WASHINGTON, _January 18, 1853_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I have the honor herewith to transmit a report from the Secretary of
the Interior, from which it appears that the efforts of that Department
to induce the Indians remaining in Florida to migrate to the country
assigned to their tribe west of the Mississippi have been entirely
unsuccessful. The only alternative that now remains is either to compel
them by force to comply with the treaty made with the tribe in May,
1832, by which they agreed to migrate within three years from that
date, or allow the arrangement made with them in 1842, referred to in
the Secretary's report, by which they were permitted to remain in the
temporary occupancy of a portion of the peninsula until the Government
should see fit to remove them, to continue.
It can not be denied that the withholding so large a portion of her
territory from settlement is a source of injury to the State of Florida;
and although, ever since the arrangement above referred to, the Indians
have manifested a desire to remain at peace with the whites, the
presence of a people who may at any time and upon any real or fancied
provocation be driven to acts of hostility is a source of constant
anxiety and alarm to the inhabitants on that border.
There can be no doubt, also, that the welfare of the Indians would be
promoted by their removal from a territory where frequent collisions
between them and their more powerful neighbors are daily becoming more
inevitable.
On the other hand, there is every reason to believe that any
manifestation of a design to remove them by force or to take possession
of the territory allotted to them would be immediately retaliated by
acts of cruelty on the defenseless inhabitants.
The number of Indians now remaining in the State is, it is true, very
inconsiderable (not exceeding, it is believed, 500), but owing to the
extent of the country occupied by them and its adaptation to their
peculiar mode of warfare, a force very disproportioned to their numbers
would be necessary to capture them, or even to protect the white
settlements from their incursions. The military force now stationed in
that State would be inadequate to these objects, and if it should be
determined to enforce their removal or to survey the territory allotted
to them some addition to it would be necessary, as the Government has
but a small force available for that service. Additional appropriations
for the support of the Army would also, in that event, be necessary.
For these reasons I have deemed it proper to submit the whole matter to
Congress, for such action as they may deem best.