Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/323

 CALHOUN AS SECRETARY OF WAR 315 For purposes of administration the territory was divided into two districts, one in the "immediate DIVISION OF neighborhood of civilization," and the TRADING second was the land "west of the Miss- DISTRICTS issippi." In the first district individual traders could carry on the work satis- factorily, while in the other one conditions made this plan impossible. Here the Hudson's Bay Company was so strong that it was impossible for unorganized men to compete with them. 48 Calhoun tried to overcome this difficulty by creating a company of American Fur Traders, in which each man who was a stockholder, would buy a share for $100. Calhoun planned a line of forts on the western frontier for two purposes; to foster and protect SYSTEM OF trade and keep out English interference. FORTS PLANNED In 1818 an expedition was sent out to BY CALHOUN establish a post on the Yellowstone River, but later in the year he decided to trans- fer it to Mandan, because that place was nearer the English post on the Red River. 49 At the same time he planned a chain of forts to guard the frontier.* Two posts were to be established on the Mississippi, one was Fort Armstrong and the other was siuated at the juncture of that river with the Minnesota river. At the head of navigation of the Minnesota, he built a second fort, which had an overland connection with Mandan and the third was situated at the head of the St. Croix. 51 Congress cut down the Indian Appropriations, assuming the same attitude toward them that they did toward those for military purposes. In 1822 they hesitated to give Calhoun money 48 Niks' Register, XV, Supplement, 25. Annals of Congress, isth Cong., 2nd Sess., IV, 2455. Calhoun gives no suggestion that he had ever had any experience with the small traders mentioned above. 49 House of Representatives, Documents, V. 115, p. 115, 162. Am. Hist. Ass., 1889-1900, V. 2. Letters of Calhoun-, Turner, Rise of the New West, 114. In 1820 Calhoun sent Gov. Cass to Minnesota to drive out the English and establish American influence. 50 House of Representatives, Documents, V. 115, 1899-1900, II, 147-8. Letters of Calhoun. Adams, J. Q., Memoirs, IV, 143. 51 See map.