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Show great civilized government to the control, ifcontrol it can be oalled,of the rude regulations of petty, ignorant tribes. Year after year we expend millions of dollars for these people in the faint hope that, without lam, we can civilize them. That Elope has been, to a great degree, a long disappoii~tmenta; nd yearafter year werepeat the f o l l ~of the past. That the benevolent efforts and purposes of the Government have proved so largely fruitless. is, in my iudgment, due more to its failure to make , the?iepeople amenable to our raws than to any other cause, or to all other causes combined. I believe it to be the duty of Congress at once to extend over Indian reservations the jurisdiction of Uuited States eourts, and to declare that each Indian in the United States shall occupy the same relation to lam that a white man does. An Indian slioulcl be given to understand that no ancient cnstom, no tribal regulation, mill sxield him from just pun-ishment for crime; and also that he mill be effectually protected, by the authority and power of the Government, in his life, liberty, property, &nd character, as certainly as if hewereamhite man. Therecan be no doubt of tlte pover of Congress to do this, and surely theintelligent Committees on Indian Affairs of the Senate and IIouse can readily propose legisla-tion mhi& \rill aacompiish this most desirable result,. I regard this suggestiou as by far the most important whicl~ I have to make in this report. Since our Government mas organized two qoestions, or rather two . classes of qnestions, hme tmnscencled all others in iinportance and dif-ficulty, riz, the rePations of the Governn~ent n.nd the white people to the lregroes and to the Indians. The negro question has doubtle6.u absorbed more of public attention, aroused more intense feeling, and cost our people more blood ancl.treasure than any other question, if not all other8 combined. Tlrat qoestion, it is to he hoped, is settled forever ' in the only way in which its settlement mas possible-by the full admis- sion of the negro to all the rights and privileges of citizenship. Next in importance comes the Indian question, aud there can be no doubt that, our Indian wara have cost us tnore than all the foreign wars in which our Government has been engaged. It is time that some solu-tion of this whole Indian problem, decisive, satisfactory, just, and final, should be found. In mv iodcment it can be reaahed onlv bv a nrocess . " A similar to that pursurd'kkh h e negroes. In the three propositious above stated, mill, I believe, be found the true and final settlcn~enot f this nernlexine subiect. However efficient de-gr ee of suciess until tho ub0\T suppestions are substantialls acloi>ted as a permanent India11 policy. If congress coucludes to act on tbese si~qgestioirs, laws sboi~ld be passed at the coming session to extend the jtir~sdiction of the courts over all Indians, and to provide for the allot-ment of lands in severalt,y in the Indian Territory, an:d on such other reserratio~ls as may be selected as permanent; and an appropriatiou sh~t i ldb e nrade~ritbw hich to begin the removal of Indians to their per-manent homes. I trust I niay he pardoned for stating that i t appears to me that the fnudameutal difficulty in our relations hitherto mith Indiass bas been the want of nrell-defined, clearly-understood, persistentpurpose on the part of tile Government. in dial^ affairs have heretofore been meoagetl largely by the application of mere temporary expedients in a fragmen-tary and disjointed manner. For a hundred years the Uuited States lms been wrestling with the '&Iu dian question," but has never had an |
