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to draw bills on the paymaster general to the
amount of
$300,000

lle accordingly drew, under this
authority, during the year 1815,
bills to the amount of 281,196
dollars, 85 cents, which have
been paid.

On the 8th day of February, 1816, Robert Searcy, the successor in office to Mr. Coleman, was authorized to draw bills on the Paymaster general to the amount of

On the same day the paymaster general remitted Mr. Searcy in draughts of the treasury of the U. States on banks at and near Nashville,

On the 5th day of April, 1816, Mr. Searcy was authorized to draw bills on the paymaster general for

And by the same letter a remit-
tance was made him in a
draught of the treasurer of the
United States on the bank at
Nashville,

On the 22d day of June, 1816,
Mr. Searcy was authorized to
draw bills as aforesaid, for
On the 26th day of June, 1816, a
remittance of this sum (40,000)
was made to Mr. Searcy, by the
paymaster general, in a draught
of the treasurer of the United
States, on the receiver of public
moneys at Huntsville, but it is
possible the money may not
have been received by Mr.
Searcy, for want of funds in the
hands of the receiver to meet
it,

300,000

130,000

80,000

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100,000

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180,000

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

40,000

-830,000

Ibberville,

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Mr. Searcy's bills to the amount of about 60,000 dollars, have appeared for payment.

On the 29th day of January, 1816,
Joseph H. Windle, assistant
district paymaster, at Knox-
ville, and who has been special-
ly charged with the payment
of the troops of East Tennessee,
was authorized to draw bills on
the paymaster general for
And on the 22d day of June,
1816, he was authorized to
draw for

300,000

100,000

La Fourche,

1

1

Opelousas,

3

Attakapas,

1 Feliciana,

From the Petersburgh Intelligencer.

INDIAN GENIUS.

Although we are not such enthusiasts or admirers of the qualifications of a savage life as the Secretary of War, yet we have both seen" and heard of such examples of extraordinary talents in the aborigines of this country, as cause us to deplore the unhappy fate of the Indian tribes. Perhaps the civilized nations of Europe are not -400,000 || able to produce an individual of the same astonishing powers as were exhibited by a young chief $1,530,000 of the Sacs, a tribe of Indians who inhabit the banks of the Mississippi above the river Illinois. The story of the admirable Crichton, who attracted the notice of Europe in the sixteenth century, is not more remarkable than the following account $300,000 of a young Sac, which account was drawn up by 830,000 a friend of ours, who had an opportunity of being 400,000 in his company for seven or eight days:

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the logical reasoning of the other. The conver sation and remarks of this Indian youth, whom the God of nature seemed to have inspired, not

struction. Were I to name any period of my life in which I have enjoyed true felicity, I should have no hesitation in fixing upon those few days which I spent in company with this Indian. I have seldom met with an artist who had a more refined taste, or a more accurate eye in sketching the beauties of nature than he had. Although it was the month of December, yet the weather was uncommonly dry and mild; and we amused ourselves some hours each day in delineating the picturesque scenery with which Frankfort was surrounded. The observations and remarks which he made in our walks were such as might have been expected from one conversant with the works of Poussin Salvator Rosa or Claude de Lorraine. The interest which I felt for this ex

way to a visit to President Jefferson. Among these chiefs was a young Sac, between seventeen and eighteen years of age. It was the first time he had ever been in a white settlement: and pre-only afforded me more pleasure, but more invious to his coming to St. Louis, had never even seen a mortal but the natives of his woods. His stature was five feet ten and one haif inches. The proportion of his limbs was equal to that of those exquisite models of art, which the genius of antiquity has left as a standard for modern taste. His complexion and the skin of his body, although not so fair as the. Osages, (who are as white as the citizens of the United States) were not near so dark as the other Indians. His eyes were entirely destitute, of that dark ferocity which is a general characteristic of the Indian tribes. They were quick and penetrating, and at the same time had that placid regard which always fascinates and attracts attention. His face, it is true, was painted; but even in this he displayed a taste ancommon to savages. The colours were laid on,traordinary youth induced me to make an appliand blendid together with all the art and delicacy cation to Mr. Jefferson, expressive of my desire, of a theatrical performer. I never beheld a youth that he should be retained in the United States, who seemed so much to realize that picture which and educated at some respectable seminary. The the pen of Xenophon has drawn of young Cyrus President was pleased to favour me with an anwhen residing with his grandfather Astyages. But swer upon the subject, concurring with me in the the mental talents of this youthful Sac far sur- same wish, but stating, that from the unfortunate passed the charms of his person. The astonish- circumstance of several of the Sacs having died ing powers of memory he possessed I discovered on their visit to Washington, it was thought proin the following manner: I was curious to knowper that he and his surviving companions should in what manner he would pronounce the words of be restored to their native country. They redifferent languages, and to ascertain what lan- || turned by a different route from Kentucky, so guage, of those I understood, the organs of his that I never had an opportunity of seeing hon speech were best adapted to express. Upon read-again."

ing several lines of English, I was surprized to

REMARKS.

find he repeated the same immediately after me, The account of this Indian, we are of opinion, without the mistake of a single word. To deter-furnishes the best solution as to the means emmine whether this was the effect of memory ployed by young Colburn, the celebrated arithalone, I took up a volume of the minor Greekinetical prodigy, who was able to extract square Poets, and read twenty lines of Bion's epitaph and cube root by an instantaneous perception. on the death of Adonis. The sonorous melody We have seen this boy, and have been present for which this little poem is remarkable, was the at his exhibitions; and we are satisfied that his cause of my selecting it. He recited the twenty solutions were the result of strength of memory, lines after me with an error of only four words. and not instinctive perception. We believe that This was a specimen of memory which I believe he had previously committed to memory a table few of the best Greek scholars can boast, of be- of the squares and cubes of numbers to a certain ing able to recite twenty lines of Greek verse extent, and by means of this table he performed from a single reading. I next read twenty lines those solutions which appeared so extraordinary from the first pastoral of Virgil. He had more to spectators. There is no faculty of the mind difficulty in recollecting these. However, after which, particularly in youth, is capable of such several repetitions, he accomplished it. I now improvement as the memory; and it is to be remade a trial of English poetry, and read the same gretted that more attention is not paid to this in number of lines from the first book of Pope's education. We are told by Mr. Fnss, a pupil of translation from the filiad. These he recollected the great Euler, that two of Mr. Euler's pupils after twice reading. The most remarkable cir- who had calculated by memory alone a converging cumstance was, that he recited all those lines of series as far as the seventeenth term, and found, Greek, Latin, and English the next day, without on comparing the result with written results, that any practice in the mean time. The talent he they only differed one unit at the fiftieth figure! possessed for communicating his ideas, as well as The same writer informs us, that Mr. Euler, in for receiving others, was also extraordinary. Al- order to exercise his little grandson in the exthough he was as much a stranger to the English traction of roots caused him to commit to memory language as the language of the Sacs was foreign a table of the six first powers of all numbers to me, yet, after the first day, we experienced no from 1 to 100, by which means the boy could difficulty in exchanging with each other our sen- readily answer the root of any number comprised timents upon all subjects. He remained in Frank-in the table. The late excellent Governor Page fort seven or eight days, during which time I followed the same practice with his children, and made it my business to enjoy exclusively his com- he had one son who, at the age of seven or eight, pany. The Kentucky Legislature was then in was able to perform the same extraordinary calsession, and there were several interesting argu-culations by memory as the prodigy Colburn. ments between Mr. Clay and Mr. Grundy upon This young man was afterwards unhappily drownthe policy of bank establishments; but I could|| ed at Williamsburg, while a student at the colneither listen to the eloquence of the one, nor ll lege of William and Mary. Young Colburn, we

think, excited much more attention in Europe average among an equal population in the remainthan he merited. Professor Stewart has the fol-ing sections of our country. The means possessed lowing remark regarding him, in his second vo- by the middle and southern States to purchase lume upon the mind: "In some rare anomalous their foreign importations, are apparent in the cases, a rapidity of judgment in the more com- excess of their domestic productions. But where plicated concerns of life appears in individuals are they found in New-England? This is a queswho have had so few opportunities of profiting tion at this moment of critical importance, when by experience, that it seems, on a superficiala general peace in Europe has enlarged the sphere view, to be the immediate gift of heaven But of neutral competition, or rather when no country in all such instances (although a great deal must possesses the advantage of a neutral character. undoubtedly be ascribed to an inexplicable apti- The answer is, the sources of our past prosperity tude or predisposition of the intellectual powers) have been found in commerce; and the object of we may be perfectly assured, that every judgment this inquiry is to ascertain whether those sources of the understanding is preceded by a process of still remain to us, whether our prosperity must reasoning or deduction, whether the individual decline, or whether it can be preserved by a new himself be able to recollect it or not. Of this direction of our industry. I can no more doubt, than I could bring myself to believe that the arithmetical prodigy, who has, of late, so justly attracted the attention of the curious, is able to extract square and cube rootsbility, as one more essential to their interests by an instinctive and instantaneous perception, because the process of mental calculation by which he is led to the result eludes all his efforts to recover it."

Commerce has been emphatically said to be the cause of our wealth; it is upon this subject that our population has manifested pecular sensi

than to any other section of the United States. With certain modifications, this opinion, we apprehend, will be found to be correct.-We do not mean that the commerce of New-England is At the end of the volume, Professor Stewart greater in proportion to its population than that has the following note referring to this article:of the middle and southern States; at least, so "The arithmetical prodigy, alluded to in the far as commerce is understood to mean the capitext, is an American boy, (still, I believe, in Lon- tal employed in mercantile pursuits. Nor is it don) of whose astonishing powers in performing, our opinion that the industry of our people cannot by a mental process hitherto unexplained, the be as profitably applied to any other object. We most difficult numerical operations, some accounts only mean that with the present commercial habits have lately appeared in various literary journals. of the people, we have, proportionally, a greater When the sheet containing the reference to this number of persons whose support is absolutely note was thrown off I entertained the hope of dependant on the various employments incident having an opportunity, before reaching the end to commerce, than are to be found elsewhere in of the volume, to ascertain, by personal observa- the union. And the reason we conceive to be tion, some particulars with respect to him. which found, not in the amount of the commercial capiI thought might throw light on my conclusions tal, but in the manner in which it is employed. concerning the faculty of Attention in the former Much of this capital is invested in shipping, the volume of this work. In this expectation, how-prófits of which must be derived from the transever, I have been disappointed; and have, there-portation of merchandise: and since we have fore, only to apologize for having inadvertently excited a curiosity, which I am at present unable to gratify."

none of our own growth, or, at least, not sufficient for the employment of a tenth part of our vessels, this source of our prosperity is entirely lost, If Professor Stewart had been fortunate enough either when commerce is totally inhibited, or to have been an eye witness to the operations of when the States and countries where such merchanthis boy, we are persuaded he would have agreed || dise is grown decline the use of our shipping for with us, and have attributed to the powers of its transportation. It is not our object to ascermemory what he now supposes was performed by tain the comparative injury which different seca process of "reasoning or deduction." In the tions of the country suffer from the interruption case of the Sac Indian, it is evident the reciting of trade; it is sufficient for our purpose to know of the Greek, Latin, and English verse was an that the productiveness of our shipping depends, effort of memory alone, and that reasoning or most altogether, on the latitude given in the deduction had nothing to do in the business. The American carrying trade. The middle and southboy Colburn, in like manner, might have had a ern sections, whose capital is principally employtable of the powers of numbers in his memory, ed in the production of their staple commodities, which enabled him to give ready solutions of would preserve the sources of their wealth in contheir roots. tinuing the markets for their merchandise, whe ther its carriers be Englishmen or Americans. The different character of our commercial enterprise from that of the southern States, makes the question of prosperity entirely different when apThe sources of our prosperity, unlike those of plied to New-England, from what it is when ap every other important section of this country, do plied to the United States. Perhaps there has not consist in the excess of our domestic produc- never been a period of our history, when our protions over our consumption. We have no valua-gress in wealth, and in the general developement ble staple to exchange for our foreign importa- of our national resources has been more rapid tions, & to furnish subjects of merchandise for the than at the present moment. Every article of doemployment of our capital. With a dense and en-mestic growth or manufacture bears an uncom lightened population, whose habits of life involve the artificial wants of refinement, we consume a larger proportion of foreign articles than is the

From the Boston Yankee of the 2d inst.
NEW-ENGLAND.

monly high price, and consequently obtains an unfailing market; and the amount of this produce, in proportion to our growing population,

must be greater than at any former period. In a American shipping for that purpose. It is imcountry possessing so many valuable and import-possible to ascertain at present what portions of ant staples of our own, there can be no sources that trade the skill and enterprise of our Ameriof property wanted, when heaven is favourable in can seaman may retain; but it is obvious, in losing the season, and the produce obtains a high price the advantage of neutrality, the principal cause and a certain market. Such peculiarly is our si-of our preference must be done away; and if tuation at the present moment: while it is certain these reasons were not sufficient to satisfy us of that there never has been a time in the history of the fact, it is abundantly proved by the general our country when a smaller profit accrued to the complaint of our ship owners, that there is hardly merchant for transportation; or, in other words, a voyage now made to any part of the world, when the carrying trade was less profitable. which does not involve a loss to the owners. That period has already arrived, which able poli- From such causes of depression relief is sought ticians have predicted; when the great interests in the anticipation of future hostilities. Notwithof acriculture are uncommonly prosperous, while standing the "bulwark" is triumphant, and no the shipping interest is proportionally depressed. longer struggling for her existence: and BonaWhile the United States possess a monopoly of parte is become a harmless prisoner, while the the most valuable commercial staples, it is suffi- Bourbons wield his tremendous sceptre with the cient for its agricultural interests, that commerce impotence of an infant playing with the spear of is at the same time secure and unlimited. And Achilles; notwithstanding Austria is still indeso far as these productions require the employ.pendent, and the Russian capital has ceased to ment of our, shipping, the merchant cannot fail dread the fate of Moscow, our merchants are to reap a reasonable profit from its transportation.desirous of continental hostilities, with scarcely But the extent of our shipping is much greater less avidity than when the French emperor threatthan is adequate for this purpose: it was multi-ened the Austrian capital with one army, and the pli to suit the contingency of our neutral cha-independence of England with another. This racter, in transporting the produce of belligerent sentiment excites no surprise from merchants, countries. A general peace has closed this ave- whose political feelings in every country and in nue to our pursuits, and has given a depression every age have always been graduated on the to the shipping interest in proportion to the ex-scale of their commercial interest. But it is at cess it has left unemployed. This reverse is sus- least doubtful whether, for several years to come, tained almost exclusively by New-England, be- such a war will happen in Europe; and if it should cause the belligerent carrying trade, was most happen, this doubt is still stronger, whether Amepeculiarly her advantage. What then is to be- ricans will be suffered to reap the benefits of neu come of the shipping interest of Massachusetts?trality. It is true, that one of the great enemies Will our domestic productions find it employ-of our trade will not be able to renew his aggresment? Will the belligerent carrying trade be restored to us? Or will New-England suffer in her prosperity, unless her commercial capital is employed in other pursuits-in agriculture and in manufactures. These are questions of awful solicitude at this moment, which more and more attract attention, and every day acquire new in-herent a part of her belligerent system, as the preservation of her maritime ascendancy. The In order to ascertain whether our domestic pro-idle pretence of retaliation may indeed be wanted ductions will employ the shipping interest of this country, it becomes important to ascertain the amount of our domestic exportations. In 1806, these, in all New-England, amounted to 9,594,000 dollars; in 1807, to 8,958,000 dollars. Of these more than two thirds were from Massachusetts. The years we have selected were those when our commerce were most active and unlimited. These were the maximum of our domestic exportations, and there is little doubt but a large portion of this merchandise consisted of articles the growth In the letter of Messrs. Munroe and Pinckney, of other States, transported here coast-wise, and announcing the treaty they had formed with the therefore not to be considered as an article of British commissioners on the 31st of December, our own growth. Our exports of foreign produc-1806, occurs this remarkable passage; the more tions in 1806, were 16,295,000 dollars-in 1807, remarkable from the fact that the British com15,260,000 dollars, of which Massachusetts had in missioners (lords Holland and Auckland) were those years respectively, 14,577,000, & 13,926,000 personally favourable to the United States; and dollars. Thus it is apparent, that of the shipping were appointed under the Fox administration, of of New-England, nearly two thirds were employ-all others the most favourable to the adjustment ed in the transportation of foreign merchandise, of our differences. "The eleventh article," says and of the other third, a very large proportion the letter, "regulates the great question of our was of the growth of the middle and southern commerce with enemies' colonies, the interrupStates. This then is the answer of the first question of which was one of the principal causes of tion, whether our domestic productions will give the late difference between the two countries. employment to our shipping. The British commissioners are desirous of bur

terest.

sions; but it is also true that the power of the other has been immensely augmented by a course of events which has made her the arbitress of Europe. The British orders of council were not the occasional policy of a moment; the principles which produced them are as permanent and in

in a new war, but that government has no more difficulty in selecting pretences for the policy she may adopt than she has in finding simpletons to be duped by them. Indeed it has sometimes happened in the correspondence of her ministers with those of our own country, that they have thought these pretences too preposterous to be treated with gravity, and candidly admitted the obvious ground of her policy was that she should participate in the benefits of our neutrality.

The general peace in Europe, by enabling na-dening the intercourse with several severe restrictions formerly belligerents to become their own * Dated January 3, 1807. See American State Papers, vol. 6. carriers, removes the necessity for employing p. 67.

giving an account of an excursion into Kentucky in the fall of last year-dated Marietta, (Ohio) April 4, 1816.

the hospitable mansion of Mr. Miller, (the overseer of Messrs. Wilkins and Gratz, in whose land the cave opens) who met me at the gate, and, as he anticipated my object, bade me wel come to all his house afforded.

tions, to place, as they did not hesitate to state, their own merchants on an equal footing in the great markets of the continent, with those of the United States. With that view, and to settle all ques- The country for a considerable distance round tions concerning the contrariety of the voyage, the cave is not mountainous, yet broken and rol they proposed that all articles of West-India pro-ling.-It was seven in the evening when I reached duce should be stored in the United States for the term of one month, be transported thence to Europe in another ship from that in which they were brought, and be likewise subjected to a duty of at least four per cent. on re-exportation." Here then is the true history of the rule of '56,. During the evening, Mr. Miller made arrange. as it was called. To give to English merchan..s the ments for my visiting the cave next morning, by full advantage of our neutrality; this is the true procuring me two guides, lamps, &c. I could cause, candidly avowed by an honest statesman, hardly rest during the night, so much had my cuof that interpolated principle of the law of na- riosity been excited by my host's account of the tions, that neutrals should be allowed with ene- "regular confusion" in this subterraneous world. mies in a time of war, only their customary com- At eight in the morning, I left the house in commerce in a time of peace. And this was the rea-. pany with my guides, taking with us two large son why our vessels were required to come to lamps, a compass, and something for refreshments; America, instead of proceeding directly to Eu- and entered the cave about 60 rods from the house, rope with colonial produce, under the pretence down through a pit 40 feet deep, and 120 in cirof neutralizing the property, when by the laws cumference, at the bottom of which is a fine spring of nations never before disputed, enemies' pro- of water. When at the bottom of this pit, you perty was neutralized by the single fact of a bona are at the entrance of the cave, which opens to fide purchase. But this restriction was soon found the north, and is from 40 to 50 feet high, and about not sufficient to produce a fair competition by the || 30 in width, for upwards of 40 rods, when it is not British merchants, and therefore arose at different more than 10 feet wide and 5 feet high. Howtimes the principles, that such property must be ever, this continues but a short distance, when it exported in a different ship, then by a different expands to 30 or 40 feet in width, and is about 20 owner, and, finally, that it must also be landed || in height for about one mile, unti I you come to the and stored in this country. And this was done first hoppers, where salt-petre is manufactured. with the avowed pretence of giving English mer- Thence it is about 40 feet in width and 60 in height chants an equal share with our own. to the second hoppers, two miles from the entrance. We have bestowed some time upon this extract, The loose limestone has been laid up into kandbecause it shows the policy Great Britain in- some walls, on either side, almost the whole distends to practise hereafter; the experience of the tance from the entrance to the second hoppers. The last war has shown her precisely the measure she road is hard, and as smooth as a flag pavement. must adopt to prevent our neutrality from gaining The walls of the cavern are perpendicular in an advantage over her, and in another war she every passage that I traversed; the arches are rewill apply them at once without any of the bung-gular in every part, and have bid defiance even to ling experiments she progressively, and, at first, earthquakes. One of my guides informed me, he unsuccessfully made. The conclusion of the whole was at the second hoppers in 1812, with several experiment was, that the only way to exclude our workmen, when those heavy shocks came on which successful competition was, as by her orders in were so severely felt in this country. He said that council, to prohibit our trade with her enemies about five minutes before the shock a heavy altogether, unless by the way of England, and rumbling noise was heard coming out of the cave by means of a license furnished to us at her own like a mighty wind; that when that ceased, the price. Such will be the case with the New-Eng-rocks cracked, and all appeared to be going in a land carrying trade hereafter, unless the power of the union is adequate to protect our rights. And when their importance to our sectional prosperity is considered, at least to the mercantile As you advance into the cave, the avenue leads part of our people, will not future historians re- from the second hoppers, west, one mile; then S. ject the fact, as too incredible for his purpose, W. to the "chief city," which is six miles from that the war which was waged in opposition to the entrance. This avenue is from 60 to 100 feet such aggressions was advocated by the south, and in height, and about the same in width, the whole opposed by the north; was supported by farmers, distance after you leave the second hoppers until you and resisted by the merchants, and was delibe- come to the cross roads, or chief city, and is near. rately declared to be unjust, wicked, and op-ly upon a level; the floor or bottom being covered pressive, by the government of a State depend-with loose lime-stone and salt-petre earth. When I ing, upon commerce for its properties, and of whose immense capital nearly three fourths were employed in the carrying trade?

We shall finish our observations on this subject in another paper.

moment to final destruction. However, no one was injured, although large rocks fell in some parts of the cave.

reached this immense area, (chief city,) which contains upwards of eight acres, without a single pillar to support the arch, which is entire over the whole, I was struck dumb with astonishment.

I can give you but a faint idea of this chief city. Nothing under heaven can be more sublime and grand that this place, covered with one solid arch at least 100 feet high, and to all appearance entire.

MAMMOTH CAVE. Description of the Great Cave in Warren County, Kentucky. Extract of a letter from a gentleman resident in After entering the chief city, I perceived five the Western Country to his friend in this County, || large avenues leading out of it, from 60 to 100

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