for the partial
subsistence of Indian tribes through the long and painful transition
from the hunter life to the agricultural state, for their instruction
and equipment in industrial pursuits, and for starting them finally on a
course of full self-support and economical independence, should be
liberal and generous, even to an extreme. The experiment should not be
allowed to encounter any chances of failure which may be avoided by
expenditure of money. The claim of the Indian in this respect is of the
strongest. He has no right to prevent the settling of this continent by
a race which has not only the power to conquer, but the disposition to
improve and adorn the land which he has suffered to remain a wilderness.
Yet to some royalty upon the product of the soil the Indian is
incontestably entitled as the original occupant and possessor. The
necessities of civilization may justify a somewhat summary treatment of
his rights, but cannot justify a confiscation of them. The people of the
United States can never without dishonor refuse to respect two
considerations,--first, that the Indians were the original occupants and
owners of substantially all the territory embraced within our limits;
that their title of occupancy has been recognized by all civilized
powers having intercourse with them, and has been approved in nearly
four hundred treaties concluded by the United States with individual
tribes and bands; and, therefore, every tribe and band that is deprived
of its roaming privilege and confined to a "diminished reservation" is
clearly entitled to compensation, either directly or in the form of
expenditures for its benefit: second, that, inasmuch as the progress of
our industrial enterprise is fast cutting this people off from modes of
livelihood entirely sufficient for them, and suited to them, and is
leaving them without resource, they have a claim, on this account again,
to temporary support and to such assistance as may be necessary to place
them in a position to obtain a livelihood by means which shall be
compatible with civilization.

* * * * *

"Had the settlements of the United States not been extended
beyond the frontier of 1867, all the Indians of the continent
would to the end of time have found upon the plains an
inexhaustible supply of food and clothing. Were the westward
course of population to be stayed at the barriers of to-day,
notwithstanding