194 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



to them ; and that the force of agents be increased. The laws 

 at present existing, governing the trade with the Indians, are 

 void of that wisdom and justice which is necessary to con- 

 vince the Indian of the kind dispositions of our government. 

 I will refer here to one prominent feature of them. It is that 

 which destroys competition. Monopoly is always odious — 

 odious to the buying class, because, destroying competition, 

 it enables the seller to have his own price for his goods ; and 

 odious and unjust to all other persons, because it violates that 

 first principle in a free government, that the citizen is not to 

 be restricted of his natural rights and liberties farther than is 

 necessary for the good of the whole community. There is 

 nothing in which the violation of this principle is more prac- 

 tically oppressive than in the restraint of trade. Trade is a 

 natural right, in which no man should be restricted but for a 

 great and palpable public good. But in no other direction or 

 department of trade is the principle so thoroughly odious, so 

 oppressive, and so likely to lead to results burdensome to the 

 government, and dangerous to the citizen, as in the Indian 

 trade. Tlie Indian shows not his inferiority to the white 

 man so much in anything as in the arts of trade. Even 

 under the circumstances most favorable to the Indian, he will 

 be generally overreached by the white man. Monopoly 

 places him completely in his power ; free and open competi- 

 tion compels the trader to be more moderate in his exactions, 

 and to relax somewhat of the horse-leech appetite which he 

 IS at liberty to indulge when his avarice has full play, and 

 which constantly grows with what it feeds on. There are 

 two plans of obviating the ill effects of this system of mono- 

 poly. The first has been suggested : a free and hcaltliy 

 competition. . The other is, the establishment of factories by 

 government, and the sale of goods on. government account, at 

 regulated prices and moderate profits. This last mode, as a 



