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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. V men who hare the immediate charge of the Indians, and vho are li11ow11 as Indian agents. When the fact is once clearly established that an agent is utterly unfit from auycause for his place, he ought, on any theory of sound business principles, to be removed at once, and a more suitable man put in his place ; but it requires as much machinery now, aiid fre-qnently more time, to get a new agent appointed than it does to appoint a minister to thecourt of St. James. Within the last year seven entire months were consumcdin n~akings uch a change at one of the agencies, where any correct busiuess inan transacting his own business would have made the change in less than seven days. This is thefault of the law, and ought to be changed. These Indian agents furnish t.11e precept and example to which we must look more than to any other cause or inflneuce an a means of changing the habits, manners, and customs of the Indians. If the agent is an Iionest,industrious, and intelligent Christian man, with thepl&?lsicaall jility and disposition to endure hardship and courageously encounter difficulty and disappointment, or, in other words, if he is morally, mentally, and physically above the arera.ge of what a.re considered good meil, he will work wonders among these wards of the nation. ~ n I dbu t state vhat every thinking man must know, that, as a vtcle, this class of men caullot be procured to cut themselves off from civilization and deprire them-selves and families of the comforts and advantages of civilized society for the pittance which is now paid to Indian agents. Ocoasio~iallym en have been found who, for the good which they hoped to accomplish, lmve voluntarily exiled themselves and labored for the good of these people, but they generally found more trouble from their surroondings ant1 less moral support from the gal-ernment than was expected, and, becoming discouraged and disheartened, have retired from the service, leaving their places to be filled by less competent men. One agent, in tepder-ing his resiguation a few weeks since, uses the following language : I hare labored fnithfully for the pod of the Iuiliaus, dealing honorably with all men, but I hwe st last beoome disheartened, and feel that life is too short to waste any more of it here. One great cause of embarrassment a,nd discouragement to Indian agents is the trouble and annoyance they find in keeping their acconnts so as to comply technically with all the regulations and rulings in ref-erence to the final settlement of' tlieir accounts. As the matter now atands, an agent may execute to the letter an order given hi111 by the secretary of the Interior for the payment of money, aud yet that item in his account may be suspended against him, and he and his sureties be compelled by law to pay the money again. The result is, if he refuses to obey the orders of his superior he loses his position, and if he obeys he loses his money. I give it as my honest conviction as a business man, after one year and a half of close observation, in a position where the chances for a correct knowledge of this question are bet'ter than in any other, that the true |
