[772] American Fur Company invoices of goods sold to traders, MSS in the Detroit Public Library. For similar invoices see Wisconsin Historical Collections, XI, 377-79; Michigan Pioneer Collections, XXXVII, 309-11. Mr. Lewis Beeson of Niles, Michigan, has several dozen jews'-harps in his collection of relics from the site of old Fort St. Joseph.
Although Benton's charges so largely failed of substantiation, yet the Senate approved his motion for the abolition of the factory system. The reasons for this action are evident from the debate.[773] Even his colleagues on the Committee of Indian Affairs did not accept Benton's charges of maladministration. They reported the bill for the abolition of the trading-house system in part because of their objections to the system itself. It had never been extended to more than a fraction of the Indians on the frontier; to extend it to all of them would necessitate a largely increased capital, and would result in a multiplication of the obstacles already encountered on a small scale. The complicated nature of the Indian trade was such that only individual enterprise and industry was fitted to conduct it with success. Finally the old argument which had been wielded against the initiation of the system, that it was not a proper governmental function, was employed. The trade should be left to individuals, the government limiting itself to regulating properly their activities.
[773] See, for example, the arguments of Johnson and Lowrie, Annals of Congress, 17th Congress, 1st session, I, 339-44.
Benton's method of abolishing the factory system exhibited as little evidence of statesmanship as did that employed by Jackson in his more famous enterprise of destroying the second United States Bank. In 1818 Calhoun, as Secretary of War, had been directed by Congress to propose a plan for the abolition of the trading-house system. In his report he pointed out that two objects should be held in view in winding up its affairs : to sustain as little loss as possible, and to withdraw from the trade gradually in order that the place vacated by the government might be filled by others with as little disturbance as practicable.[774] Neither of these considerations was heeded by Benton. He succeeded in so changing the bill for the abolition of the system as to provide that the termination of its affairs should be consummated within a scant two months, and by another set of men than the factors and superintendent.[775] That considerable loss should be incurred in winding up such a business was inevitable. Calhoun's suggestions would have minimized this as much as possible. Benton's plan caused the maximum of loss to the government and of confusion to the Indian trade. According to a report made to Congress in 1824 on the abolition of the factory system, a loss of over 50 per cent of the capital stock was sustained.[776]
[774] American State Papers, Indian Affairs, II, 181-85.
[775] Annals of Congress, 17th Congress, 1st session, I, 318, 351, 354.
[776] American State Papers, Indian Affairs, II, 513.
The journal of Jacob Varnum sheds some light upon the losses sustained at the Chicago factory, by reason of the operation of Benton's amendments. Varnum relates that A. B. Lindsay, "a hanger-on about the offices for an appointment for years," superseded him in charge of the factory. "After remaining in Chicago as long as his instructions would permit without making any sale or collecting the debts, he packed all the goods and shipped them to Detroit, where they were again offered for sale; and were finally auctioned off without a guarantee of any kind as to payment. They sold at good prices—the purchasers, not intending to pay, were indifferent as to the prices offered, and, what was foreseen in Detroit, no satisfaction of value was received by the government, and Lindsay, a man without a single business qualification, got credit for the prompt and satisfactory manner with which he had closed the business, and subsequently received an appointment in the Custom service."
These statements, coming from an interested source, should, of course, be subjected to due scrutiny; but in at least one respect they receive confirmation from Lindsay himself. In 1823 in the course of a congressional investigation into the closing up of the Indian trading houses, under cross-examination at the hands of McKenney, the deposed superintendent, Lindsay stated that he had never been engaged in the Indian trade, and that he did not know the proper weight of a three-point northwest blanket, nor what its dimensions should be.[777] It further appears from the financial statement rendered by him that though the property at Chicago invoiced nearly $16,000 he turned over to the government less than $1,250 in cash, the two principal items in his account consisting, in round numbers, of bills receivable to the amount of $5,000 and losses on sales of $7,000.[778]
[777] Ibid., 420.