OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF COMMISSIONER. 11 principal, and will, in a few years, be equal to the whole, if the prac-tlce of appropriating the interest shall be continued. As there is no limitation to the period of these payments, such a policy indefinitely pursued would prove a most costly one to the government. At the end of every period of twenty years it nill have paid fiom the public treasury, by way of interest, the full amount of the stipnlaled invest-ments. But such, it must be presumed, was never the intention of Congress. Nothing but necessity could jwtify that body in refusing to make appropriations required by the treaties of the government. The cause of the failure to do so, in the cass of these Indian treaties, no longer exists. The public finances are in a prosperous condition. In-stead of fiscal embarrassment, there is now a redundancy of money, and one of the vexed questions of the dar is, what shall be done with the surplus in the treaxq? Considering the premises, it seems to be quite clear that so much thereof as may be necessary for the purpose should be promptly applied to the lllilrnent of our treaty obligations. But investments on Indian account may, it is believed, be wisely extended to otber cases than those in which they are expressly re-quired by treaty. If the policy in itself be good, and it has often been sanctioned by the government, there appears to be no good reason why it should not be more extensively adopted. There is another class ofiour treaty stipulations, by R-hich the government holds, in trwt, for certain Indian tribes, $4,344,000. On this trustfund it is bound to pay interest at the rate of five per cent., and, by a third class of like stipulations, it is bound to pay, annually, to sundry other tribes, on account of LLpermaneut annuities" and Lcpermanent proyisions," $141,250. For the sake of convenient reference and calculation, tab-ular statements A, B, and C are herewith submitted, exhibiting, in a connected view, all the treaties embraced in the foreping cl~ification, the names of the several tribes, and the amounts w~pulmed to be in-vested, funded, kc. The amount annu* appropriated, on account of these treaty obligations, is $478,280. By investing these amounts in safe stocks, yielding five per cent., the government may be relieved for all time to come from the necessity of making these annual appro-priations; and the question certainly deserves to be considered, whether a disposition, in part, of the large surplus in the public treasury, can be made in any way so fiee from coustitntional or otber objections? The want of uniformity in our Indian treaties is a source of much confusion and embarrassment. They have been made from time to time to meet the emergency of particular occasions, and without refer-ence to system or general principles. They, however, constitute an important part of the supreme law of the land, and there are peculiar reasons why they should be carried faithfully into effect. But this it is extremely difEcult to do, in consequence of their discordant and multitkrious provisions. The whole code, if such an anomaly may be so called, is a singular compound of crude and cumbrous matter, prolific of vexatious questions, and incapable of harmonious adjust-ment. There are no doubt many of the tribes with whom new trea-ties could easily be concluded, superseding those previously made, and simplifying, to a most desirable extent, all our relations with them. A small appropriation would probably be sufEcient for this purpose, and, |