The Character and Influence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin

by Frederick Jackson Turner

[214] Annals of Cong., IV., 1273; cf. ibid., V., 231.

[215] Amer. State Papers, Ind. Affs., I., 583.

[216] Annals of Cong., VI., 2889.

[217] Annals of Congress, V., 230 ff., 283; Abridgment of Debates, VII., 187-8.

[218] Amer. State Papers, Ind. Affs., I., 684; II., 181.

[219] Amer. State Papers, VI., Ind. Affs., II., 203; Ind. Treaties, 399 et seq.; Wis. Hist. Colls., VII., 269; Washington Gazette, 1821, 1822, articles by Ramsay Crooks under signature "Backwoodsman," and speech of Tracy in House of Representatives, February 23, 1821; Benton, Thirty Years View; id., Abr. Deb., VII., 1780.

[220] To understand the importance of these two points see post, pp. 62-5.

[221] In an address before the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, on the Character and Influence of the Fur Trade in Wisconsin (Proceedings, 1889, pp. 86-98), I have given details as to Wisconsin settlements, posts, routes of trade, and Indian location and population in 1820.

[222] Wis. Hist. Colls., XI., 377. Compare the articles used by Radisson, ante, p. 29. For La Salle's estimate of amount and kind of goods needed for a post, and the profits thereon, see Penna. Archives, 2d series, VI., 18-19. Brandy was an important item, one beaver selling for a pint. For goods and cost in 1728 see a bill quoted by E.D. Neill, on p. 20, Mag. West. Hist., Nov., 1887, Cf. 4 Mass. Hist. Colls., III., 344; Byrd Manuscripts, I., 180 ff.; Minn. Hist. Colls., II., 46; Senate Doc. No. 90, 22d Cong., 1st Sess., II., 42 ff.

[223] Wis. Fur Trade MSS. Cf. Wis. Hist. Colls., XI., 377, and Amer. State Papers, Ind. Affs., II., 360. The amount of liquor taken to the woods was very great. The French Jesuits had protested against its use in vain (Parkman's Old Régime); the United States prohibited it to no purpose. It was an indispensable part of a trader's outfit. Robert Stuart, agent of the American Fur Company at Mackinaw, once wrote to John Lawe, one of the leading traders at Green Bay, that the 56 bbls. of whiskey which he sends is "enough to last two years, and half drown all the Indians he deals with." See also Wis. Hist. Colls., VII., 282; McKenney's Tour to the Lakes, 169, 299-301; McKenney's Memoirs, I., 19-21. An old trader assured me that it was the custom to give five or six gallons of "grog"—one-fourth water—to the hunter when he paid his credits; he thought that only about one-eighth or one-ninth part of the whole sales was in whiskey.