[729] American State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, 653-55.
In the debates over the passage of the Act of 1796 it was made evident that even the supporters of the measure regarded it in the light of an experiment.[730] The recent war had cost one and a half million dollars annually; it was worth while to try another method of securing peace on the frontier. Since the Canadian trading company was too powerful for individual Americans to compete successfully with it the government must assume the task. If upon trial the plan should prove a failure, it could be abandoned. On the other hand it was objected that public bodies should not engage in trade, which was always managed better by individuals; fraud and loss could not be guarded against; nor should the people be taxed for the sake of maintaining trade with the Indians. In spite of these objections and prophecies, the report of 1801 showed that the original capital had suffered no diminution, but had, in fact, been slightly increased; this, too, despite losses that had been incurred through the failure of the sales agent, to whom the peltries had been assigned, to dispose of them before many had become ruined.
[730] Annals of Congress, 4th Congress, 1st session, 220-32.
It remains to speak of the degree of success achieved in the broad objects for the attainment of which the system had been inaugurated. Concerning this the report of the Secretary of War in 1801 was entirely favorable.[731] As far as it had been established the effects of the system upon the disposition of the Indians had been very salutary. The several tribes were desirous of participating in its advantages, and no doubt was felt that its extension would be attended by all the good effects originally contemplated by the government, and this without any diminution of the original fund.
[731] American State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, 653-55.
Two years later, in January, 1803, Jefferson stated in a message to Congress that private traders, both foreign and domestic, were being undersold and driven from competition, that the system was effective in conciliating the good will of the Indians, and that they were soliciting generally the establishment of trading houses among them.[732] At the same time the Secretary of War reported the establishment of four new stations, at Detroit, Fort Wayne, Chickasaw Bluffs, and among the Choctaws, to which the remainder of the money appropriated in 1796 had been applied.[733] This remained the number until 1805, when four more were established: at Arkansas on the Arkansas River, at Nachitoches on the Red River, at Belle Fontaine near the mouth of the Missouri, and at Chicago.[734] The following year a trading house was established at Sandusky on Lake Erie, and in 1808 three more, at Mackinac, at Fort Osage, and at Fort Madison.[735] Meanwhile the two original houses had been removed to new locations and two others, those at Detroit and at Belle Fontaine, had been abandoned.
[732] Ibid., I, 684.
[733] Ibid., I, 683.
[734] Report of John Mason, Superintendent of Indian Trade, April 12, 1810, ibid., I, 768 ff.
[735] Ibid.