s.
I doubt not that Congress will cheerfully adopt such measures as will,
without essentially changing the general features of the system, secure to
the greatest practicable extent its benefits to those who have left their
homes in the defense of the country in this arduous crisis.

I invite your attention to the views of the Secretary as to the propriety
of raising by appropriate legislation a revenue from the mineral lands of
the United States.

The measures provided at your last session for the removal of certain
Indian tribes have been carried into effect. Sundry treaties have been
negotiated, which will in due time be submitted for the constitutional
action of the Senate. They contain stipulations for extinguishing the
possessory rights of the Indians to large and valuable tracts of lands.
It is hoped that the effect of these treaties will result in the
establishment of permanent friendly relations with such of these tribes
as have been brought into frequent and bloody collision with our outlying
settlements and emigrants. Sound policy and our imperative duty to these
wards of the Government demand our anxious and constant attention to their
material well-being, to their progress in the arts of civilization, and,
above all, to that moral training which under the blessing of Divine
Providence will confer upon them the elevated and sanctifying influences,
the hopes and consolations, of the Christian faith.

I suggested in my last annual message the propriety of remodeling our
Indian system. Subsequent events have satisfied me of its necessity. The
details set forth in the report of the Secretary evince the urgent need
for immediate legislative action.

I commend the benevolent institutions established or patronized by the
Government in this District to your generous and fostering care.

The attention of Congress during the last session was engaged to some
extent with a proposition for enlarging the water communication between
the Mississippi River and the northeastern seaboard, which proposition,
however, failed for the time. Since then, upon a call of the greatest
respectability, a convention has been held at Chicago upon the same
subject, a summary of whose views is contained in a memorial addressed to
the President and Congress, and which I now have the honor to lay before
you. That this interest is one which ere long will force its own way I do
not entertain a doubt, while it is submitted entirely to your wis