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Show I 22 REPORT OF THE guilty of participation in transactions of the kind referred to, should be instantly dismissed and expelled from the Indian country ; andall such attempts to injure and defraud the Indians, by whomsoever made or participated in, should be penal offences, punishable by fine and imprisonment. We have now penal laws to protect the Indians in the secure and unmolested possession of their lands, and also from de-moralization by the introduction of liquor into their country, and the obligation is equally strong to protect them ina similar manner from the wrongs and injuries of such attempts to obtain possession of their funds. In this connexion I deem it appropriate to respectfully remark, that where, as is sometimes the case, laws are passed providing for the pay- . ment of large sums of money for alleged obligations arising in this branch of the public service, without the department having an oppor-tunity of examining into or passing upon the accounts and other evi-dences of such claims, the effect is to .deprive it of that salutary control over the important interests committed to its charge, which is so necessary to a successful administration of its affairs ; and it cannot, and should not, in such cases be held responsible for the consequences. In carrying out all the plans heretofore devised for ameliorating the condition of the aborigines of our continent, difficulties have arisen and obstacles presented themselves on every side; and it seems impossible now to devise any means for attaining these desirable ends, by which all difficulties could be obviated and all obstacles avoided. n But partial success has attended the labors of the benevolent; and the efforts of the department when most faithfully directed have not unfrequently proved a positive injury. Adverse elements have always been at work to thwart the wishes of the government and counteract the labors of the philanthropist, and these have unfortunately been but too often successful. Our former policy, and the inveterate deter-mination of the Indian to resist domestication, have combined to place him in a situation where the lawless and unprincipled could always have access to him; and such persons have, through all periods of our history, availed themsehes of every opportunity to advise the igno-rant and unlettered child of the forest against his best interests, and have but too successfully instilled into Pis mind prejudices against those who were laboring for his good. Thus have the merciless and heartless followed in his path; flattered his vanity, corrupted his morals, impressed upon and confirmed him in the belief that labor and the arts of peace are degrading, and his submission to them offensive to the Great Spirit; and directed and controlled his action, and made him the victim of their avarice. Such influences are believed to he as formidable, and more nnscru-pulous, now than at any former period of our history; and when we add to them the train of ever-recurring and never-ending difficulties that beset the path of the weaker, in the battle of life with the stronger race, we perceive in the present condition of the red man, and the dangers that encompass him, additional motivesto call into active exercise in his behalf all the energies of the benevolent and good of the land. As a Christian government and people, our obligations and duties |
