t is to be hoped that the Postmaster-General will live
long enough to find out that he has been deceived in this matter.

_29th_. Mr. Conant, of New York, writes: "I hope you will not fail to
prosecute your Indian inquiries this winter, getting out of them all the
stories and all the _Indian_ you can. I conclude you hear an echo now
and then from the big world, notwithstanding your seclusion. The Creek
Delegation is at Washington, unfriendly to the late treaty, and I expect
some changes not a little interesting to the aboriginal cause. Mr. Adams
looks at his 'red children' with a friendly eye, and, I trust, 'the men
of his house,' as the Indian orator called Congress, will prove
themselves so. I have been charmed with the quietude and coolness
manifested in Congress in reference to the Georgia business."

And with these last words from the civilized world, we are prepared to
plunge into another winter, with all its dreary accompaniments of ice
and snow and tempests, and with the _consoling_ reflection that when our
poor and long-looked-for monthly express arrives, we can get our letters
and papers from the office after duly performing our genuflections to a
petty military chief, with the obsequiousness of a Hindoo to the image
of Juggernaut.

CHAPTER XXVI.

General aspects of the Indian cause--Public criticism on the state of
Indian researches, and literary storm raised by the new views--Political
rumor--Death of R. Pettibone, Esq.--Delegate election--Copper mines of
Lake Superior--Instructions for a treaty in the North--Death of Mr.
Pettit--Denial of post-office facilities--Arrival of commissioners to
hold the Fond du Lac treaty--Trip to Fond du Lac through Lake
Superior--Treaty--Return--Deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

_1826. Feb. 1st_. The year opens with unfavorable symptoms for the
Indian cause. The administration is strong in Congress, and the
President favorable to the Indian view of their right to the soil they
occupy east of the Mississippi until it is acquired by free cession. But
the doctrine of state sovereignty contended for by Georgia, seems to be
an element which all the States will, in the end, unite in contending
for. And the Creeks may settle their accounts with the fact that they
must finally go to the West. This is a practical view of the subject--a
sort of political necessity which seems to outride everything else.
Poetry and sympathy are rode over roughshod in the contest for the