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Show COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 7 and as had been repeatedly done. The President having directed the chance, it has been tried, but found to be impracticable, without great injustice to the Indians and injury to the public serrice. I t devolves an undue amount of labor and responsibility upon the superintendents, while it leavea comparatively none to the agents, and destroys all their influence for good with the Indians. One tribe has to wait till another is paid, which causes jealousy and ill feeling, and it requires so much time to pay them in succession that those last reached receive their money long after it should have been paid to them. It necessarily runs the later payments into midwint$r, when the Indians cannot be assembled without subjecting them to great exposure, hardships, and certain danger of fatal diseases. It is also attended with much greater expense, in consequence of the guards and assistants which the super-intendent is compelled to employ for the safety of the moneys while travelling about with them in the Indian country from tribe to tribe, or in providing for those which he has to leave behind. I therefore recommend that the system be abandoned, and that the duty be reim-, posed upon the agents, with such checks and guards as may be re-quisite to secure its proper and faithful perfbrmance. It being necessary that the southern superintendent shonld proceed to Florida on the duty referred to before completing the payments in his district, he was, with tbe sanction of the President, directed to turn over the unpaid moneys in his hands to the agents for t ~ treib es t c whom they belong for payment. . While on the subject of payments to Indians, I beg leave to call attention to the evil effects of per capita payments, which system has been in force for some years. The great body of the Indians can be managed only through the chiefs. The per capita system breaks down the latter, reduces them to the level of the common Indians, and destroys all their influence. I t thus disorganizes and leaves them without a domestic government ; lessens their respect for authority, and blunts their perceptions of the necessity and advantages of any proper and effecttve system of organization; turning them backward, instead of leading them forward, in the scale of advancement. With the diminished control and influence of the chiefs, there is increased lawlessness on the part of the mem- . bers ; and hence the greater number of outrages on the persons and property of other Indians and our citizens. Nor is the per capita payment system of any protection or advantage to the individual Indians. His share of the annuity is known beforehand, and it is an m y matter to induce him in advance to gamble it off, or pledge it for whiskey or articles of no material use to him, and at or after the payment to take or collect the amount from him. The distribution of the money should be left to the chiefs, so far at least as to enable them to punish the lawless and unruly by withholding it from them, and giving it to the more orderly and meritorious. They should be allowed to report on the conduct of the individuals of the tribe, being as far as possible held responsible therefor, and the agents to pay the money according to a graduated scale, having reference to the in-dustrious habits and good conduct of individuals as he should find to be just, reserving to him the right to inquire into the action of the |