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Show REPORT OF THE COMXISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 9 THE BEGINNING OF THE END. It belongs not to a sanguine. but to a soberview of the situation, that three )'en& will see the dteruative of wnreli~oin:~tedfr om the Indinu question, : I I I ~ the 111ost po\r'erflll aud hostile balds oi t0.dil.r thrown in entire helnlessness on the mercv of the Government. Indeed. the wro-gress ot. inw yexrs morr, if riot of s ~ ~ o r l e~~e~r m~uoen r ,th e 31,rtliern l'auifie Rnil~ond will of itsrlf eomyletrly solve the great Sioux 1)rob1e111, and leave the ninetv thousand 1l;diansraueiue between the two trans: eontiuental liues as incapable of resistiugut,h; Government as are the Indians of New York or'Massachusetts. Oolumns moving north from the Union Pacific, and south from the Northern Pacific, would crush the Sioux and their confederates as between the upper and the nether mill-stone: while the r a ~ i dm ovement of troops along. the northern line would prevent the e&ape of the savages, when haFd pressed, into the British Possessions, which have heretoforeafforded a eonveuient refuge on the.approach of a military expedition. Toward the south the day of deliverance from the fear of Indian hos-tility is more distant, yet it is not too. much to expect that three sum-mers of peaceful progress will forever pat it.out of the power of the tribes and bands which at present disturb Colora(lo, Utah, Arizona, and New BIexieo to claim cousideration of the country in any other attitude than,as pen~ionersu pon the national bounty. The railroads now under construction, or projected with a reasonable assurance of early eomple-tion, will multiply fourfold the striking force of the Army in that swtion; t,he little rifts of mining settlement, now found all through the moun-tains of the southern Territories will have become self-urotecti-ti ~co m- I I IUI I ~ I ~thVe Yt'r;e hle, wnvt~r i~li~nge I I ~:~ gric.~lltu~o.eacl ul~ation,u ow srirsit~\-ctt., the t j int r~cb rentl~o i lutlian h~~atilitwy,il l the11 huvr g.ro\\,u to bt. t11c; 1)41weri1t1.lr escrvc" to li~less till ulvre closcl"v i.l ~lvnncetln uon t.he last range of the intractable tribes. SUBMISSION THE ONLY HOPE OF THE INDIANS. No one c?rtainly will rejoice more heartily than the preseut Commis-sioner when the Indians of this country cease to be in a position to dic-tate, in ally form or degree, to the C-over~~menwt;h en, in fact, the last hostile tribe becomes reducetito the condition of suppliants for charity. This is, indeed, the only hope of salvation for the aborigines of the con-tinent.. If they stand up against the progress of civilization and iudus-try, the5 must be relentlessly crushed. The westward course of popu-lation is neither to be denied nor delayed for the sake of all the Indians that ever called this country their home. They must yield or perish; and there is something that savors of providential mercy in the rapidity with which their fate advances upon them, leaving them scarcely the chance to resist before they shall be surrwnded and disarmed. It is not feebly and futilely to attempt to stay this tide, whose depth and strength can hardly be measured,-but to 8natch the remnants of'the Indiau race from destruction from before it, that the friends of humanity should exert themselves in this jnncture, and lose no time. And it is because the present syste~n allows the freest extension of settlement and indust~ypo ssible under the circumstances, while affording space and time for humane endeavors to rescue the Indian tribes from a posi-tion altogether barbarous and incompatible with civilization and social progress, that this system must be approved by all enlightened citizens. Whenever the time shall come that the roving tribes are reduced to |