As a federal Indian agent, Stickney was responsible for the fate of numerous whites and Indians. Among his duties at that time were the licensing of traders and the settlement of their claims and disputes with the tribes, enforcement of the intercourse regulations, disbursement of annuities and gifts, and expenditure of funds for improvements, and the punishment of unruly Indians. Tactful handling of these problems and of numerous squabbles between the two races was an invaluable factor in preventing bloodshed and preserving good relations. Stickney was inclined to be too arrogant in dealing with the Indians, and at times seemed to lack any humanitarian feeling toward those under his care. On April 20, 1818, Congress passed an act which consolidated the agencies of Fort Wayne and Piqua, and John Johnston was appointed agent for the agency thus formed. In effect this left Stickney out of the service, but as it was impossible for Johnston to take care of the Fort Wayne agency as well as that of Piqua, Stickney remained at Fort Wayne as sub-agent. Stickney continued to serve under this arrangement through the year 1818, though there appears to have developed a degree of friction between the sub-agent and his superiors. Governor Lewis Cass of Michigan, writing in January, 1819, to John Calhoun, Secretary of War, said, “... circumstances have occurred at Fort Wayne which have had a tendency to injure the usefulness of Mr. Stickney there.”[15] What these circumstances were we do not know, other than a supposition that Stickney might have made many powerful enemies among the traders at Fort Wayne. This was quite likely due to the nature of the Indian trade and the power of the agent. Lewis Cass was not one to disregard the complaints of the traders, as he usually supported the large trading companies, in particular Astor’s American Fur Company. As a perennial political appointee, Cass found it worthwhile to have friends among these influential traders, and as Stickney’s superior in the Indian Department, Cass was in all likelihood inclined to support the traders in any quarrel that might have developed. In commenting on the charges brought against himself by some of the traders at Fort Wayne in 1824, John Tipton, another agent, wrote to John Calhoun, “You will no doubt recollect that Mr. Stickney while Agt here was harassed with charges and all kinds of persecution.”[16] Under these circumstances, which we can only surmise, Benjamin Stickney left the agency in 1820 and moved to Toledo, where he later gained prominence as a leader in the fight to keep that section of the country under the government of the state of Ohio rather than the state of Michigan.