Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-08-14


In all parts of the country whore have been,
the Indians were pcaccabe and inohcnsive
troublesome when intoxicated, sometimes dam
gerous they have been reduced in number by
disease, us smallpox, influenza, hopping cough,
scarlet fever, etc; never knew Of any hospital
on the cast side of the Rocky Mountains The
Company's posts are so few and far between,
that the Indians cannot readily obtain relief or
assistance in u time of sickness
The Indians would, in my opinion be benefited
by free open trade, provided spirtuous liquors
coull be excluded. am convinced that the In
dians will be immensely benefited by compcti-
ton in trade, and at the same time advance their
civilization. The very existence of the Indian Is
now made dependent upon the supplies which the
IIudson'S Bay Company provides, and the consc-
qucnce is that he is subjected to the Company in
as great degree as the slave is to his master.
When the Indian has a choice of market for the
furs or for the purchase of the nccessarios of life
he becomes more dependent and sclf-relilnt. A
competition in trade will always be accompanied
by the introduction of immigration and all the
various industrial pursuits of civilized life
And the whole question Is thus strongly sum
med up by another witness: "The system of
lIudson's Bay Company has entacd misery and
destruction upon thousands throughout the
country which is withering under its curse; it
has cramped and crippled the energies and en-
terprisc of England, which might have found
Occupation in the directions from which they
are now excluded and it has stopped the extern
sion Of civilization and excluded the light of re-
ligion. Under the authority of charter which
is invalid in law, it holds a monopoly in COM
mcrcc and exercises a dcspotsm in government
and laws, so using that monopoly and so weld-
ing that power As to shut up the earth from the
knowledge Of man and man from the knowledge
Of God"
And now, if we inquire into the cause Of thi,
systematic cruelty and oppression, we shall find
the solution OF the problem in the terrible vice
the putting of power into the hands of soul
less and irresponsible corporation necessarily
generates Not that these mcn-these factors
and Traders who have been guilty of such cnor-
mities-were essentially different from other
men but placed in situation for the grati6-
cation Of ayarice and lust, those demoniac for
ces that sleep latent in every man, though mer-
ged by the sweet SENSE of the brotherhood and
spiritual affinity that bind us TO our fellows, be-
came abnormally excited and thus they were
given upto the commission of such horrors as
appear in the black catalogue of the doings of
the ludsons Bay Company. We may congrat-
uletc ourselves that the opportunity for such gi-
gantic enormities becomes constantly less and
less.
RESULTS.
SO gigantic a system Of monopoly and fraud
could not but early attract the attention of tie
English people. In 7i9 the British merchants
petitioned Parliament against the Companys
Charter urging with just Indignation 1.-THE ab-
solute necessity Of LAYING open the trade and
making it the object Of national encouragement"
Exactly a century after. in 1910. the same ques-
ton came up; and at the present moment it is
again before Parliament. That this system of
iniquity has not long since been broken up is
one OF those incomprchensible cases that prove
how powerful, how terrible a hold fact takes,
even when it has become nuisance and al.um-
ally.
That it has been of any advantage to England
herself is fiction it has long laborcd hard to
establish, though like all other iictions with 10
permanent success. That it has been direful
curse is terrible truth no longer to be conceal
cd. On our own country its influence has been
baleful in the extreme. Most of the horrors OF
savage warfare which Americans have had TO
encounter since the Declaration of Indepcn-
dence have been inStigated directly or indirect
y by this Company. The natural channels of
industry have been stopped up, the resources of
the country utterly neglected, and even the fur
trade mas been rendered a poor and dwartrd af-
fair by their irrational policy. On every ccca-
sion when other channels Of trade than that
through the lludsons Bay Company have been
thrown open, it has been an immense benefit
and blessing to the country. The trade into
Canada through the lakes has already been men
toned. The settlements recently made around
the mines OF Lake Superior afford another in
stance. Here the Indians find employment at
the mines, as also more advantageous trading
for their furs and there are many now living
n,l.. 4 q
fort and happiness, drawing sustcnance from
the products of the soil or engaged in some 9TH
er pursuit less prccarious than the hunt, and all
resulting from having free channel of trade
In the Report ofthe Canadian Committee 1S5O
a striking instance is given how the Indian is
benefited by competition in trade, and how the
system of the lludson's Bay Company is ealcu-
latel to degrade the Indian and destroy his ea-
pablity of emancpating himself from the bon
dage ot an aVaricous community of trading mo-
noposts. Along the shores of Lake Nippiss-
ing are extensive cranberry marshes. A mer-
chant at Penetanguishene, Alfred Thompson,
Esq, engaged an Indian chief. named The Ea-
gle, TO gather cranberries for him, and agreed
to take some 200 barrels at So barrel. The
Indian commenced gathering them, but was for
hidden to do so by one Osmond, the person in
charge of the lludson's Bay fort near the local
NY, WIN pIuCNillHeu 10 the lnulan nanu tlat II
they gathered any cranberries, he would stop
all the supplies which were necessary to them
for their subsistence during the long Winter.
This of course had the effect of deterring the
Indians, their women and children, from gath
ering the fruit. Mr. Thompson, on being made
acquainted with the matter at once in spirit
ed manner furnished the Chief with a supply of
goods, with which he started to set down along
side the Hudsons Bay fort, and prove to his
band that they possessed the means of heing
rendered Independent of hunting for the Com
pany.
Another important channel has also recently
been thrown open between the Red River couh-
try and St. Paul's, Minnesota. Last Summer
some 200 carts left the Red River country
with peltries, to be traded at st. Paus, the val
ne amounting to 100000, In fact, whenever
the Indians can by any possibility free them
selves from the necessity ofhunting for the IIud-
sons Bay Company, they do so, and they are
not slower than others in discerning that there
are other occupations that will procure them
subsistence than the laborious and uncertain
pursuit of the chase. These are all prcmoni-
tons of what may be done when this country
comes to be thrown open to the free develop