squatters, who had organized provisional county and township governments, and whose presence, with their avowed determination to remain unless expelled by force, had caused the greatest dissatisfaction, and excited incipient hostility among those Indians. The wrongs inflicted upon them were of the most unjustifiable character, as will be seen upon reference to the various papers accompanying the Commissioner's report. A treaty is still pending before the Senate designed to close up all matters unsettled with the Cherokees. Amendments, prepared with a view to making it as complete as possible, were drawn up last spring by the Indian Office and assented to by their delegates. It is hoped that it may receive final action at an early day.

The council of the Chickasaw nation forwarded to the Commissioner an application for the survey of the Chickasaw lands under the act providing for the survey of the lands of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, upon the request of either nation. In accordance therewith he recommended the survey of the Chickasaw district, and contracts were accordingly entered into for that purpose. Subsequently to this the Department learned, for the first time, that the Choctaws claimed that no independent action on this subject could be lawfully had by the Chickasaws, but that, in virtue of their mutual relations, both nations must assent to the subdivision of the lands situate in either district. The question is one of some difficulty as involving a conflict between the act of Congress making the appropriation and the alleged interpretation of the treaties of 1866; but inasmuch as those treaties distinctly declare in favor of that policy of survey and subdivision which has had the consistent support of this administration in its Indian policy, and as the survey is a free gift on the part of the United States to the Indians, and does not in any mode necessarily interfere with the existing tenure of lands, the survey has been suffered to proceed. I would, however, recommend that before a land office is established, or any allotment of lands in severalty made, the attention of Congress be called to the supposed discrepancy between the statute and the treaty, in order that the just rights of both nations in the premises may be properly protected.

A general council of the civilized Indians in the Indian Territory recently assembled in accordance with the treaties of 1866 and the act of the last session of Congress. It was formally organized, but owing to the absence of the delegates from two nations adjourned, without transacting any business, to an early day in December. Representatives from all the tribes in the Territory will, it is believed, then convene.

The labors of the unpaid commission of citizens who have been cooperating with the Indian agencies have been very valuable during the past year. They personally superintended the purchase of Indian goods, a work requiring more than a month of their time in the early summer. Sub-committees of the body were present at the payments of moneys to the civilized nations in the Indian Territory, and aided in the negotiation which has resulted in the final settlement of the

Osage difficulty. They attended the conferences in this city with the Sioux, and have since visited them, as well as the wild tribes in Wyoming and Dakota. Their work of inspection has been extended to Oregon and Washington Territory. They have shrunk from no selfsacrifice, toil, or danger in endeavoring to make the policy you have adopted toward the Indians an entire success. The healthful effect of their influence and advice is cheerfully acknowledged by the Department and the Indian Bureau, and has inspired a just confidence in the honesty of the transactions which have been concluded under their su pervision.

The Friends to whom the agencies in the Northern and Central superintendencies were originally assigned, have most faithfully and industriously continued their beneficent work, with a success even greater than could have been reasonably expected.

Since the passage of the act of Congress making it impracticable to continue military officers in charge of Indian agencies, under your directions the field has been subdivided, and the various missionary associations of the country invited to occupy the same relations to them as those which the Friends have to the agencies under their control. The objections which would naturally arise to the coöperation of relig ious bodies in a governmental work have been obviated, so far as possible, by inviting the assistance of all missionary associations which have taken part in the work of civilizing the Indians. A preference of any denomination or sect has thus been avoided, and labors already performed are utilized to a greater extent than would otherwise be possible. Wherever a mission school has been established, it has been understood that you would appoint an agent in sympathy with the mission, so that its influence for good might be increased by the whole force of the governmental patronage. If the Indians are to be improved in their condition, our policy must be essentially changed, so that the provision for the wants of the matured and aged shall be treated merely as a temporary expedient, whilst the training of the children in the ways of civilization shall be the controlling and permanent feature of the system. On this point I will add that the Commissioner of Education is earnestly endeavoring to procure such information with regard to the proper and successful modes of educating Indian youth as may enable his Bureau to coöperate most thoroughly with the Indian Office. Contracts have been made for the survey of the reservation of the Sisseton, Wahpeton, and Cut-Head bands of Indians, pursuant to the requirements of the treaty of February 19, 1867; of a portion of the Yankton Indian reservation under the treaty of April 9, 1858, into 80acre lots, fronting the Missouri River; of the Navajo Indian reservation, part in New Mexico and part in Arizona, under the provisions of the treaty of June 1, 1868; and of the reservation in Idaho Territory for the Nez Percés under the treaty of August 13, 1868.

The estimated expenses of the Indian service for the coming fiscal

year, including appropriations that may be necessary to meet the interest on non-paying stocks held in trust, will be $5,070,000, against an appropriation of $6,150,000 for the current year, showing a reduction of $1,080,000.

I refer for detailed information, in regard to our Indian affairs, to the able and elaborate report of the Commissioner.

PENSIONS.

At the date of the last annual report, there were borne upon the pension rolls 887 widows of soldiers in the revolutionary war. The number on the 30th day of June, 1870, was 727. The reduction was caused by death, and by the operation of the third section of the act of Congress approved July 27, 1868. As a result of inquiries instituted by the Pension Bureau, the approximate ages of 498 of said widows have been ascertained to be as follows: 15 over one hundred years of age; 113 over ninety years of age; 175 over eighty; 131 over seventy; 51 over sixty; 11 over fifty; and 2 between forty and fifty years of age; 207 are reported as being in good health, 2 as blind, and 2 as inmates of almshouses.

There are on the rolls the names of 1,286 widows and children of soldiers who served in the wars subsequent to the Revolution, and prior to that of 1861, a decrease of 12 since the last annual report.

During the past fiscal year there were examined and allowed 5,572 original applications for invalid pensions of soldiers, at an annual ag gregate rate of $348,943 25, and 3,352 applications for increased pension of invalid soldiers, at an aggregate annual rate of $174,021 30. During the same period, 12,340 original pensions to widows, orphans, and dependent relatives of soldiers were allowed, at an annual aggregate rate of $1,547,174 75, and 3,085 applications of the same class for increased pay were also admitted, at a total annual rate of $114,167 71. The number of claims admitted, original and increase, during said year, was 24,349, and the annual amount of pension thus granted was $2,184,307 21. On the 30th day of June, 1870, there were on the rolls 86,187 invalid military pensioners, whose yearly pensions amounted to $7,655,749 52, and 109,552 widows, orphans, and dependent relatives of soldiers, whose yearly pensions amounted to $14,224,664, 33, making the aggregate of army pensioners 195,739, at a total annual rate of $21,880,413 85. The whole amount paid during the last fiscal year to invalid military pensioners amounted to $9,003,913 93; to widows, orphans, and dependent relatives, $18,328,306 97; a grand total of $27,332,220 90, which includes the expenses of the disbursing agencies.

During the same year there were admitted 149 new applications for invalid navy pensions, at an annual rate of $13,038; 88 applications for increased pensions of the same class, at an annual aggregate rate of $3,923; 160 original applications of widows, orphans, and dependent

relatives of those who died in the navy, at an aggregate rate of $24,000; and 20 pensions of the same class were increased at a total yearly rate of $1,890. On the 30th June, 1870, there were borne on the rolls of navy pensioners 1,334 invalids, at an annual aggregate of $118,726 25, and 1,613 widows, orphans, and dependent relatives, at an aggregate. annual rate of $261,060, making the number of such pensioners 2,947, at an annual aggregate of $379,756 29. The amount paid during the last fiscal year to navy invalids was $133,448 50, and to widows, orphans, and dependent relatives $315,142 41, a total amount of $448,590 91. During the year there were added to the number of pensioners, of all classes, 24,766; there were dropped, from various causes, 7,498, leaving on the rolls June 30, 1870, 198,686. The amount paid for pensions of all classes during the year, including the expenses of disbursement, was $27,780,811 81, being $642,072 27 less than was paid for the same purposes during the previous year.

There were 1,758 bounty land warrants issued during the year, for 277,200 acres, an excess of 108 warrants over the number issued during the preceding year.

The Commissioner has devoted special attention and energetic effort, first, to a more thorough examination of the evidence presented in support of pension claims, thus insuring the rejection of such as are fictitious and unfounded; second, to a searching inquiry in regard to the present list of invalid pensions, with a view to a more just and uniform graduation of existing rates; and, third, to the ascertainment and cancellation of fraudulent claims heretofore allowed. A cautious medical and surgical scrutiny, by an experienced professional gentleman attached to the bureau, has been applied, not only to the evidence in original applications, but also to the returns of the examining physicians under whose eye the pensioners periodically pass. By this means much has been done toward perfecting general and equitable rules for determining the proportion of pension to which each claimant is entitled by reason of his disability.

The actual amount saved by the disallowance of unjust claims cannot be accurately estimated, but from the other reforms I have mentioned a reduction of $1,360,000 has been made in the amount required to pay pensions allowed prior to the current year. This is shown by the fact that although 10,000 new pensioners have been placed upon the rolls at an aggregate amount of $720,000 per annum, an actual reduction in the total amount paid last year has been made of $640,000. It is believed that a steady application of the system already adopted will continue to produce equally satisfactory results.

The Commissioner has enlarged the work of investigating frauds, and through the instrumentality of special agents has saved many times the sam appropriated by Congress for the purpose at its last session.

The amount of invalid pensions stopped under the last biennial examinations was $44,854, of those so reduced, $83,784; of those stopped

during the last fiscal year by order of the Bureau, $21,888, of those so reduced, $5,616; and of other pensions so stopped, $10,920, aggregating annually $167,062. During the same year the sum of $20,103 44 was fraudulently drawn by women who had remarried, nearly the whole of which has been recovered; the sum of $6,122 56 was reported as retained by attorneys in excess of legal fees, a large proportion of which has been restored to the pensioners; 40 attorneys were arrested for violations of the statutes, of whom 18 were convicted, 11 acquitted, 3 escaped, and the cases of 8 were pending at the close of said year; 65 pensioners were arrested for fraud, of whom 22 were convicted, 9 acquitted, 4 escaped, and the cases of 30 were pending at the close of said year.

From September 1, 1869, to June 30, 1870, 10,075 claims for pensions. were finally acted upon in the office of the medical referee of the Bureau; 8,267 were approved, and 1,808 rejected; 1,963 admitted cases were sent by the Bureau to its agents for special investigation.

In view of actual and attempted frauds upon colored pensioners and applicants for pension in the States of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, a special commission was appointed last year to make a thorough investigation. They examined and reported upon 750 cases, and their labors disclosed an enormous amount of systematic extortion and fraud upon pensioners, and upon the government.

I submit the estimates with the remark that if the balance of existing appropriations for the Pension Office, remaining unexpended on the 1st of July next, be withheld from the treasury, and applied to that service, the amount required for the next will be $10,000,000 less than that appropriated for the present fiscal year.

OFFICE OF EDUCATION.

The report of the Commissioner exhibits the valuable results he has accomplished, notwithstanding the very limited clerical aid at his com mand. Applications for information were received from all sections of the country, and from abroad. The facts and statistics, necessary to give a full and satisfactory answer to many of these inquiries have never been collected.

The answer made to the resolution, adopted by the House of Representatives in May last, requiring information touching the progress and condition of education in the Southern States, contains much matter of great value and interest. The publication of that paper would have enabled the Commissioner to distribute, in a readily accessible form, authentic information in regard to the educational condition of that part of the Union.

Congress has not authorized the printing of any of the several reports emanating from the Burean, and the Commissioner was, until last August, compelled to answer by correspondence the various inquiries that were made of him. Three thousand copies of the "Circular of Information" were, by my direction, then printed. They have been distributed, but the demand has not been supplied.