Departments of the Government. The army officer holds a position for
life; the agent, one at the will of the President. The former is
personally interested in living in harmony with the Indian and in
establishing a permanent peace, to the end that some portion of his life
may be spent within the limits of civilized society; the latter has no
such personal interest. Another reason is an economic one; and still
another, the hold which the Government has upon a life officer to secure
a faithful discharge of duties in carrying out a given policy.

The building of railroads, and the access thereby given to all the
agricultural and mineral regions of the country, is rapidly bringing
civilized settlements into contact with all the tribes of Indians. No
matter what ought to be the relations between such settlements and the
aborigines, the fact is they do not harmonize well, and one or the other
has to give way in the end. A system which looks to the extinction of a
race is too horrible for a nation to adopt without entailing upon itself
the wrath of all Christendom and engendering in the citizen a disregard
for human life and the rights of others, dangerous to society. I see no
substitute for such a system, except in placing all the Indians on large
reservations, as rapidly as it can be done, and giving them absolute
protection there. As soon as they are fitted for it they should be
induced to take their lands in severalty and to set up Territorial
governments for their own protection. For full details on this subject
I call your special attention to the reports of the Secretary of the
Interior and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

The report of the Secretary of War shows the expenditures of the War
Department for the year ending June 30, 1869, to be $80,644,042, of
which $23,882,310 was disbursed in the payment of debts contracted
during the war, and is not chargeable to current army expenses. His