58 [ 2 ] 
iity of the Sioux, who were expected to accompany Colonel Leaven- 
worth, afford some ground to anticipate tljis favorable result. But 
auxiliaries of this description are but little to be relied on, without 
they are accompanied by a force sufficient to restrain, or, if necessa- 
ry, to coerce them, and without ample supplies of subsistence, and 
of clothing, blankets, &c. to present to them. 
The 4th infantry being more entirely a disposal corps, and at this 
time the most efficient, I should have ordered it to Council Bluffs in- 
stead of the 1st, had it been a few weeks earlier in the season. But it is 
already too late even for the 1st to be pushed far beyond the Bluffs, be- 
fore the approach of winter. Nor is it intended to send the disposable 
force placed under General Atkinson, beyond the Bluffs, in the present 
year, unless some unforeseen casualty or disaster on the part of Co- 
lonel Leavenworth's command, should require a rapid movement to 
sustain or relieve him; or unless the spirit of hostility should have 
extended itself to the Pawnees, or to some other tribes near to the 
Bluffs. In either of these events. General Atkinson will be actively 
employed against the enemy during the month of November next^ 
and, should the early part of the winter be mild, as it sometimes has 
been, even in that region of open prairie, wind, and frost, he will have 
it in his power to give to his hostile neighbors sufficient annoyance, 
at least, to kcej) them on the alert, and deprive them of the comforts 
of permanent winter quarters. 
I am convinced, from what you have repeatedly said and written 
upon the subject of our western Indian relations, that I need not to 
point out to you the evils that must inevitably result from our being 
compelled to recede from the position we have taken, and give up our 
trade and intercourse with those numerous nations. The tiade itself, 
however valuable, is relatively little or nothing wiien compared with 
the decided advantages of that harmonious influence and control which 
is acquired and preserved, in a great degrc4?, if not wholly, by the con- 
stant friendly intercourse which the trade necessarily affords, and by 
which it is principally cherished and preserved. If we quietly give 
up this trade, we shall at once throw it, and with it the friendship anU 
physical power of near 30,000 warriors, into the arms of England ; — 
who has taught us, in letters of blood, (which ucliave had tlie magna- 
nimity to forgive, but which it would be treason to forget,) that this 
trade forms rein and curb by which the turbulent and towering spirit 
of these lords of ll:e forest can alone be governed — I say alone, be- 
cause I am decidedly of the opinion that, if there existed no such ri- 
valship in the trade as that of the English, with which we have al- 
ways been obliged to contend under the disadvantage of restrictions 
such as have never been imposed upon our rival adversary, we should, 
with one-tenth of the force and expense to which we have been sub- 
jected, preserve the relations of ])eace with these Indians more effect- 
ually than they have been at any former period. But to suffer outra- 
ges, such as have been perpetrated by the Ricaras and Blackfoot In- 
dians, to go unpunished, would be to surrender the trade, and, with it, 
our strong hold upon the Indians, to England. 
