376 



INDIANS. 



INSURANCE. 



in agriculture ; in domestic economy ; in tem- 

 perance, manner of life and behavior, dress 

 and deportment. How great are the advan- 

 tages thus communicated to those children of 

 the forest and prairie, the imagination can more 

 easily picture than the pen describe. 



* 6$ years' interest, at $150 per annum. 



t $20,000 paid on, leaving half year's interest due on $2,000. 



The Federal Government has steadily pursued 

 the plan of purchasing of the Indian tribes 

 their surplus land, after a portion has been re- 

 served, sufficiently large for them to occupy. 

 A portion of the purchase money has generally 

 been retained by the Government, with their 

 consent, and invested in such securities as would 

 yield to the tribe an annuity. The amount 

 of such investments in the securities of the 

 seceded States, the tribes to which they be- 

 long, the amount of interest due, and the time 

 when the last payment of interest by these 

 States was made, are shown in the preceding 

 table. 



INSURANCE. The amount of insurance in 

 the United States has of late years grown to be 

 very large, following the increase in property 

 and the amount of general business, as well as 

 the more strict adherence to the rule of in- 

 surance as a means of covering credits. The 

 value of property covered by insurance risks in 

 the United States is about $2,500,000,000, and 

 a large proportion of that insurance is effected 

 in New York and the Eastern States, under 

 the two general systems of insurance, proprie- 

 tary and mutual. Before the formation of the 

 present government, insurance seems in this 

 country to have been confined to individual 

 underwriters. In 1T92 there was a company 

 incorporated in Philadelphia, and in 1806 the 

 Eagle Company in New York. Marine risks 

 were the most sought after at those early dates 

 in the New England States, where the interests 

 were commercial. As the wealth and trade of 

 the country continued to accumulate, and the 

 operations of commerce were conducted on 

 credits, the value of which depended in a great 

 measure upon the safety of the goods, insurance 

 became a necessary element in most transac- 

 tions, and the demand for policies called into 

 being a large number of companies. These 

 have been the victims of frauds to a large ex- 

 tent, and have also been the means of victimiz- 

 ing the public through fraudulent organizations. 

 If, on rightly conducted principles, they are the 

 means of great benefit to the world, giving 

 birth to numberless enterprises that would not 

 have been undertaken if the individuals had no 

 means of securing themselves from utter ruin 

 through the unavoidable accidents of the ele- 

 ments ; so also have they been the cause of a 

 much larger destruction of property than would 

 have taken place had they not been in exist- 

 ence. The total loss by fires in the United 

 States in usual years is not far from 20 mil- 

 lions per annum ; and in the year 1861, it has, 

 through the operations of war, been more than 

 double that amount. 



The following is a record of the fires which 

 occurred throughout the United States during 

 each month of the year 1861, together with the 

 value of the property destroyed, when the loss 

 at each was estimated to be equal to, or to have 

 exceeded, the sum of twenty thousand dollars, 

 and also the day of the month on which the 

 fire took place. 



