" And they
thus override the agents, by appealing to higher powers, and so get
permits annually, for a limited quantity, of which _they_ and not the
_agents_ are the judges. In this way the independence of the agents is
constantly kept down, and made to bend to a species of mock
popular will.
In view of the counteracting influence of the American Fur Company on
this frontier, it would be better for the credit of morals, properly so
considered, if the chief agent of that concern at Michilimackinac were
not a professor of religion, or otherwise, if he were in a position to
act out its precepts boldly and frankly on this subject. For, as it now
is, his position is perpetually mistaken. A temperance man, he is yet a
member of a local temperance society, which only operates against the
retailers, but leaves members free to sell by the barrel. Bound, by the
principles of law, not to introduce whisky into the interior, he yet
sells it to others, knowing their intention to be to run it over the
lines, in spite of the agents.
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