Mr. KASSON. I have but one or 2 other points to make. The Gentfrom Tennes: see [Mr. MAYNARD) will find upon a careful examination of the bill that he largely over estimates the amount of these indefinite appropriations. Whatever they are I think I have shown that they are in the main necessary for the Preservation of peace between the whites and the Indians. Now, in regard to the Indian wars which are said to have cost the Governmentso many million dollars. 2 or 3 years ago there came down upon the Platte route across the plains, the main route of communication with the Pacific, sundry stray bands of hostile Indians, who at once entered upon the work of robbery and murder, commencing, I believe, at Plum creek. they did not come there to avoid the military or to find them, but as they always do to rob and pillage and murder, to sacrifice men, women, and children, leaving them there weltering in their blood, a prey to the wolves and coyotes of the plains. That was the 1st notice which the whites had of those “harm less people, ” and of the disposition they entertained toward the whites. They also came down a few years ago into the southern part of the State of Minnesota, and there and in the northern part of the State of Iowa they committed one of those frightful massacres that make the blood of all civilized men run cold. And so they continually act. And when gentlemen rise here and attempt to relieve these Indians from this charge and rePresent them as a “harmless people, ” a people that the military are provoking to war in order to spend $30,000,000 of money, then I submit that these gentlemen know nothing at all of the habits of the Indians on the plains. How was it with the late massacre at Fort Phil. Kearney? I have before me a list of the officers and soldiers killed there. A party was sent out to obtain wood to supply the fort; a small number of the Indians waylaid them, and after they had followed unwisely into one of the gorges they were surrounded by overwhelming numbers of devils incarnate, who brutally murdered every one of them, officers and soldiers. The slaughtered men rePresented some ten States. I find upon this list names from Massachusetts, NewYork, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania several from the city of Philadelphia and from other States, who were murdered without any provocation whatever by these Indians. Now, if it be possible by accurate statements of the character of these Indians in warfare, I desire to correct this innocent idea that they are a harmless people, and that simply by sending a missionary or a civil messenger to them they would bow their heads in obedience to the dogtrines of Christianity, and accept the laws of war as known and practiced among civilized nations. The mass of them, both the chiefs and the members of the tribes, are men who know no law but the law of violence. There are a few chiefs who are friendly to the whites. One of them has recently come into a fort and has notified GenlSherman , who knows him well, that there is now danger of a universal and sweeping war; that we are upon the very threshold of such a war. The newspapers ontain statements that some 12,000 Indians have already taken the war path; and this chief says that, so soon as the season opens, they will come down upon all the routes used by the whites across the country. H hold, sir, that there.". no security against these depredations and wars except by establishing a military police over the whole Indian country; and when an Indian tribe observes its treaty let its stipulations be fulfilled; when it violates the treaty, abolish that treaty. Let it be distinctly understood that so long as there is peace between them and the whites so long and no longer shall they receive the allowances which may be voted to them by Congress. Sir, the whole western newspaper Press has been for a long period of time insisting upon the necessity of a radical and vital change in our system of dealings with the Indians. Every mail brings me papers urging such a change. I know the feeling of western men, and I know that they put no confidence whatever in the administrative system of the Indian Bureau. Why, sir, a year ago last fall, when I was on the plains, one of the military columns so very expensive as they are stated to be and are was in pursuit of civil the Indians, when the emisssaries of the Government came out there and stopped the column just before it had reached . point where it was to strike the blow. They said, “Fight these Indians no more: let us have a talk with them;” and Colonel Leavenworth, an accomplished man, was sent along with others to make a treaty with them. In the same way treaties were made elsewhere; and the effect of those treaties was simply, as General Pope predicted at the time, that the Indians obtained new supplies with which to make a new war upon the whites; and they are now nearly all on the war path. The Arapahoes, the Apaches, the Cheyennes, and several other to: of Sioux are threatening to destroy all the white settlements, and to render unsafe for travel all our routes across the plains. As a gentleman near me reminds me, powder was recently actually furnished to these Indians by agents or traders. The Indian chief to whom I have referred declared that not only the chiefs but members of the tribes had been supplied with from one to 3 revolvers each, and were perfectly ready to make war. The Indian Bureau has allowed powder to be served out to them; and they have obtained arms from the traders, either with or without the consent of the Indian Bureau. Provided with all these instrumentalities, the Indians are sweeping down in 1000s for the destruction of the whites, both civilians and troops.