They report a
great storm at that place on the 8th and 9th of December, 1837, in the
course of which the light-house on Boisblanc was blown down, and other
damage done by the rise of water.
_18th_. Received the Senate's printed document, No. 1, containing the
President's annual message and all the Secretaries' reports. The
Commissioner of Indian Affairs recommends the abolition of sub-agencies,
and the raising of the pay of interpreters--two measures recommended in
my annual report. The department is very much in the hands of ignorant
and immoral interpreters, who frequently misconceive the point to be
interpreted. Could we raise up a set of educated and moral men for this
duty, the department would stand on high grounds. Surely, a sort of
normal institute could teach the principles of the Indian grammar, as
well as the Greek. There is no _sound_ without a _meaning_, and no
meaning conveyed without an orthographical _rule_. They do not _gabble_
at random, as some think. Their modes of utterance are, it is true,
often defective, but they are not without grammatical _laws_, I inquired
into this matter at my first entrance into the Indian country of the
Algonquins, sixteen years ago.
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