Although the Indians appear to be necessarily protected by the general stipulations accorded on the part of the Government itself, constant experience demonstrates that they cannot exist within the limits of a State, unless they become citizens thereof. Witness the Creeks and Cherokees in the State of Georgia, who at one time were on the point -of bringing the General Government and the State into conflict.
In several of the late treaties that I have mentioned, the Indians have renounced their permanent annuities, and, in exchange, have consented to accept considerable sums for a limited number of years, and payments at fixed terms. However liberal be the annuity, the Indian never lays anything aside for his future necessities; this is his character. He lives from day to day. All is expended in the course of the year in which the payment is made. Let us suppose, therefore, that the amount of the last payment has been poured forth, what will consequently become of those poor
tribes? Here, it appears to me, is the solution of the problem: They must either perish miserably, or sell their reserves, or go and rejoin the wandering bands of the plains,
or cultivate the soil. But, observe well, they are surrounded by whites who contemn them, hate them, and who will de moralize them in a very short time. If it be asked, to what must be attributed the improvidence of the tribes, which neglect to exchange their permanent annuities for sums to be paid at limited terms, but of greater length ? The reason is found in the disparity of the parties who make the treaty. On one side stands a shrewd and, perhaps, unscrupulous Government officer; on the other, a few ignorant chiefs, accompanied by their half-breed interpreters, whose integrity is far from being proverbial.
Adding to these facts the ravages caused every year by the smallpox, the measles, the cholera and other maladies, as well as their incessant wars and divisions, I think I may repeat the melancholy foresight that, in a few years, there will remain but very feeble vestiges of those tribes in the