Whisky is the great means of drawing from him his
furs and skins. To obtain it, he makes a beast of himself, and allows
his family to go hungry and half naked. And how feeble is the force of
law, where all are leagued in the golden bonds of interest to break it!
He is indeed
"Like some neglected shrub at random cast
That shades the steep and sighs at every blast."
_12th_. I received by to-day's mail a note from De Witt Clinton,
Governor of New York. America has produced few men who have united civic
and literary tastes and talents of a high order more fully than he does.
He early and ably investigated the history and antiquities of Western
New York. He views with a comprehensive judgment the great area of the
West, and knows that its fertility and resources must render it, at no
distant day, the home of future millions. He was among the earliest to
appreciate the mineralogical and geographical researches which I made in
that field. He renewed the interest, which, as a New Yorker, he felt in
my history and fortunes, after my return from the head of the
Mississippi in 1820.
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