Mr. DOOLITTLE. One of the interpreters of the tribe testified before our committee as to the facts. Wh, Mr. President, there is no doubt about the acts. It was that lieutenant going out and demanding the surrender of that ndian, and their refusing to surrender him, that began that war. He fired on the Indians, and was killed within 30 minutes with his whole part, and that commenced that Sioux war which asted 3 or 4 years, and cost the Government from 15 to 20 million dollars. How did the rent Navajoe war begin? As long as Major (endrick, who was a man of great good sense, was in charge of the fort in the Navajoe country, there was no war between the Navajoes and the U.S. after we acquired the country; but the war began just in. this way: an Indian happened to be within the fort, and there was a negro be that belonged to one of our officers that, so pose, insulted the Indian in some way, made him angry; he let slip an arrow and killed the boy on the spot; the Indian fled to his tribe the officer sent a demand for the surrender o the Indian; the Indians did not deliver him up, refused to deliver him up, and at once war was commenced by our troops against the Nav ajoe tribe of Indians, and we made 3 campaigns against them and were beaten every time. In consequence of the war begun in that way, the Government had to spend nearly 20 million dollars. So in reference to the Arapahoe and Chey enne War which has desolated the plains so lon. How did that arise? Because some cat tle ad been stolen, as it was supposed, a lien tenant, taking no interpreter witfihim, was sent out with orders to follow the Indians and to disarm them not to demand the cattle, or reparation, but to follow the Indians and disarm them. He went out with a little squad of men and undertook to disarm these great big Indians of the plains of their bows and arrows, with nointerpreter to explain anything. What was the result? A fight, of course. Then began your Ara shoe and Cheyenne war. Sir, it is the lundering of these officers of the Army in command of little s uads of men that in an hour can make an In ian war. It is from that more than anything else that these wars have arisen. And yet I stand not here to condemn the Army. The men who control it are as honorable men as we can find. But I say to Senators my judgment is, from all my attention to this subject, that it is not in the law, it is not in the system, it is in the administration of Indian affairs, whether it is committed to civilians or to military officers, that the essential difficulty lies. The system which we have ado ted is good enough; the laws we pass are eneficent enough; but the dif ficuffy is in the administration. If on put a young lieutenant who knows but litt e about human nature, and not much about Indians, in the command of a fort in an Indian country, he may involve you in a war that will cost you $20,000,000 before you come to the end of it; or ifyou have a dishonest agent, he may client the Indians, it is true; he may, erhaps, embroil a difficulty between the In ians and the whites. I admit there is a difficulty in the case. It is to know how to manage this business economically. But when the Senfrom Ohio saysthat he expects ifyou remit it entirely to the War Dept, that we shall be free from Indian wars and Indian difficulties, in my judgment he makes a great mistake. Now, Mr. President, I will state another fact that has come under my observation personally. Hon. Mr. Fos'rsn, was with me upon the laius last summer. When we arrived at Fort arned, we foundamilitarev officer in the cum mand of aboutfifteeu bun red troops, that was anxious, earnest, and had receive, his orders permitting him to march those 1500 men across the Arkansas into the Comanche country. We ascertained the facts. prevailed upon him to revoke that order until we could telegraph to the President and get directions from headquarters here in Washington that not a man should be marched south of the Arkansas until we could see if peace could not be made with the Indians jupon the plains. Had those 1500 men crossed the Arkansas to chase the Comanches the could have chased them perhaps 200, 300, or 500 miles; their animals would have given out, and they would have been compelled to retire without effecting any more than some of our other Indian expeditions have effected when they have been chasing the Indians of the plains; but it would have been the beginning of a war with the Co manches, the most powerful tribe of Indians south of the Arkansas, involving us in another $20,000,000 before we had seen the end of it. But, fortunately, peace has been made with those tribes upon the plains, and now they are at peace with the Government under the treaties which have been made. Kit Carson, general Harney, and those men who were best known among the Indians, were employed in behalf of the Government to negotiate peace Evith the Indians, and they have succeeded in 0mg it. Mr. President, I grant that it is impossible to devise any system which will be, so far as the administration of Indian affairs is concerned, free from all objection, whether it is to be done in the War dept or whether it is to be done under the nterior Dept; but I do not believe that the fact that there are 2 sets of officers somewhat jealous of each other, watching each other, erha s complaining of each other, injures the public service. I believe to a certain extent they are checks on each other. The officers of the War Dept and.the officers of the Army are watching the traders and watching the agents in the Indian country. They can make their reports jupon them and state the facts, and those facts then come to our knowledge. The Indian agents under another bureau or another Dept being in that country can also see how the War Dept is administered in its dealin s with the Indians. The are checks and gnar s upon each other. checks and guards whatever, and leave this whole thing to be determined by the officers of the Army, leave them to deal with the Indians as it is the profession of the soldier to deal with them, and my word for it, they will deal with them with the sword. It is their profession to do so; and there is no man in any profession of life who is not disposed from the very nature of the human heart to magnify his own profession. Mr. President, in relation to the contractors who contract to furnish Indian supplies in the Indian country I believe that the law and the practice under the Dept have all the provisions and guards w rich are thrown around Army contracts, and if I am correctly informed the Interior Dept has contracted for its transportntion at 2 or 3 cents a.pound less than the War Dept'; and as an instance of the economical administration of Indian nffnirs by the War Dept or by the Interior dept I would cite to my.honorable frien what perhaps would escape his attention, the fact that the Ii‘hivajoe Indians are taken care of by the War Dept. The War Dept took those Indians and placed them upon a reservation and they are supporting them at an expense of more than a million dollars, from a million to a million and a half