Mr. BURLEIGH. For the very reason that the President has a confidential clerk, in the person of the SecyInterior, to whom c has intrusted these matters, and who, he has every reason to believe, from the position he occupies, will discharge the duties of his position faithfully and honestly. But I takeit or granted he will not labor under that misap prehension much longer . But, sir, I go on with the line of remark in which I was interrupted. Now, sir, if this statement is true, I ask you why it is that these people were driven enmasse from that State by its indignant and outraged citizens. Wh were they forced to abandon their homes their comfortable dwellings, and rich lands there if this assertion be correct? This statement of the SecyInterior cannot be true, but is intended to deceive and mislead the people into whose midst he has been instrumental in forcing these savages. Here is an extract from his report to the President of December 4, 1865: “It is difllcultto maintain peaceful relations with the Indians in Minnesota. 'lhc terrible massacreof the white inhabitants in the year 1862is freshin the memoryof the country. The intense exasperation which ollowedled in that State to a policy. which has also revailedto someextent in several of our organize Territories inducing a personalpredatory warfare between the frontier citizens, emigrants, and rumors, and isolated bandsof Indians be on or in many instances.to tribes atpeaco with the govern ment, This awakensa spiritpf retaliation. inciting atrocious actsofyiolencc. which, oft repeated, result in irreparable disastersto both races." The Secretary states in his communication to me which I have just read, “and it is known that for the last 4 years those Indians who had previously manifested hostility have conducted themselves in the most quiet and friendly manner.” What does the Secretary mean by this assertion, if it be not to deceive au'd mislead the iiblic mind? If he knows an thing at all of thb history of these Indians, he knows that it has not been 4 years since the mas sacre in Minnesota occurred. This being the case, What credit can attach to his official statement? He cannot be unmindful of the fact that it was in Au st, 1862, that these same Indians, whom he as turned over as a Christian legacy to our people, commenced and completed the most gigantic cold blooded work of eath and desolation that ever befcll an Amer ican State less than 4 years ago, during which period he says these savages, “ who Ilflkl previously manifested hostility have conducted themselves in the most friendly manner." Why does not this gentleman, holding the responsible position which he does in the Government. state facts as they are known to exist, and say to the country that these identical savages, “who have been so peaccable for the last 4 years, ” have been confined in prison under a strong military guard the sentence of death having been passed upon them ] for their complicity in that terrible work of blood? He knows that during the fall of 1862 and the winter following, as well as in spring, summer, and fall of 1863, scarcely a week passed that the exosed settlers of our frontiers were not murder and robbed by the members of the bands who were driven from Minnesota. And our citizens are still exposed to and suffering from the depredations of these same Indians. Why does not the Secretary or the Commissioner state for the information of the country that these are the same Indians who commit ted the cold blooded murder of 47 innocent, unprotected citizens at Spirit Lake in northwestern Iowa, in the year 1857; and that in the spring of 1855 these humble, repentant, harmless Sioux murderers, who. in the language of the ComrIndAff, in a late report to the President, “have atoned for their crimes as no people have ever made atonement before, ” returned to Minnesota, and almost within sight of Man kato, murdered in cold blood a whole family, consistin of 7 members? Instea of concealing the truth in relation to these important matters, why do not these public officers Openly declare it, and not try to lull our people into a state of fatal apathy until they are a ain aroused by the recurrence of those terrible scenes of carnage through which they have been compelled to pass during the last 9 years? f any gentleman thinks thatI have over drawn the horrors of the scenes of suffering which I have described which have befallen the inhabitants of our frontiers, I will call upon the loyal and patriotic Sens&Reps from Minnesota to correct me. Let them speak; let the people of their State speak also. Now, sir, I ask what all this means? Will any rational person pretend to say that there is not a direct conflict in the meaiiin and in the language of these 2 communications? Had the Secretary forgotten the contents of his report to the President when he addressed me the foregoing communication, or did he suppose that I was ignorant of the former when he sent me the latter? When before in the history of this Government has a Cabinet officer assumed the responsibility of manufacturing and rverting history to suit his own necessities? Knot the fact of the terrible massacre in minnesota in the summer of 1802 as patent to all as is that of the great rebellion through which the nation has just passed? Can the special pleading of any officer of the Government for special purposes blind the eyes and beuumb the sensibilities of either Congress or the nation to that terrible reality which watered the soil of halfa State with tears and dyed its green fields with the blood of its citizens? But I assert that there is no authority oflaw for this last removal and location of these Indians. The net of March 3, 1863, which ives the only authority for their removal, ha already been exhausted. lfetwere still in force, the location of these Indians at the mouth of the Niobrara, would not come within its provisions. The act provides that the selection of a reservation for their abode shall be upon “unoc cupied land;” that it shall consist of “good agricultural land.” Let me read the language of the act: "That the President is authorized, and hereby dWirnelcipteatdo.nto. assign to and setapart for theSisseton. Medawakanton and l ahpakootabands of Sioux Indians. a tract of unoccupiedliinrl outside of the limits ofimy State. sufficient in extent to enablehim to assign to each member of said bands (who are willing to adoptthe pursuit of agriculture) 80 acresof good agricultural lands. the same to be well adaptedto agricultural purposes." The tract which has been selected at Nio brara is not of this character. All, or ncarl all oft lie land upon the 4 townslii)S which have been withdrawn from market for these Indiana, that is suited to agriculture, has been I sold by the Government, and is now held by 1, YflVfllO individuals, except the town site of" hiobmra, which is owned by a company. All 1 of the desirable bottom lands, those suited I to cultivation, are owned and many of them occupied by the citizens of the country. They can only he possessed by the Government by purchase, and there is no authority given for acquiring a title to them by purchase. I have traveled over these lands and know what I say to be strictly true; and I assert that the Government land upon which these Indians are now being located is not so well adapted to agriculture as the lands at Crow Creek, the place whence they have just been removed. As the remoiIal and location of these Indians has been accomplished without authority of law, and since their condition will in no way be improved, while their location close by our white settlements will retard the settlement of that country, depreciate the value of both private and public property, and endanger the ives of our citizens must appeal to congress for the removal of these savages to some other district of country, where. the citizens of Dakota and northwestern Nebraska will be relieved from the evils of which they now so justly complain. Again, I ask, if these Indians are peaceable andharmlcss, as is asserted, why not return themto their native State andlocate the m nearer their former homes, upon the fertile soil of Minnesota? An act of Congress authorizing the same is all that is required. Why force them so far from the homes of their childhood, from the graves of their fathers, into that in hospitable country where their sufferings cause so many heart earnings to this Christian phi lanthropist? ’erlirips a more agreeable resi dence is desired for those self sacrificing her alds of the cross who have such a fancy for savage associations. There is noprinciple of law, Isup ose, more firmly or incontrovertibly settled, than that a power of this sort once exercised under the law conferring it, is exhausted and gone forever beyond all power of revocation. An this is as Well the award of common reason as of the common law. Any other doctrine would involve the absurdity of converting a mere power of selection into a roving commission without limits and without end. If the 1st act of choice is not conclusive, a 2nd would be no more so, and the title of the beneficiary would be at all times subject to the ca rice of the donor, and would be in effect no title at all. Once vested by the selection, if divestiblo at all, it can he divested only through the pmver of the legislative net. But no man in his senses could well suppose that it was the intention of that power to lbdge with anybody the privilege of shifting its grants adLibitum, and t at, too, after large expenditures incurred in carrying them into effect. Ifthese Indians are not guilty of the terrible crimes of which they stand charged; if they are peaceable and friendly, safe members of society, where was the justice and humanity in depriving them of their former homes and property in Minnesota, as was done by a sol cuin act of Congress 7 Let me read from the act of February 16, 1863: "Whereas the U.S. heretoforebemma bound by treaty stipulations to the Sisseton, Wuhpaton, Medawakanton and Wuhpakoota bandsof the Dakota or Sioux Indians to pay large sums of money and annuities, the greater portion of which remainsunpaid accordingto the terms of said treaty stipulation": and whereas during the past year the aforesaid bands of Indians made an unrevoked aggressive, and most savage war upon t a U.S. niidmassacredalargenumber of men, women and children within the State of Minnesota, and destroyed and damaged a large amountof property and therebyhaveforfeited all just claim to the sui moneys and annuities to the U.S.; and whereas it is just and equitable that the persons whose property has been destroyed or damn Rodb y the said Indiana or destroyedor damaged b the troopsof the U.S. in said war, shou il be indemnified in whole or in part out of thqindcbted tiersand annuitiesso forfeited as aforesaid: Therm ore “Be it enacted by the Senate and HoRep of the U.S.A. on n ran aucmbled, That all treaties heretofore madean on tered into by the Sisseton.Wall aton.Modawakan ton and Wahpukoota bands 0 Sioux and Dakota Indiana, or any of them, With the U.S.are hereby declared to heabrogatedand annulled, so [u assaid treatiesor any of thempurportto imposea future obligation on the U.S and all In 5 and rights of occupancy within the State of Minnesota and all annuities and claims heretofore ne eordedto said Indians or any of them.tobeforfeited to the U.S." How shall the Government answer to those of our citizens who mourn the loss of relations, and who have themselves. in many instances, been mangled and maimed by these savages, who have been turned loose upon them by its act? Will you vote for an appropriation to indemnify them for losses thus sustained? Will you see that a law is passed to pay them for their property which has been stolen and destroyed by these Indians? Are not the people of ourter ritories entitled to protection as citizens of our common country? Have they not the same claim upon you which they had as citizens of their respective States before leaving those States? f they are, why not extend itto them, and not allow an executive officer of the government to collect from the remote frontiers and from the prisons of the States several 1,000 heartless, blood thirst savages, and precipitate them into the very enrt of our settlements, without a word of warning or cffort to protect us. If, then. there is no legal authority for this act of the Secretary, it is due to our citizens that the Government extend to them immediate relief. Now, sir, with the record of the past before our eyes. embellished with all the horrors of the terrible massacre in Minnesota, unparal leled as it was in savage ferocity, staring us in our faces, with the blencliin bones of our own murdered citizens unburie, scattered broad cast over our “chosen land, ” and while our friends are yet clothed with the emblems of mourning for their butchered relatives who have fallen before the fatal blow of the relent less savage, making a gory foreground to the appallin picture, can you wonder that I appeal to congress, in the name of the citizens of Dakota, in the name of humanity, to close this infernal book of crime by some earnest, effective legislation, and save our people from the dangers which now surround them, and avert the storm cloud of death and devastation which hangs over our defenseless Territory? I ask you. sir, if we were not invited to Dakota by the Federal Government? Were we not romised the protection of its strong arm? lTave we not established our homes, built our dwellings, located our families there, and become law abiding citizens of that Territory? We have done all these things. Our people have one there from every free State oft iis Union from Maine to Oregon; they have selected Dakota as their permanent dwelling place and are there toiling with a will in the soil of its rich prairies to lay the foundations broad and deep of a future State, which they hope will, at no distant day, lend a mighty strength in the perpetuation of the eternal principles of liberty and justice. Wilr you give us that protection which the magnitude ot'our undertaking demands? Then for bread do not give us a stone; for a fish do not give us a serpent. For our security do not send us the sava 0, whose hands are wreaking with the blood 0 our citizens, and whose liuiiting shirt is decorated with the scalp locks of our murdered wives and daughters. It is not apleasure for me to question the motives or censure the conduct of any public officer of this Government, and I assure you that I should not do so on this occasion ifthere was any other method by which I could possi bly procure relief from the personal and political wrongs which are now being inflicted upon the people of Dakota, and the adjoining Territory, by the officers who have control of our Indian affairs. Had the SecyInte rior notified the citizens of Dakota and north western Nebraska or their represeutatives in advance of his action, that the Government intended locating these hbstile Indians in their verymidst, by an actofarbitrary, depotic power, which action, I am sorry to say, was by him veiled in secresy, they would at least have had an opportunity to remonstrate against this heartless transaction. As it is, our citizens have but the alternative either to submit to this cat wrong, which will endan or life. depreciate property, and robthem 0 that hap piness which security alone affords, abandon the country, or pursue the manly course which the gallant sons of Minnesota adopted, and with the up robaj'pn of the Government, too, and drive his band of black hearted murderers out of the country. The citizens of Dakota are loyal and love the free institutions of our common country. They have yielded a willing obedience to its laws; they are from every free State of the Union; they are your kinsmenas well as mine. Many of them fought to sustain the flag of their fathers upon the hardest contested battle fields of the late, war. They recognize the supremacy of the Federal Constitution and laws over all other human laws; but when you say to them that you have a right to make and execute a law or an arbitrary order which deprives them of the fruits of their labor without compensation, and which endangers the safety and happiness of their families, by setting down in their midst several 100 savages who dance and sing around the den ling sealps of their own wives and children, who are as near and dear to them as the tics of nature can bind them, and who exultingly boast of the robbery, rapine, and murder which they have committed upon their kindred, you will be met with that scorn and contempt which such heartless cruelty and neg lect so ustly merits, by that high toned spirit of manly resistance which true patriotism has never failed to “make in defense of home and kindred, of liberty and justice, and which the Almighty Author of our being has established as the true and unmistakable standard of unadulterated manhood.