The Origin and Destruction of a Na- 

 tional Indian Portrait Gallery 



By F. W. Hodge 



LITTLE less than a century has passed since Thomas 

 Loraine McKenney, a merchant in Georgetown, District 

 of Columbia, entered on his duties as United States Super- 

 intendent of Indian Trade, April 12, 1816, succeeding 

 General John Mason. At that time every Indian tribe 

 within the domain of the United States was regarded as a distinct 

 sovereign power with which, when occasion arose, the United States 

 entered into solemn treaty, and the chief interest which the Govern- 

 ment manifested in the various tribes was for the maintenance of 

 peace and the promotion and regulation of trade. As early as 1776 

 the Congress of the Confederation enacted a law for granting licenses 

 and regulating trade among the Indians; but it was not until ten 

 years later that the United States entered into regular trade relations 

 with the tribes by establishing trading-posts on the frontier and pro- 

 viding for the appointment of a Superintendent of Indian Trade. 

 It was to this office that McKenney was called by President Madison 

 in 1 816, and to which he was reappointed by President Monroe in 

 1820. The position was one of trust and of great responsibility, in- 

 volving the expenditure of large sums of money for purposes of trade 

 as well as for the distribution of annuities. This trade was conducted 

 under McKenney 's superintendency for six years; but the large pri- 

 vate fur companies meanwhile steadily increased their own traffic by 

 the introduction of spirituous liquors, until finally, by Act of Congress 

 of May 6, 1822, the Government trade was brought to an end and 

 George Graham was appointed to close the affairs of the Superin- 

 tendency. 



Being just and humane, McKenney had not long been conducting 

 the affairs of his office before realizing the condition of the Indians 

 as a result of the evil influences of civilization. In 1818 or 1819 he 

 addressed a circular to those friendly to the Indian cause, in an en- 

 deavor to rescue them "from the sad condition in which they were 

 everywhere known to be," and as a result of this appeal Congress in 

 1819 appropriated $10,000 "for the civilization of the Indian tribes 

 adjoining the frontier settlements." 



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