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Show THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. 5 superintendents and agents give a most gratifying account of the great improvement which it has effected in the character and habits of those tribes which have been brought under its operation. The internal struggle which the red man necessarily undergoes in adopting the resolution to throw away the blanket, the scalping-knife, and the implements of the chase, and, in lien thereof, to wear a dress and devote himself to pursuits which he has been taught to consider degrad-ing, is terrible; and if he emerges from it victorious, he becomes a new man. Wherever separate farms have been assigned within the limits of a tribal reservation to individual Indians, and the owners have entered into possession, a new life is apparent, comparative plenty is found on every hand, contentment reigns at every fireside, and peace and order have succeeded to turbulence and strife. The greatest pro-gress in this respect during the past year has been made in the agencies of the northern superintendency. This is now adopted as the fixed policy of the government, and, sanctioned by Congress, has been the leading idea in all the treaties recently negotiated with the Indians. It is, however, only by slow degrees that so radical a change can be effected-a whole nation will' not move at once. But the superior advantages and comforts enjoyed by those who labor over those who hunt, operating as a constant stim-nlus to the former to persevere, and to the latter to follow their example, will, it is hoped, eventually induce the great mass of the Indians to cooperate cheerfully in the general introduction of this systcm. As an additional means to this end, the superintendents and agents have been intrncted to use every exertion to persuade the Indians to consent that the large money annuities they now receive, and which have here-tofore proved the fruitful source of drunkenness, insubordination, and vice, shall be applied to the purchase of stock and agricultural imple-ments, the opening of farms, building honses, and other useful pur-poses. It gives me great pain to refer to the treatment which the Texas reserve Indians and their superintendent and agents have received. Several yearssince Texas tendered tothe government certain tracts of laud for the ownpancy of the Indians; the government accepted the lands, and proceeded to gather upon them as many Indians as could be induced to abandon their roving life and settle down to agricultural pursuits. The reports of their progress were most favorable; and the productions of the reservations promised, at an early day, to be more than sufficient for their comfortable subsistence. In the midst of this prosperity, so gratifying to the department, and at the very hour when it was believed that the reservation would prove eminently successful, a most determined and unreasonable hostility to these Indians and their agents exhibited itself among a portion of the settlers who had come in and located in that section of the State. The removal of the Indians was demanded under a threat of extermination, but was pre-vented for a time by the tact and good management of the late snper-intendent, aided by the presence of a detachment of United States troops. With a desire to prevent bloodshed, and at the pressing instance of the authorities of the State of Texas, the department con-sented to issue an osdcr fos the breaking up of the reservations, to be |