1822. At length Congress passed an act, which left Mr. Calhoun free to
carry out his intentions respecting me, by the creation of a separate
Indian agency for Florida. This enabled him to transfer one of the
western agencies, namely, at Vincennes, Indiana, where the Indian
business had ceased, to the foot of the basin of Lake Superior, at the
ancient French village of _Sault de Ste. Marie_, Michigan. Had not this
act passed, it would have been necessary to transfer this agency to
Florida, for which Mr. Gad Humphreys was the recognized appointee. Mr.
Monroe immediately sent in my nomination for this old agency to the
Senate, by whom it was favorably acted on the 8th of May. The gentleman
(Mr. J.B. Thomas, Senator from Illinois) whose boat I had been
instrumental in saving in my descent of the Ohio in the spring of 1818,
I believe, moved its confirmation. It was from him, at any rate, that I
the same day obtained the information of the Senate's action.
I had now attained a fixed position; not such as I desired in the
outset, and had striven for, but one that offered an interesting class
of duties, in the performance of which there was a wide field for
honorable exertion, and, if it was embraced, also of historical inquiry
and research.
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