OCR Text |
Show 12 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. vouchers for Indian goods, annuities, services, & c., amounting to $ 3,410,750 34, arid cash accounts of superintendents and agents amount-ing to $ 1,829,170 26. Of these, there were rejected as follows : 10 for exorbitant prices, amounting to $ 82, 786 29 2 for being purchased without consulting the board, amounting to 2,292 82 7 " Erie and Pacific Dispatch," amounting to 15,917 09 21 Northwest Transportation Company, amounting to 52, 170 80 Total rejected 153, 168 20 ECONOMY IN PURCHASING ANNUITY GOODS. The same care which was taken in the purchase and inspection of the Indian annuity goods last year under the same committee, Messrs. George H. Stuart, . Robert Campbell, William E. Dodge, and John V. Farwell, was continued this year, and, as will appear from their report, ( Appendix A / i,) with much advantage to the service. The confidence inspired in the minds of merchants, manufacturers, and dealers in subsistence, that the awards would be fairly made, largely increased the number of bids and lessened the prices. In May nearly half a million of dollars' worth of annuity goods were purchased u at and below the lowest market prices," and in May and June beef, bacon, flour, and other subsistence stores, to the amount of $ 1,783,729 29, were purchased " at prices averaging much below what had been paid before the board began to exercise its superintendence." The price paid for beef on the hoof this year averaged 2T ^- cents per pound as against 4T 3 Q 9 o cents per pound last year. The amount pur-chased, 27,441,750 pounds of beef, cost $ 714,996 85. The same amount at last year's prices would have cost $ 1,204,692 82, a difference of $ 489,695 97 in favor of the present year. While part of this difference may be fairly attributed to a decline in value, it is chiefly due to the competition induced by the reasons given above. THE PEACE POLICY ITS ADVANTAGES. Increased experience in dealing with the Indians only tends to con-firm the board more and more in the wisdom of the policy of peace so uniformly advocated by the President, and supported by the liberality of Congress and the humane sympathies of the people; and the board confidently look forward to the day when the bitterness which now assails this policy in some parts of the United States, where it is least understood, will fill a page in history as unnatural and curious as that which records the old hatred against freedom and the friends of the slave. CONCLUSION. For the uniform kindness and patience with which the President, the Secretary of the Interior, and the several committees of Congress having charge of Indian affairs have listened to the suggestions of the board, and the courtesy and good- will extended toward its members by all the officers of the Executive Departments, the General and all the officers of the Army, with whom they have had any intercourse, the board desire to return their most grateful acknowledgments. |