large numbers of men from labor to military service have
obstructed settlements in the new States and Territories of the Northwest.

The receipts of the Patent Office have declined in nine months about
$100,000.00 rendering a large reduction of the force employed necessary to
make it self-sustaining.

The demands upon the Pension Office will be largely increased by
the insurrection. Numerous applications for pensions, based upon the
casualties of the existing war, have already been made. There is reason to
believe that many who are now upon the pension rolls and in receipt of the
bounty of the government are in the ranks of the insurgent army or
giving them aid and comfort. The Secretary of the Interior has directed
a suspension of the payment of the pensions of such persons upon proof
of their disloyalty. I recommend that Congress authorize that officer to
cause the names of such persons to be stricken from the pension rolls.

The relations of the government with the Indian tribes have been greatly
disturbed by the insurrection, especially in the southern superintendency
and in that of New Mexico. The Indian country south of Kansas is in the
possession of insurgents from Texas and Arkansas. The agents of the United
States appointed since the 4th of March for this superintendency have been
unable to reach their posts, while the most of those who were in office
before that time have espoused the insurrectionary cause, and assume
to exercise the powers of agents by virtue of commissions from the
insurrectionists. It has been stated in the public press that a portion of
those Indians have been organized as a military force and are attached
to the army of the insurgents. Although the government has no official
information upon this subject, letters have been written to the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs by several prominent chiefs giving
assurance of their loyalty to the United States and expressing a wish for
the presence of Federal troops to protect them. It is believed that upon
the repossession of the country by the Federal forces the Indians will
readily cease all hostile demonstrations and resume their former relations
to the government.

Agriculture, confessedly the largest interest of the nation, has not
a department nor a bureau, but a clerkship only, assigned to it in
the government. While it is fortunate that this great interest is so
independent in its nature as not to have demanded and extorted more from
the