_Comment by Ed._ Nicholas Biddle Van Zandt, _A full description of the soil, water, timber, and prairies ... of the military lands between the Mississippi and Illinois rivers_ (Washington, 1818). The author, the title-page shows, was “Late, a clerk in the General Land Office of the United States, Washington City.” [96] For the Arkansas Post, see Cuming’s _Tour_, volume iv of our series, note 195.--ED. [97] For the early history of Detroit, see Croghan’s _Journals_, volume i of our series, note 18.--ED. [98] For Fort Howard, see Evans’s _Tour_, volume viii of our series, note 82. The mouth of the Wisconsin had been the site of temporary trading-posts during the French regime, but the first permanent settlement was begun in 1781 by Indian traders. For the expedition thither the following year, see J. Long’s _Voyages_, volume ii of our series, pp. 186-191. During the War of 1812-15 Prairie du Chien was alternately in possession of the Americans and British; see _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, xiii, pp. 1-164. Upon the return of peace, the Americans built Fort Crawford (1816) which was for many years a military post and Indian agency.--ED. [99] Lieutenant Pike obtained the site for this fort from the Indians in 1805, but no use was made of it until 1819, when Fort St. Anthony was begun at the mouth of Minnesota (St. Peter’s) River. Upon the recommendation of General Scott, who inspected it in 1824, the name was changed to Fort Snelling, in honor of the military officer who directed its construction. It was sold by the government at private sale in 1857; but a congressional inquiry ensuing, a new arrangement was made in 1871, whereby the fort was retained and the remainder of the military reservation transferred to the purchaser.--ED. [100] In the Indiana enabling act passed in 1816, Congress granted to that state for a seat of government, any four sections of land thereafter to be acquired from the Indians. Commissioners appointed by the legislature selected the present site of Indianapolis in 1820. However, it was then a wilderness over sixty miles from any store, and the government was not actually transferred thither until 1825.--ED. [101] Patrick Kennedy was a trader at Kaskaskia, in the Illinois country, during British ascendency. The expedition referred to was undertaken in search of copper mines, and extended as far as the mouth of Kankakee River. His journal of this tour is published in Hutchins, _A Topographical Description of Virginia_ (London, 1778).--ED. [102] The historic Missouri question was settled by the Missouri Compromise, passed by Congress February 27, 1821, admitting Missouri as a slave state, but decreeing that slavery should be excluded from all other territory north of latitude 36° 30′ N. (the south boundary of Missouri).--ED. LETTER XIV Lawyers--Doctors--Clergy--Mechanics--Justices of the Peace--Anecdotes--Punishments--Reflections. _Jeffersonville, (Indiana,) March 10, 1819._