Now the "opponents," be it
understood, have no such "permits," and the agent can give them none.
This subject of ardent spirits is a constantly recurring one in every
possible form; and no little time of an agent of Indian affairs, and no
small part of his troubles and vexations, are due to it. The traders and
citizens generally, on the frontiers, are leagued in their _supposed_
interests to break down, or evade the laws, Congressional and
territorial, which exclude it, or make it an offence to sell or give it.
If an agent aims honestly to put the law in force, he must expect to
encounter obloquy. If he appeals to the local courts, it is ten to one
that nine-tenths of his jury are offenders in this very thing. So far as
the American Fur Company is concerned, it is seen, I think, by the
course of the managers, that it would conduce to better hunts if the
Indians were kept sober, and liquor were rigidly excluded; but the
argument is, that "_on the lines_"--that the Hudson's Bay Company use
it, and that their trade would suffer if they had not "_some_.
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