closed letters from Governor Hull,
respecting the Indians in the vicinity of Detroit residing within our
lines. They contain information of the state of things in that quarter
which will properly enter into their view in estimating the means to
be provided for the defense of our country generally.

TH. JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 8, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I now render to Congress the account of the fund established for
defraying the contingent expenses of Government for the year 1807.
Of the sum of $18,012.50, which remained unexpended at the close
of the year 1806, $8,731.11 have been placed in the hands of the
Attorney-General of the United States, to enable him to defray sundry
expenses incident to the prosecution of Aaron Burr and his accomplices
for treasons and misdemeanors alleged to have been committed by them,
and the unexpended balance of $9,275.39 is now carried according to
law to the credit of the surplus fund.

TH. JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 15, 1808.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

The posts of Detroit and Mackinac having been originally intended by the
Governments which established and held them as mere depots for commerce
with the Indians, very small cessions of land around them were obtained
or asked from the native proprietors, and these posts depended for
protection on the strength of their garrisons. The principles of our
Government leading us to the employment of such moderate garrisons in
time of peace as may merely take care of the post, and to a reliance on
the neighboring militia for its support in the first moments of war,
I have thought it would be important to obtain from the Indians such a
cession in the neighborhood of these posts as might maintain a militia
proportioned to this object; and I have particularly contemplated, with
this view, the acquisition of the eastern moiety of the peninsula
between lakes Michigan and Huron, comprehending the waters of the latter
and of Detroit River, so soon as it could be effected with the perfect
good will of the natives. Governor Hull was therefore appointed a
commissioner to treat with them on this subject, but was instructed to
confine his propositions for the present to so much of the tract before
described as lay south of Saguina Bay and round to the Connecticut
Reserve, so as to consolidate the new with the present settled country.
The result has been an acquisition of so much only o