Notes for Letter from W.G. Ewing to William Medill, May 19 1847: Sheet #11

Transcription

receive our pay from those Indians who have had the identical property which we owe for?

Will the malicious and dishonest knave who slanders us by secret letters or through the newspapers, explain this also? or is it enough for his purpose to sell only half the story, and that half, as false as hell?

I have laboured hard all my life and am now making every exertion, in the face of strong & powerfull competition in this business to obtain our just dues, so we can pay our debts & quit this much abused & persecuted business.

It is not the Indian, but the trader (who takes valuable supplies into their country) who stands most in need of aid & protection.

These tribes have for seven years past had here in the West, all the benefit resulting from this violent strife & competition between Mssrs P. Chouteau [& Co.?] and our firm. They have had our goods for cost, & often less. They have rec^d always the very highest cent their furs & skins were worth, and not infrequently 50 per ct more than we sold them for afterwards. They have had our property at times when they were suffering for it & when the U.S. owed them nothing & gave them nothing. They make us wait years & years for company without Interest.

This then tells the story, and will explain why you see no one makes money in this trade.

Many of these emigrated tribes are soured and feel very unkind (secretely, towards the Government,