carefully treated by the Board on Fortifications, whose report was
submitted at the last session of Congress; but no construction work of the
kind recommended by the board has been possible during the last year from
the lack of appropriations for such purpose.
The defenseless condition of our seacoast and lake frontier is perfectly
palpable. The examinations made must convince us all that certain of our
cities named in the report of the board should be fortified and that work
on the most important of these fortifications should be commenced at once.
The work has been thoroughly considered and laid out, the Secretary of War
reports, but all is delayed in default of Congressional action.
The absolute necessity, judged by all standards of prudence and foresight,
of our preparation for an effectual resistance against the armored ships
and steel guns and mortars of modern construction which may threaten the
cities on our coasts is so apparent that I hope effective steps will be
taken in that direction immediately.
The valuable and suggestive treatment of this question by the Secretary of
War is earnestly commended to the consideration of the Congress.
In September and October last the hostile Apaches who, under the leadership
of Geronimo, had for eighteen months been on the war path, and during that
time had committed many murders and been the cause of constant terror to
the settlers of Arizona, surrendered to General Miles, the military
commander who succeeded General Crook in the management and direction of
their pursuit.
Under the terms of their surrender as then reported, and in view of the
understanding which these murderous savages seemed to entertain of the
assurances given them, it was considered best to imprison them in such
manner as to prevent their ever engaging in such outrages again, instead of
trying them for murder. Fort Pickens having been selected as a safe place
of confinement, all the adult males were sent thither and will be closely
guarded as prisoners. In the meantime the residue of the band, who, though
still remaining upon the reservation, were regarded as unsafe and suspected
of furnishing aid to those on the war path, had been removed to Fort
Marion. The women and larger children of the hostiles were also taken
there, and arrangements have been made for putting the children of proper
age in Indian schools.
The report of the Secretary of the Navy contains a detailed exhibit of the
condition of his Department, with such a statement of the action needed to
improve the same as should challenge the earnest attention of the
Congress.
The present Navy of the United States, aside from the ships in course of
construction, consists of--
First. Fourteen single-turreted monitors, none of which are in commission
nor at the present time serviceable. The batteries of these ships are
obsolete, and they can only be relied upon as auxiliary ships in harbor
defense, and then after such an expenditure upon them as might not be
deemed justifiable.
Second. Five fourth-rate vessels of small tonnage, only one of which was
designed as a war vessel, and all of which are auxiliary merely.
Third. Twenty-seven cruising ships, three of which are built of iron, of
small tonnage, and twenty-four of wood. Of these wooden vessels it is
estimated by the Chief Constructor of the Navy that only three will be
serviceable beyond a period of six years, at which time it may be said that
of the present naval force nothing worthy the name will remain.
All the vessels heretofore authorized are under contract or in course of
construction except the armored ships, the torpedo and dynamite boats, and
one cruiser. As to the last of these, the bids were in excess of the limit
fixed by Congress. The production in the United States of armor and gun
steel is a question which it seems necessary to settle at an early day if
the armored war vessels are to be completed with those materials of home
manufacture. This has been the subject of investigation by two boards and
by two special committees of Congress within the last three years. The
report of the Gun Foundry Board in 1884, of the Board on Fortifications
made in January last, and the reports of the select committees of the two
Houses made at the last session of Congress have entirely exhausted the
subject, so far as preliminary investigation is involved, and in their
recommendations they are substantially agreed.
In the event that the present invitation of the Department for bids to
furnish such of this material as is now authorized shall fail to induce
domestic manufacturers to undertake the large expenditures required to
prepare for this new manufacture, and no other steps are taken by Congress
at its coming session, the Secretary contemplates with dissatisfaction the
necessity of obtaining abroad the armor and the gun steel for the
authorized ships. It would seem desirable that the wants of the Army and
the Navy in this regard should be reasonably met, and that by uniting their
contracts such inducement might be offered as would result in securing the
domestication of these important interests.
The affairs of the postal service show marked and gratifying improvement
during the past year. A particular account of its transactions and
condition is given in the report of the Postmaster-General, which will be
laid before you.
The reduction of the rate of letter postage in 1883, rendering the postal
revenues inadequate to sustain the expenditures, and business depression
also contributing, resulted in an excess of cost for the fiscal year ended
June 30, 1885, of eight and one-third millions of dollars. An additional
check upon receipts by doubling the measure of weight in rating sealed
correspondence and diminishing one-half the charge for newspaper carriage
was imposed by legislation which took effect with the beginning of the past
fiscal year, while the constant demand of our territorial development and
growing population for the extension and increase of mail facilities and
machinery necessitates steady annual advance in outlay, and the careful
estimate of a year ago upon the rates of expenditure then existing
contemplated the unavoidable augmentation of the deficiency in the last
fiscal year by nearly $2,000,000. The anticipated revenue for the last year
failed of realization by about $64,000, but proper measures of economy have
so satisfactorily limited the growth of expenditure that the total
deficiency in fact fell below that of 1885, and at this time the increase
of revenue is in a gaining ratio over the increase of cost, demonstrating
the sufficiency of the present rates of postage ultimately to sustain the
service. This is the more pleasing because our people enjoy now both
cheaper postage proportionably to distances and a vaster and more costly
service than any other upon the globe.
Retrenchment has been effected in the cost of supplies, some expenditures
unwarranted by law have ceased, and the outlays for mail carriage have been
subjected to beneficial scrutiny. At the close of the last fiscal year the
expense of transportation on star routes stood at an annual rate of cost
less by over $560,000 than at the close of the previous year and steamboat
and mail-messenger service at nearly $200,000 less.
The service has been in the meantime enlarged and extended by the
establishment of new offices, increase of routes of carriage, expansion of
carrier-delivery conveniences, and additions to the railway mail
facilities, in accordance with the growing exigencies of the country and
the long-established policy of the Government.
The Postmaster-General calls attention to the existing law for compensating
railroads and expresses the opinion that a method may be devised which will
prove more just to the carriers and beneficial to the Government; and the
subject appears worthy of your early consideration.
The differences which arose during the year with certain of the ocean
steamship companies have terminated by the acquiescence of all in the
policy of the Government approved by the Congress in the postal
appropriation at its last session, and the Department now enjoys the utmost
service afforded by all vessels which sail from our ports upon either
ocean--a service generally adequate to the needs of our intercourse.
Petitions have, however, been presented to the Department by numerous
merchants and manufacturers for the establishment of a direct service to
the Argentine Republic and for semimonthly dispatches to the Empire of
Brazil, and the subject is commended to your consideration. It is an
obvious duty to provide the means of postal communication which our
commerce requires, and with prudent forecast of results the wise extension
of it may lead to stimulating intercourse and become the harbinger of a
profitable traffic which will open new avenues for the disposition of the
products of our industry. The circumstances of the countries at the far
south of our continent are such as to invite our enterprise and afford the
promise of sufficient advantages to justify an unusual effort to bring
about the closer relations which greater freedom of communication would
tend to establish.
I suggest that, as distinguished from a grant or subsidy for the mere
benefit of any line of trade or travel, whatever outlay may be required to
secure additional postal service, necessary and proper and not otherwise
attainable, should be regarded as within the limit of legitimate
compensation for such service.
The extension of the free-delivery service as suggested by the
Postmaster-General has heretofore received my sanction, and it is to be
hoped a suitable enactment may soon be agreed upon.
The request for an appropriation sufficient to enable the general
inspection of fourth-class offices has my approbation.
I renew my approval of the recommendation of the Postmaster-General that
another assistant be provided for the Post-Office Department, and I invite
your attention to the several other recommendations in his report.
The conduct of the Department of Justice for the last fiscal year is fully
detailed in the report of the Attorney-General, and I invite the earnest
attention of the Congress to the same and due consideration of the
recommendations therein contained.
In the report submitted by this officer to the last session of the Congress
he strongly recommended the erection of a penitentiary for the confinement
of prisoners convicted and sentenced in the United States courts, and he
repeats the recommendation in his report for the last year.
This is a matter of very great importance and should at once receive
Congressional action. United States prisoners are now confined in more than
thirty different State prisons and penitentiaries scattered in every part
of the country. They are subjected to nearly as many different modes of
treatment and discipline and are far too much removed from the control and
regulation of the Government. So far as they are entitled to humane
treatment and an opportunity for improvement and reformation, the
Government is responsible to them and society that these things are
forthcoming. But this duty can scarcely be discharged without more absolute
control and direction than is possible under the present system.
Many of our good citizens have interested themselves, with the most
beneficial results, in the question of prison reform. The General
Government should be in a situation, since there must be United States
prisoners, to furnish important aid in this movement, and should be able to
illustrate what may be practically done in the direction of this reform and
to present an example in the treatment and improvement of its prisoners
worthy of imitation.
With prisons under its own control the Government could deal with the
somewhat vexed question of convict labor, so far as its convicts were
concerned, according to a plan of its own adoption, and with due regard to
the rights and interests of our laboring citizens, instead of sometimes
aiding in the operation of a system which causes among them irritation and
discontent.
Upon consideration of this subject it might be thought wise to erect more
than one of these institutions, located in such places as would best
subserve the purposes of convenience and economy in transportation. The
considerable cost of maintaining these convicts as at present, in State
institutions, would be saved by the adoption of the plan proposed, and by
employing them in the manufacture of such articles as were needed for use
by the Government quite a large pecuniary benefit would be realized in
partial return for our outlay.
I again urge a change in the Federal judicial system to meet the wants of
the people and obviate the delays necessarily attending the present
condition of affairs in our courts. All are agreed that something should be
done, and much favor is shown by those well able to advise to the plan
suggested by the Attorney-General at the last session of the Congress and
recommended in my last annual message. This recommendation is here renewed,
together with another made at the same time, touching a change in the
manner of compensating district attorneys and marshals; and the latter
subject is commended to the Congress for its action in the interest of
economy to the Government, and humanity, fairness, and justice to our
people.
The report of the Secretary of the Interior presents a comprehensive
summary of the work of the various branches of the public service connected
with his Department, and the suggestions and recommendations which it
contains for the improvement of the service should receive your careful
consideration.
The exhibit made of the condition of our Indian population and the progress
of the work for their enlightenment, notwithstanding the many
embarrassments which hinder the better administration of this important
branch of the service, is a gratifying and hopeful one.
The funds appropriated for the Indian service for the fiscal year just
passed, with the available income from Indian land and trust moneys,
amounting in all to $7,850,775.12, were ample for the service under the
conditions and restrictions of laws regulating their expenditure. There
remained a balance on hand on June 30, 1886, of $1,660,023.30, of which $
1,337,768.21 are permanent funds for fulfillment of treaties and other like
purposes, and the remainder, $322,255.09, is subject to be carried to the
surplus fund as required by law.
The estimates presented for appropriations for the ensuing fiscal year
amount to $5,608,873.64, or $442,386.20 less than those laid before the
Congress last year.
The present system of agencies, while absolutely necessary and well adapted
for the management of our Indian affairs and for the ends in view when it
was adopted, is in the present stage of Indian management inadequate,
standing alone, for the accomplishment of an object which has become
pressing in its importance--the more rapid transition from tribal
organizations to citizenship of such portions of the Indians as are capable
of civilized life.
When the existing system was adopted, the Indian race was outside of the
limits of organized States and Territories and beyond the immediate reach
and operation of civilization, and all efforts were mainly directed to the
maintenance of friendly relations and the preservation of peace and quiet
on the frontier. All this is now changed. There is no such thing as the
Indian frontier. Civilization, with the busy hum of industry and the
influences of Christianity, surrounds these people at every point. None of
the tribes are outside of the bounds of organized government and society,
except that the Territorial system has not been extended over that portion
of the country known as the Indian Territory. As a race the Indians are no
longer hostile, but may be considered as submissive to the control of the
Government. Few of them only are troublesome. Except the fragments of
several bands, all are now gathered upon reservations.
It is no longer possible for them to subsist by the chase and the
spontaneous productions of the earth.
With an abundance of land, if furnished with the means and implements for
profitable husbandry, their life of entire dependence upon Government
rations from day to day is no longer defensible. Their inclination, long
fostered by a defective system of control, is to cling to the habits and
customs of their ancestors and struggle with persistence against the change
of life which their altered circumstances press upon them. But barbarism
and civilization can not live together. It is impossible that such
incongruous conditions should coexist on the same soil.
They are a portion of our people, are under the authority of our
Government, and have a peculiar claim upon and are entitled to the
fostering care and protection of the nation. The Government can not relieve
itself of this responsibility until they are so far trained and civilized
as to be able wholly to manage and care for themselves. The paths in which
they should walk must be clearly marked out for them, and they must be led
or guided until they are familiar with the way and competent to assume the
duties and responsibilities of our citizenship.
Progress in this great work will continue only at the present slow pace and
at great expense unless the system and methods of management are improved
to meet the changed conditions and urgent demands of the service.
The agents, having general charge and supervision in many cases of more
than 5,000 Indians, scattered over large reservations, and burdened with
the details of accountability for funds and supplies, have time to look
after the industrial training and improvement of a few Indians only. The
many are neglected and remain idle and dependent, conditions not favorable
for progress and civilization.
The compensation allowed these agents and the conditions of the service are
not calculated to secure for the work men who are fitted by ability and
skill to properly plan and intelligently direct the methods best adapted to
produce the most speedy results and permanent benefits.
Hence the necessity for a supplemental agency or system directed to the end
of promoting the general and more rapid transition of the tribes from
habits and customs of barbarism to the ways of civilization.
With an anxious desire to devise some plan of operation by which to secure
the welfare of the Indians and to relieve the Treasury as far as possible
from the support of an idle and dependent population, I recommended in my
previous annual message the passage of a law authorizing the appointment of
a commission as an instrumentality auxiliary to those already established
for the care of the Indians. It was designed that this commission should be
composed of six intelligent and capable persons--three to be detailed from
the Army--having practical ideas upon the subject of the treatment of
Indians and interested in their welfare, and that it should be charged,
under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, with the management
of such matters of detail as can not with the present organization be
properly and successfully conducted, and which present different phases, as
the Indians themselves differ in their progress, needs, disposition, and
capacity for improvement or immediate self-support.
By the aid of such a commission much unwise and useless expenditure of
money, waste of materials, and unavailing efforts might be avoided; and it
is hoped that this or some measure which the wisdom of Congress may better
devise to supply the deficiency of the present system may receive your
consideration and the appropriate legislation be provided.
The time is ripe for the work of such an agency.
There is less opposition to the education and training of the Indian youth,
as shown by the increased attendance upon the schools, and there is a
yielding tendency for the individual holding of lands. Development and
advancement in these directions are essential, and should have every
encouragement. As the rising generation are taught the language of
civilization and trained in habits of industry they should assume the
duties, privileges, and responsibilities of citizenship.
No obstacle should hinder the location and settlement of any Indian willing
to take land in severalty; on the contrary, the inclination to do so should
be stimulated at all times when proper and expedient. But there is no
authority of law for making allotments on some of the reservations, and on
others the allotments provided for are so small that the Indians, though
ready and desiring to settle down, are not willing to accept such small
areas when their reservations contain ample lands to afford them homesteads
of sufficient size to meet their present and future needs.
These inequalities of existing special laws and treaties should be
corrected and some general legislation on the subject should be provided,
so that the more progressive members of the different tribes may be settled
upon homesteads, and by their example lead others to follow, breaking away
from tribal customs and substituting therefor the love of home, the
interest of the family, and the rule of the state.
The Indian character and nature are such that they are not easily led while
brooding over unadjusted wrongs. This is especially so regarding their
lands. Matters arising from the construction and operation of railroads
across some of the reservations, and claims of title and right of occupancy
set up by white persons to some of the best land within other reservations
require legislation for their final adjustment.
The settlement of these matters will remove many embarrassments to progress
in the work of leading the Indians to the adoption of our institutions and
bringing them under the operation, the influence, and the protection of the
universal laws of our country.