years, and though they have now been prosperous for many years, are by the latest census less numerous by several thousands than before they went there, though they have had no war, and are in about the same latitude as they were in before they went there. The Sioux in the meantime have increased, nearly doubling their numbers, though they have had almost constant wars, and their means of subsistence are greatly diminished, by ceding to us the best half of their country, and the buffalo, on which most of them formerly subsisted, having disappeared from nearly all of what they retain. Their home is ten degrees north of the Indian Territory.

2. Another objection, to concentrating all the Indians on the Indian Territory is, that being hereditary enemies, when corralled together they will be engaged in incessant wars, unless we keep a large army there to keep them from killing each other.

3. A third reason why we should not place all the Indians in the Indian Territory is, that it will delay if it does not entirely preclude our doing that which we have shown is necessary for their civilization, namely: subjecting them to our laws. It is claimed for the Christian and semi-civilized tribes of that territory, both by themselves and others, that they have governments of their own, affording adequate protection, which is not the case with any of the other aborigines of our country. These Indian governments are independent, each tribe having its own government and laws. The Chickasaws, though speaking the same language and mingled in some measure with their more numerous kindred, the Choctaws, refuse to be governed by the same laws or officers. These tribes having governments, do not propose to subject other Indians settling in that territory to their laws. They well know that any attempt to do this would be resisted. The wild Indians, by calling our president Grand Father, and the agents he sends among them Father, acknowledge some kind of allegiance to our government and expect it to exercise a fatherly control over them, and a large majority of them would gladly be subjected to our laws, that they might be protected by them. But none of them acknowledge any allegiance to, or are willing to be controlled by, Indians of another tribe. I think it would be better for Indians of Indian Territory, as well as others, to be subjected to our laws; but

they do not think so. And as we are bound by solemn treaties not to extend our laws over them, nor to deprive them of any part of that territory without their consent, I hope no one will say we should do so. As many of them have a keen remembrance of the injuries they suffered from the laws of Georgia, this consent is not likely to be obtained soon.

4. Another and all-sufficient argument against sending the northern Indians to the Indian Territory is, that they are unwilling to go thither, and till convicted of crime we have no right to compel them. The assumption that we may do this is contrary to the fundamental principles of our constitution, that "all men are made free and equal, and endowed with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and with the eternal principles of justice, as understood by our people generally, who claim it as a right to go and live where ever they please. Has not the red man a right to do the same, so long as he violates no law? That Prof. Walker, and other writers we have quoted, should advocate such a violation of justice and the principles of our laws, can be accounted for only by supposing their mental vision was obscured by the fear of an "intolerable burden of vagabondage, pauperism, and crime," if the red men shall be allowed to disperse among the white population. We think we have shown how all these evils may be prevented at less cost than taking them to the Indian Territory, and keeping them there. But if it cost more, we can well afford to expend on them all the money which it will cost to educate them and to protect them in their rights. But we can not for their sakes, or to escape any evils apprehended from them, afford to violate the fundamental principles of our government. Such a violation in regard to black men cost us billions of dollars and the lives of more of our citizens than there are red men in our country. Let us not bring shame and ruin on ourselves by repeating the offense. It matters not that there are only one tenth as many Indians as negroes. Not the negroes, but their God, called us to account. He is the judge of the Indians also, and as able to protect the few and feeble as the many and the mighty. Very many of our people sincerely believed that the welfare of the negro required that he should be held in slavery; but he did not believe it, and God compelled us to let him go. Some

of our people believe that the welfare of the Indians requires them to leave the land in which they were born and the graves of their fathers, and go and reside in a country which is to them insalubrious and unpleasant. But he does not believe it, and refuses to go. Our right to enforce our opinion is no better against the Indian than against the negro.

Art. III. OUR INDIAN POLICY FURTHER
CONSIDERED.

By General R. H. MILROY, late Superintendent of Indian Affairs for
Washington Territory.

Man in a state of nature is both gregarious and communistic, and hence is little disposed voluntarily to separate himself from his tribe or nation. This peculiarity unites the individual. members of every barbarian or savage tribe, and constitutes the greatest obstacle to civilization. Just in proportion as any savage tribe advances in civilization, the gregarious and communistic bonds of that tribe are weakened and supplanted by a disposition among the individual members thereof to own and accumulate separate property and separate homes; which disposes individuals and families to migrate to those localities promising the greatest improvement in their circumstances. Hence, the word want expresses and leads to the entire difference between the savage and the civilized man. The savage being but a little above the animal, has comparatively few intellectual or moral wants, and these are satisfied with but little physical and mental exertion. Hence, the greater portion of his time is passed in unproductive indolence. But the civilized man, besides a great number of animal wants, has many intellectual and moral wants. Hence he is driven to the greatest physical and mental exertions to satisfy them. This leads him to the development of commerce and the various mechanical arts and sciences. In fact, want is the great motive power of progress and civilization. Take away wants from mankind, except those held in common with animals,

and all the present partially civilized portion of the human race would speedily drop back into pure barbarism. Then, clearly, the true and only means to start the savage on the road to permanent civilization is to multiply and stimulate his better wants till they arouse and drive him from his native lethargy and inactivity to the ceaseless industry of civilization. Clearly the highest duty of our government toward all the Indians within her borders, is to civilize them to such an extent that they may be safely made citizens, and melted into the body politic of the nation. How can this be done most speedily and effectively? is, or should be, the all-important question in our Indian policy. As before shown, this can only be accomplished by stimulating and multiplying their individual proper wants. The first step toward this end is to wean the Indians from their wild nomadic lives by giving to each family a fixed and separate home, with a good title to the land on which each home is situated, and by assisting and encouraging each family to fit up, adorn, and surround such home with the appliances of civilized life. But with adult and old Indians this is a difficult matter, and can only be accomplished to a limited extent, for the reason, that with all grown-up Indians idleness, inactivity, and the scanty gratification of a few animal wants, have become so fixed by life-long habit as to be second nature, and can be very little changed by any system of culture. But with Indian children this is wholly different. Their habits are yet unfixed. Industry and a civilized way of life are habits acquired between infancy and matured manhood. These facts place it in the power of the government to civilize and make citizens of every Indian tribe within its borders in one generation, by taking charge of all Indian children over five years old, educating and training them up to industrious habits, and imparting to them a knowledge of Christianity and of the various avocations of civilized life. The principle of compulsory education, so vital to the principle and prosperity of free government, should be at once adopted and strenuously enforced by the government of the United States toward the children of her İndian wards. All Indian children over five years old should be taken away from under the authority and influence of their savage parents (from whom they absorb only poisonous bararism) and placed wholly under the control of white male and

female teachers possessing the proper qualifications as to capacity, industry, firmness, kindness, pure morality, zealous missionary spirit, etc., who would train up these children to habits of industry, Christianity, cleanliness, economy, a knowledge of the English language and elementary branches of educationgiving to the males in addition a practical knowledge of and training in agriculture and the common and necessary mechanical arts; and to the females a thorough knowledge of and training in the duties of housekeeping, sewing, making and mending garments, etc. Of course, Indian children thus brought up and cultured, upon arriving at adult age, would be well qualified to assume and discharge the duties of fully enfranchised citizens. Every Indian tribe could thus be safely melted into the body politic, and, with the Indian Bureau of our government, cease to exist, except in history and the records of the past. This, in my opinion, should be the only object and aim of our government in her Indian policy. She has the right, power, and ability to do this, and from personal observation and intercourse with Indians for many years, I feel very certain that it can be fully accomplished in one generation, if taken hold of by the government with that energy and determination which its importance demands.

But, unfortunately for the Indian race, our government has, since her first dealings with the tribes within her borders, pursued a policy diametrically opposite to this, and the results have been uniformly disastrous to the Indians, expensive to the government, and injurious to her citizens.

The Indians of America, at its discovery, were found in savage, nomadic, warring tribes, without any idea of individual property in the soil. Our government, since its organization, has recognized and encouraged the continuance of this ancient condition of Indian affairs, by making treaties with the tribes, and, to a great extent, recognizing the sovereignty and independence of each within the boundaries of its country or reservation-an imperium in imperio; thus creating many little sovereignties within a sovereignty. The moral and, to a great extent, intellectual structure of every human being is absorbed and formed from his or her surroundings during the formative period of life between infancy and mature age. The Indian policy of our government has been, and still is, to keep every