The evils which flowed from this system of exclusive trade, were sensibly felt by the inhabitants of Louisiana. The governor, regardless of the safety of the community, sold to an individual the right of vending among the Indians every species of merchandise; thus bartering, in effect, his only efficient check on the Indians. The trader, allured by the hope of gain, neither shackled with discretion, nor consulting the public good, proceeded to supply the Indians, on whom he was dependent, with arms, ammunition, and all other articles they might require. The Indian, thus independent, acknowledging no authority but his own, will proceed without compunction of conscience or fear of punishment, to wage war on the defenceless inhabitants of the frontier, whose lives and property, in many instances, were thus sacrificed at the shrine of an inordinate thirst for wealth in their governors, which in reality occasioned all those evils. Although the governors could not have been ignorant that the misfortunes of the people were caused by the independence of the Indians, to which they were accessory, still they were the more unwilling to apply the corrective; because the very system which gave them wealth in the outset, in the course of its progress, afforded them many plausible pretexts to put their hands into the treasury of the king their master. For example; the Indians attack the frontier, kill some of the inhabitants, plunder many others, and agreeably to their custom of warfare, retire instantly to their villages with their booty. The governor informed of this transaction, promptly calls on the inhabitants to aid and assist in repelling the invasion. Accordingly a party assemble under their officers, some three or four days after the mischief had been done, and the Indians, one hundred, or one hundred and fifty miles from them, they pursue them, as they usually did, at no rapid pace, three or four days, and returned without overtaking the enemy, as they might have well known before they set out. On their return the men were dismissed, but ordered to hold themselves in readiness at a moment’s warning. When at the end of some two or three months, the governor chose to consider the danger blown over, he causes receipts to be made out for the full pay of two or three months service, to which the signatures of the individuals are affixed; but as those persons were only absent from their homes ten or twelve days, all that was really paid them, did not amount to more than one fourth or one fifth of what they receipted for, and the balance of course was taken by the governor, as the reward for his faithful guardianship of the lives and property of his majesty’s subjects.
The Spaniards holding the entrance of the Missouri, could regulate as they thought proper the intercourse with the Indians through that channel; but from what has been said, it will be readily perceived, that their traders, shackled with the pecuniary impositions of their governors, could never become the successful rivals of the British merchants on the west side of the Mississippi, which, from its proximity to the United States, the latter could enter without the necessity of a Spanish passport, or the fear of being detected by them. The consequence was that the trade of the rivers Demoin, St. Peter’s, and all the country west of the Mississippi nearly to the Missouri, was exclusively enjoyed by the British merchants. The Spanish governors, stimulated by their own sordid views, declared that the honour of his majesty was grossly compromitted by the liberty that those adventurers took in trading with the natives within his territory, without their permission, and therefore took the liberty of expending his majesty’s money by equipping and manning several galleys to cruise in the channels of the Mississippi in order to intercept those traders of the St. Peter’s and Demoin rivers, in their passage to and from the entrance of the Oisconsing river; but after several unsuccessful cruises, and finding the Indians so hostile to them in this quarter, that they dare not land nor remain long in the channel without being attacked, they therefore retired and gave over the project. The Indians were friendly to the British merchants, and unfriendly to the Spanish, for the plain reason that the former sold them goods at a lower rate. The Ayaways, Sacks, Foxes and Yanktons of the river Demoin, who occasionally visited the Missouri, had it in their power to compare the rates at which the Spanish merchant in that quarter, and the British merchant on the Mississippi sold their goods; this was always much in favour of the latter; it therefore availed the Spaniard but little, when they inculcated the doctrine of their being their only legitimate fathers and friends, and that the British merchants were mere intruders, and had no other object in view but their own aggrandizement. The Indians, deaf to this doctrine, estimated the friendship of both by the rates at which they respectively sold their merchandise; and of course remained the firm friends of the British. In this situation it is not difficult for those to conceive who have felt the force of their machinations, that the British merchants would, in order to extend their own trade, endeavour to break down that of their neighbours on the Missouri. The attachments of the Indians to them, afforded a formidable weapon with which to effect their purposes, nor did they suffer it to remain unemployed.
The merchants of the Dog prairie, rivers Demoin and Ayaway, stimulated the nations just mentioned to the commission of acts of rapacity on the merchants of the Missouri, nor was Mr. Cameron and others, merchants of the river St. Peter’s, less active with respect to the Cissitons, Yanktons of the plains, Tetons, &c. who resort the Missouri occasionally still higher up. War parties of those nations were consequently found lying in wait on the Missouri, to intercept the boats of the merchants of that river at the seasons they were expected to pass, and depredations were frequently committed, particularly by the Ayaways, who have been known in several instances to capture boats on the Missouri, in their descent to St. Louis, and compelled the crews to load themselves with heavy burdens of their best furs across the country to towns, where they disposed of them to the British merchants. In those cases they always destroyed the periogues, and such of the peltries and furs as they could not carry off. It may be urged, that the British merchants knowing that the United States, at present, through mere courtesy, permit them to extend their trade to the west side of the Mississippi; or rather that they are mere tenants at will, and that the United States possess the means of ejecting them at pleasure; that they will, under these circumstances, be induced to act differently towards us than they did in relation to the Spanish government; but what assurance have we that this will be the effect of the mere change of governments without change of measures in relation to them. Suffer me to ask what solid grounds there are to hope that their gratitude for our tolerance and liberality on this subject, will induce them to hold a different policy towards us. None, in my opinion, unless we stimulate their gratitude by placing before their eyes the instruments of our power in the form of one or two garrisons on the upper part of the Mississippi. Even admit that the people were actuated by the most friendly regard towards the interests of the United States, and at this moment made a common cause with us to induce the Indians to demean themselves in an orderly manner towards our government, and to treat our traders of the Missouri with respect and friendship, yet, without some efficient check on the Indians, I should not think our citizens nor our traders secure; because the Indians, who have for ten years and upwards, derived advantages from practice on lessons of rapacity taught them by those traders, cannot at a moment be brought back to a state of primitive innocence, by the united persuasions of all the British traders. I hold it an axiom, incontrovertible, that it is more easy to introduce vice into all states of society than it is to eradicate it; and that this is still more strictly true, when applied to man in savage than in his civilized state. If, therefore, we wish, within some short period, to devest ourselves of the evils which flowed from the inculcation of those doctrines of vice, we must employ some more active agent than the influence of the same teachers who first introduced them. Such an agent, in my opinion, is the power of withholding their merchandise from them at pleasure; and to accomplish this, we must first provide the means of controlling the merchants. If we permit the British merchants to supply the Indians in Louisiana as formerly, the influence of our government over those Indians is lost. For the Indian in possession of his merchandise, feels himself independent of every government, and will proceed to commit the same depredations which they did when rendered independent by the Spanish system.
The traders give themselves but little trouble at any time to inculcate among the Indians a respect for governments; but are usually content with proclaiming their own importance. When the British merchants give themselves trouble to speak of governments, it is but fair to presume that they will teach the natives to respect the power of their own. And at all events, we know from experience that no regard for the blood of our frontier inhabitants will influence them at any time to withhold arms and ammunition from the Indians, provided they are to profit by furnishing them.
Having now stated, as they have occurred to my mind, the several evils which flowed from that system of intercourse with the Indians, pursued by the Spanish government, I shall next endeavour to point out the defects of our own, and show its incompetency to produce the wished for reform; then, with some remarks on the Indian character, conclude by submitting for the consideration of our government, the outlines of a plan which has been dictated as well by a sentiment of philanthropy toward the aborigines of America, as a just regard to the protection of the lives and property of our citizens; and with the further view also of securing to the people of the United States, exclusively, the advantages which ought of right to accrue to them from the possession of Louisiana.
We now permit the British merchants of Canada, indiscriminately with our own, to enter the Missouri, and trade with the nations in that quarter. Although the government of the U. States has not yielded the point that, as a matter of right, the British merchants have the privilege of trading in this quarter; yet from what has been said to them, they are now acting under a belief, that it will be some time before any prohibitory measures will be taken with respect to them; and are therefore making rapid strides to secure themselves in the affection of the Indians, and to break down, as soon as possible, the American adventurers, by underselling them, and thus monopolize that trade: this they will effect to an absolute certainty in the course of a few years. The old Northwest company of Canada have, within the last two years, formed a union with the Newyork company, who had previously been the only important rivals in the fur trade; this company, with the great accession of capital brought them by the Newyork company, have, with a view to the particular monopoly of the Missouri, formed a connexion with a British house in Newyork, another at New Orleans, and have sent their particular agent, by the name of Jacob Mires, to take his station at St. Louis. It may be readily conceived that the union of the Northwest and Newyork companies, who had previously extended their trade in opposition to each other, and to the exclusion of all unassociated merchants on the upper portion of the Mississippi, the waters of lake Winnipec and the Athebaskey country, would, after their late union, have a surplus of capital and a surplus of men, which they could readily employ in some other quarter: such was the Missouri, which, from the lenity of our government, they saw was opened to them; and I do believe, could the fact be ascertained, that the hope of future gain from the fur trade of that river, was one of the principal causes of the union between those two great rivals in the fur trade of North America. That this trade will be nurtured and protected by the British government, I have no doubt, for many reasons, which it strikes me could be offered, but which, not failing immediately within the purview of these observations on the fur trade of Louisiana, I shall forbear to mention.
As the Missouri forms only one of four large branches of the commerce of this united, or as it is still called, the Northwest company, they will have it in their power, not only to break down all single adventurers on the Missouri, but in the course of a few years to effect the same thing with a company of merchants of the United States, who might enter into a competition with them in this single branch of their trade. Nor is it probable that our merchants, knowing this fact, will form a company for the purpose of carrying on this trade, while they see the Northwest company permitted by our government to trade on the Missouri, and on the west side of the Mississippi: therefore, the Northwest company, on the present plan, having driven the adventurers of small capitals from these portions of our territory, will most probably never afterwards have a rival in any company of our own merchants. By their continuance they will acquire strength, and having secured the wished-for monopoly, they will then trade with the Indians on their own terms; and being possessed of the trade, both on the Mississippi and Missouri, they can make the price of their goods in both quarters similar, and though they may be excessively high, yet being the same they will run no risk of disaffecting the Indians by a comparison of the prices at which they receive their goods at those places. If then it appears, that the longer we extend the privilege to the Northwest company of continuing their trade within our territory, the difficulty of excluding them will increase: can we begin the work of exclusion too soon? For my own part I see not the necessity to admit, that our own merchants are not at this moment competent to supply the Indians of the Missouri with such quantities of goods as will, at least in the acceptation of the Indians themselves, be deemed satisfactory and sufficient for their necessities. All their ideas relative to their necessities are only comparative, and may be tested by a scale of the quantities they have been in the habit of receiving. Such a scale I transmitted to the government from fort Mandan. From a regard to the happiness of the Indians, it would give me much pleasure to see this scale liberally increased; yet I am clearly of opinion, that this effect should be caused by the regular progression of the trade of our own merchants, under the patronage and protection of our own government. This will afford additional security to the tranquillity of our much extended frontier, while it will give wealth to our merchants. We know that the change of government in Louisiana, from Spain to that of the United States, has withdrawn no part of that capital formerly employed in the trade of the Missouri; the same persons still remain, and continue to prosecute their trade. To these there has been an accession of several enterprising American merchants, and several others since my return have signified their intention to embark in that trade, within the present year; and the whole of those merchants are now unembarrassed by the exactions of Spanish governors. Under those circumstances is it fair for us to presume that the Indians are not now supplied by our own merchants, with quite as large an amount in merchandise as they had been formerly accustomed to receive? Should the quantity thus supplied not fully meet our wishes on liberal views, towards the Indians, is it not sounder policy to wait the certain progress of our own trade, than in order to supply this momentary deficiency, to admit the aid of the Northwest company, at the expense of the total loss of that trade; thereby giving them a carte blanch on which to write in future their own terms of traffic with the Indians, and thus throwing them into their hands, permit them to be formed into a rod of iron, with which, for Great Britain, to scourge our frontier at pleasure.
If the British merchants were prohibited from trading in upper Louisiana, the American merchants, with the aid of the profits arising from the trade of the lower portion of the Missouri and the western branches of the Mississippi, would be enabled most probably to become the successful rivals of the Northwest company in the more distant parts of the continent; to which we might look, in such case, with a well-founded hope of enjoying great advantages from the fur trade; but if this prohibition does not shortly take place, I will venture to predict that no such attempts will ever be made, and, consequently, that we shall for several generations be taxed with the defence of a country, which to us would be no more than a barren waste.
About the beginning of August last, two of the wintering partners of the Northwest company, visited the Mandan and Minnetaree villages on the Missouri, and fixed on a scite for a fortified establishment. This project once carried into effect, we have no right to hope for the trade of the upper portion of the Missouri, until our government shall think proper to dislodge them.