INDIANS. 193 



upon those matters alone has cost the people hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars, beside a large probable loss of moneys 

 that would have been received into the treasury if they had 

 been adopted ; and at the same time injustice and wrong has 

 been suffered by the settler, and the business of the Land 

 Office uselessly increased by the examination of conflicting 

 claims. 



So long as a few traders control the intercourse and mono- 

 polize the trade with the Indians, and the lav/s are shaped so 

 as to favor their designs and interests, the red man must, of 

 course, suffer wrong and injustice, in every shape which 

 avarice can suggest, and cunning devise, for enriching the 

 trader at the expense of his less adroit customer. 



We are not of those who clamor against our own govern- 

 ment, and slander our own worthy fathers, for an imagined 

 ill-treatment and oppression of the red man, which a morbid 

 sensibility only, not a discerning judgment, may perceive. 

 There is neither fraud nor oppression in purchasing the 

 Indian lands for a full value and more than any neighboring 

 tribe would give him. Neither is he injured by removing 

 him from the society of the white man to those scenes that 

 are congenial to his nature, and where he may freely enjoy 

 those pursuits which he fondly imagines will make the hea- 

 ven of the good Indian. But, under the laws regulating 

 trade and intercourse with him, the red man suffers injury, 

 not from the government, but from the traders. 



It is a matter of some importance, in a state of war 



between the United States and any foreign nation, 



that care should be taken to cultivate a good disposition 



among the Indians on our borders, that our relations with 



them should be pacific. To ensure this, two things are 



especially to be regarded, viz.: That our laws controlling our 



Indian relations be calculated to benefit and give satisfaction 



10 



