habits and occupations of the whites, and are living as peaceable citizens on their own territory. They have thus acquired the good-will of their neighbors, and in some instances, where, by the terms of their treaties with the United States, they are liable to be removed at the will of the President from their present abodes, petitions numerously signed by white persons resident in their immediate vicinity have been presented, praying that they may be allowed to remain. Under these circumstances, humanity and sound policy alike require a compliance with the wishes of the petitioners, and I therefore cordially concur in the recommendations of the Commissioner to that effect.

Treaties have been negotiated with some of the tribes of the northwest on terms mutually advantageous to the contracting parties, by which their title has been extinguished to a large domain in Minnesota, covering an area as extensive as the State of New York, and well, adapted to the purposes of agriculture.

Treaties have also, it is believed, been negotiated with many of the tribes. resident in New Mexico, California, Oregon, and the country west of Missouri. But, as they have not yet been received, no definite information can now be given as to the precise character of their stipulations.

In New Mexico, many depredations have been committed on the inhabitants by the warlike tribes of Apaches and Comanches, notwithstanding their treaty obligations to abstain from all such aggressions. Hostile incursions have also been made by them into the territory of Mexico, and many citizens of that republic have been carried as captives into the Indian country. The agents of the United States in that quarter have used every means in their power to prevent these outrages, but without success. It may, therefore, become proper to bring the military power of the country in aid of the civil authority in teaching these lawless bands to respect the rights of our citizens and those whom we have engaged to protect.

The acquisition of New Mexico and California, and the rapid expansion of our settlements in Oregon and Utah, have given increased importance 1.) our Indian relations, and may render a change in our whole policy in regard to them necessary. Heretofore, our settlements being confined to the eastern portion of our continent, we have been gradually forcing the Indian tribes westward, as the tide of population flowed in that direction. By this means they have accumulated in large numbers on our western Irontier.

The results have been: injury to the Indians, by crowding them together in such numbers that the gaine is insufficient for their support; and injustice to the western States, whose security is endangered by the proximity of their savage neighbors. But since the acquisition of California and Oregon, and the establishment of large settlements on the coast of the Pacific and in Utah, a new flow of white population is advancing upon them from the west. The pressure is, therefore, increasing upon them from both sides. of the continent. On the north and south they are also hemmed in by civilized communities. They are thus encompassed by an unbroken chain of civilization; and the question forces itself upon the mind of the statesman and the philanthropist, what is to become of the aboriginal race? question must now be fairly met. A temporizing systein can no longer be pursued. The policy of removal, except under peculiar circumstances, must necessarily be abandoned; and the only alternatives left are, to civilize or exterminate them. We must adopt one or the other. A just, lu

mane, and Christian people cannot long hesitate which to choose, and it only remains to decide upon the means necessary to be adopted to effect the contemplated revolution in the Indian character and destiny. It is a great work, and will require time for its accomplishment; but it can, and I believe will, be achieved. It must be comnienced by substituting kindness for coercion; by feeding and clothing them, rather than warring upon and driving them from their territory.

It cannot be denied that most of the depredations committed by the Indians on our frontiers are the offspring of dire necessity. The advance of our population compels them to relinquish their fertile lands and seek refuge in sterile regions, which furnish neither corn nor game for their subsistence. Impelled by hunger, they seize the horses, mules, and cattle of the pioneers, to relieve their wants and satisfy the cravings of nature. They are immediately pursued, and, when overtaken, severely punished. This creates a feeling of revenge on their part, which seeks its gratification in outrages on the persons and property of peaceable inhabitants. The whole country then becomes excited, and a desolating war, attended with a vast sacrifice of blood and treasure, ensues. This, it is believed, is a true history of the origin of most of our Indian hostilities.

To avoid results like these, I would respectfully recommend that appropriations be made to buy food and clothing to supply their immediate wants; that they be permitted to retain suitable portions of their present territory, which should be set apart for their exclusive use and occupation; that they be furnished with implements of husbandry and domestic animals, and encouraged to engage in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, and to rely on the products of their labor, instead of the spoils of the chase, for the support of themselves and their families.

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The great obstacle to success, which must be met and overcome in the outset, is their nomadic mode of life. All history admonishes us of the difficulty of civilizing a wandering race who live mainly upon game. tame a savage you must tie him down to the soil. You must make him understand the value of property and the benefits of its separate ownership. You must appeal to those selfish principles implanted by Divine Providence in the nature of man, for the wisest purposes, and make them minister to civilization and refinement. You must encourage the appropriation of lands by individuals; attach them to their homes by the ties of interest; teach them the uses of agriculture and the arts of peace; and make them learn to substitute beef, and pork, and mutton as their food, for the deer and the buffalo. Mildness must supplant force; their self-respect must be stimulated, and manual-labor schools introduced among them; and they should be taught to look forward to the day when they may be elevated to the dignity of American citizenship.

By means like these we shall soon reap our reward, in the suppression of Indian depredations; in the diminution of the expenses of the Department of War; in a valuable addition to our productive population; in the increase of our agriculture and commerce; and in the proud consciousness that we have removed from our national escutcheon the stain left upon it by our acknowledged injustice to the Indian race.

To some these suggestions may seem chimerical. Many regard the Indians as an inferior race, and incapable of civilization; and on this fatal error our policy in regard to them has been based. The history of Powhatan, and Logan, and Cornstalk, and Osceola, is sufficient to disprove it. But, were fur

the necessary authority over the Indians in Texas, it is indispe a suitable country should be set apart for their exclusive occupa measures may be introduced for their gradual civilization and im

The subject of our Indian affairs in Texas has been adverted annual reports of the department, and those of the Indian Office ral successive years past, and I recommend that the attention of be again and earnestly invited to it.

JUDICIAL EXPENSES.

The law having devolved on the Secretary of the Interior a s power over the accounts of marshals, clerks, and other officers of of the United States, my attention has been turned to the vario Congress on that subject, and the usages which have grown up un The first thing which attracted my notice was the rapid increase o penses of the judicial department, which, as will be seen by the table, bears no just proportion to the increase of the population and of the country.

A

Increase per centum of population and expenses of courts since the year 1800.

Upon examination, I found that the laws regulating the fees of the ministerial officers of the courts are obscure, conflicting, and, as a whole, incomprehensible. Different constructions have been given to them by different judges, and the consequence is that the compensation in some States is inadequate, and in others extravagant. In some instances the fault is in the law; in others, it is in its administration.

With the view of presenting the whole subject more fally than I could do in the limits of this report, I addressed a letter to the First Comptroller of the Treasury, requesting him to make a communication to me in writing, embodying a review of all the laws regulating the fees of officers of the

courts, and of the modes of charging under them in different States, together with such amendments as he might deem necessary. This has been accordingly done, and it is now submitted with this report.

The first law, regulating fees, is the process act of September 29, 1789, which was temporary, and soon expired by its own limitation. The second was the new process act of May 8, 1792, the third section of which, regulating the fees of marshals, clerks, and attorneys, was repealed by the general law of February 25, 1799, which was the third act on the subject, and is now in force. It contains a partial bill of fees for marshals, and one for attorneys in admiralty causes, in addition to a per diem of $5 for attending court, and a small annual salary. It allows clerks, also, a per diem of $5, and for their services the same compensation as is allowed to the clerks of the supreme courts of the States respectively, with one-third added thereto. Attorneys and marshals are allowed, in many cases, the same compensation which is allowed to attorneys and sheriffs in the State courts, without any addition thereto. The fee-bills of the respective States were thus made the standard by which the fees of the officers of the United States courts were to be computed. At the time this law was passed there were but sixteen States in the Union, in all of which fees were prescribed by law. Since that date fifteen new States have been admitted, in many of which there are no fees prescribed by law for attorneys, and in others they are inadequate in amount.

In most of the older States the fee-bills have been changed from time to time, and in some of them very liberal allowances have been made to officers. A question has therefore arisen, whether the law of 1799 (the terms of which are in the present tense) shall be construed to refer to the fees allowed in the respective States at the date of the act, or to have a prospective relation to the changes subsequently made. In some of the older States it has received the former construction, and in others the latter. The more general practice, however, is to give it a prospective operation. Under this construction, in those States where the allowances to their officers are liberal, and the business in the United States courts large, the compensation to the officers of those courts became extravagant. To remedy this evil, a proviso was inserted in the general appropriation act, approved March 3d, 1841, to limit their fees, in cases where their aggregate compensation exceeded fifteen hundred dollars, to the fees allowed, by the State statutes, to attorneys, sheriffs, and clerks, for similar services. Difficulties having been experienced in administering this law, because it could not be known until the end of the year whether the compensation of the officer would exceed fifteen hundred dollars or not, it was therefore impossible for him to tell by what rule he should graduate his charges. A proviso was inserted in the appropriation act of 1842, requiring all those officers to return semi-annual accounts of their emoluments, and limiting the charges, in all cases in the districts of New York, to those allowed by law to the officers of the highest courts of original jurisdiction in that State. Some judges have held that the proviso in the act of 1841 was temporary in its character, and expired by limitation; others have held that it was repealed by the proviso in the act of 1842, and consequently that the act of 1799 furnished the only standard for calculating their fees; and thus the whole subject is involved in confusion and difficulty, and the practical effects are inequality and injustice.

The report of the Comptroller exposes many ingenious devices by which