WHISKY AMONG THE INDIANS.--Mr. Robert Stuart, Agent to the
American Fur Company, writes from Mackinac, that some of the American
Fur Company's clerks are not inclined to take whisky, under the general
government permit, _provided their opponents take none_. This tampering
with the subject and with me, in the conduct of the agent of that
company, whose duty it is rigidly to exclude the article by every means,
would accord better, it should seem, with the spirit of one who had not
recently taken obligations which are applicable to all times and all
space. Little does the spirit of commerce care how many Indians die
inebriates, if it can be assured of beaver skins. The situation of any
of its agents, who may acknowledge Christian obligations, is doubtless
an embarrassing one; and such persons should seek to get out of such an
employment as soon as possible. The true direction, in all cases of this
kind, is, to take high moral grounds. The department, by granting such
permits, violates a law. The agent of the company who seeks to exclude
"opponents" in the trade, errs by attempting to throw the responsibility
of the minor question upon the local agent, over whose head he already
shakes his permits from a superior power.
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