OCR Text |
Show x 6 REPOET OF THE $3,502,241 82 has been invested in that manner; the remainder, viz: $7,088,407 80 being retained in the Treasury, and the interest thereon annually appropriated by Congress. As by this latter arrange-ment the government every twenty years pays an amount equal to that of the principal so retained, it is worthy of consideration whether it will not be expedient and advieable, when the national treasury shall be in a condition to admit of it, also to invest that amount in like manner with the other Indiau trust funds. The aggregate amount appropriated by Congress for the service of this department during the present fiscal year, was $2,659,389 00, of which $1,309,054 00 was required for the fulfillment of absolute and specific treaty stipulations. The remainder, viz: $1,350,335 00, was mainly for recognised and established objects of expenditure connected with our Indian policy, and it was only over it that any dtscretiou whatever could be exercised in regard to economy. By a careful and rigid supervision of the expenditures, however, and by a system of re-trenchment which has been commenced in the administration of the policy of colonizing the Indians on the reservations established in Oregon, California, and Texas, this office hopes to be able to effect a material reduction in its expeuditures for the remainder of this, and during the next fiscal year. In making up the estimate recently submit-ted for the last mentioned period, every item which admitted of the exercise of any discretion, was carefully scrutinized; and, in all instances where it was deemed prudent and practicable, reduced to the lowest possible amount. In consequence of such reductions, the sum estimated as necessary for the next, is less by $744,829 51, than the amount of the appropriations for the present fiscal year. From the commencement of the settlement of this country, the ..,principle bas been recognised and acted on, that the Indiau tribes possessed the occupant or usufruct right to the lands they occupied, and that they were entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of that right until they were fairly and justly divested of it. , Hence the numerous treaties with the various tribes, b~whichf,o r a stipulated consideration, their lands have, from time to ttme, been acquired, as our population increaeed. Experience has demonstrated that at least three serious, and, to the Indians, fatal errors have, from the beginning, marked our policy , towards them, vie: their removal from place to place as our popula-tion advanced; the assignment to them of too great an extent of country, to be held in common; and the allowance of large sums of . money, as annuities, for the lands ceded by them. These errors, far more than the want of capacity on the part of the Indiau, have been the cause of the very limited success of our constant efforts to domee ticate and civilize him. By their frequent changes of position and the possession of large bodies of laud in common, they have been kept in an unsettled condition and prevented from acquiring a knowledge of separate and individual property, while their large annuities, upon which they have relied for a support, have not only tended to foster habits of indolence and profligaey, but constantly made them the I victims of the lawless and inhuman sharper and speculator. The =cry material and marked difference between the northern Indians and , . |