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 obliged to you for relieving me.”  Truth is, I have never regarded the employment of literary time as thrown away.  The discipline of the mind, induced by composition, is something, and it is surprising what may be done by a person who carefully “redeems” all his time.  It does not, in the least, incapacitate him for business.  It rather quickens his intellect for it.

Feb. 1st.  My former agreeable guest at Mackinack (Rev. Geo. H. Hastings) writes me from Walnut Hills, Ohio:  “There is a missionary spirit in our institution (Lane Seminary) that responds to the wants of the world.  The faculty have pressed upon the minds of us all the duty of examining early the question, ‘Ought I to be a missionary?’”

16th.  My brother James writes from St. Mary’s, foot of Lake Superior:  “The month has been remarkably cold, the thermometer having ranged from 13 deg..23 to 38 deg. below zero.  Snow we have had in great abundance.”

17th.  Hon. Lewis F. Linn, U.S.  Senator, writes respecting the scientific character and resources of Missouri, in view of a project, matured by him, for establishing a western armory:  “Your intimate knowledge of the Ozark Mountains, its streams descending north and south, and those passing through to the east, with its unequaled mineral resources, would be, to me, of infinite service, to accomplish the purpose I have in view, should you be so kind as to communicate them, in reference to this particular measure, and by so doing you would confer a lasting obligation.”

The resources of Missouri in iron, lead, and coal, to which I first called attention in 1819, are of such a noble character as surely to require no bolstering from the effects of particular measures.