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 wisdom as to
what can be done now. Augmented interest is given to this subject by the
actual commencement of work upon the Pacific Railroad, under auspices
so favorable to rapid progress and completion. The enlarged navigation
becomes a palpable need to the great road.

I transmit the second annual report of the Commissioner of the Department
of Agriculture, asking your attention to the developments in that vital
interest of the nation.

When Congress assembled a year ago, the war had already lasted nearly
twenty months, and there had been many conflicts on both land and sea,
with v