nited States, they would have the competition arising from a number of
buyers and sellers, they would obtain better prices for their furs and
procure more valuable articles, upon fairer terms, in exchange. They
would also be benefitted by observing our manners and customs, adopting
our style of dress, learning the value of property, and gaining some
knowledge of agriculture and the use of mechanical tools, and implements
of husbandry. But the most important advantage to be gained by their
trading within the United States, would be in their protection from
imposition. It has been truly and forcibly remarked,

"Humanity shudders at the recital of the nefarious acts practised by the
white traders upon the Indians. Yet not half of them are known or
dreamed of by the American people. We refer again, to Mr. Tanner's
Narrative, which every man who has a vote on this subject ought to read.
Here we find the traders sometimes taking _by force_, from an Indian,
the produce of a whole year's hunt, without making him any return,
sometimes pilfering a portion while buying the remainder, and still
oftener wresting from the poor wretches, while in a state of
intoxication, a valuable property, for an inadequate remuneration. In
one place, our author tells of an Indian woman, his adopted mother, who,
"in the course of a single day, sold one hundred and twenty beaver
skins, with a large quantity of buffalo robes, dressed and smoked skins,
and other articles, _for rum_." He pathetically adds, "of all our large
load of peltries, the produce of so many days of toil, so many long and
difficult journeys, one blanket and three kegs of rum, only remained,
besides the poor and almost worn out clothing on our bodies." The
sending of missionaries, to labor by the side of the miscreants who thus
swindle and debauch the ignorant savage, is a mockery of the office, and
a waste of the time of these valuable men. If the Indians traded within
our states, with our regular traders, the same laws and the same public
sentiment which protects us, would protect them."

This is no exaggerated picture. Fraud, oppression and violence, have
characterized our intercourse with the Indians, and it is in vain to
hope for any amelioration of their savage condition, so long as an
intercourse of this kind is permitted. In the very nature of things, the
plan of civilizing the Indians, by forming a confederacy of them, beyond
the limits of the United States, will prove uns