This
made my position agreeable.
I was appointed chairman of the committee on expenditures, and a member
of the judiciary, &c. I directed my attention to the incorporation of a
Historical Society; to the preparation of a system of township names
derived from the aboriginal languages; and to some efforts for bettering
the condition of the natives, by making it penal to sell or give them
ardent spirits, and thus desired to render my position as a legislator
useful, where there was but little chance of general action. As chairman
of the committee on expenditures, I kept the public expenditures snug,
and, in every respect, conformable to the laws of congress. The session
was closed about the first of July--early enough to permit me to return
to St. Mary's, to attend to the summer visits of the interior traders
and Indians.
_10th_ While engaged in the council, a friend writing from New York, who
is a close watcher of political movements, alludes to the sudden and
lamented death of Governor Clinton, last winter, and its effects on the
political parties of that State.
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