treaty of 1836, agreeably to the instructions of the Commission of
Indian Affairs, of the 23d March last, and to the published notice of
April 10th. These claims on the debt fund of the treaty have received
the best consideration of the agent and the Indian chiefs, with the aid
of a secretary authorized at Washington, and the result is forwarded
with confidence to head-quarters.

_19th_. My arduous duties during the summer had thrown some of my
private correspondence in the rear. It may now be proper to notice some
of it. A letter (Aug. 20th) from St. Mary's says: "The schooner John
Jacob Astor arrived on the 18th instant from the head of Lake Superior,
and the captain brings us information of Mr. Warren's arrival at La
Pointe. He attended the treaty at St. Peter's, concluded by Gov. Dodge.
The Indians are to receive $700,000 in annuities for twenty years,
$100,000 to the half-breeds, and $70,000 for Indian creditors."

"Captain Stanard brought down a specimen of native copper, similar to
the piece of forty-nine pounds weight in your cabinet. It was at De
l'Isle, fifteen leagues on the north shore from Fond du Lac."

Mr. John T. Blois, of Detroit (Sept. 20th), informs me that he is
preparing a Gazetteer of Michigan. "Of the topics," he remarks, "I had
proposed to submit to your consideration, one was the etymology of the
Indian nomenclature, to the extent it has been adopted in the
application of proper names to our lakes, rivers, and other inanimate
objects. In the preparation of my work, this subject has frequently
presented itself to my mind as one of interesting importance, and whose
development is more auspicious, at the present time, than it may be at a
future day. I had a particular desire to rescue the Indian names from
that oblivion to which the negligence of the early settlers of other
States has permitted them to descend, by the substitution, for no
reasonable cause, of insignificant English or French names, without
regard to either good taste or propriety.

"I wish, among other things, to ask of you the favor to inform me of the
origin and signification of the name of our adopted State, Michigan."

A correspondent at Detroit (J.L.S.) writes (21st Sept.): "Bills have
been introduced into both Houses to carry out