Mr. STEWART. I think there is no doubt that We shall have to make this appropriation, inasmuch as there is an agreement to collect these Indians and feed them, and the consequence of a failure to do so would be terrible to persons now on the plains exposed; bnt having lived for the last 15 years in an Indian country, and having seen more or less of the practical operation of the present is stem, and having conversed with a large number of persons who have seen more than I have of it, I have no hesitation in saying that the whole system is an absolute failure. It simply involves the extermination of the Indians and the extermination of a very large number of white people. Peace lusts while your provisions last. When the provisions run out, in order to get more the Indians commence mur dering, and before on have any notice of it whole neighborhoods are cutoff, women and children are slaughtered and war is inaugurated for the purpose of their being bought 06. The Indians understandit perfectly well. They boast of it. They say if they do not get their presents they will do these things, and they will get their revenge. l have been acquainted with several chiefs who told me how they in tended to manage, understanding it perfectly. The whole system is wrong; it corrupts your agents; corrupts the me you send to the front ier; corrupts the Indians; causes alarge number of personsto be murdered every year. It is a long distance 08, and you hardly realize how many people are murdered on your front iers yearly. Probably a great many more whites are killed in battle and murdered on the front iers than Indians. Undoubtedly in all your Indian wars 5 white men are killed to one Indian. The Indians, however, are destroyed by whisky and by feeding them for a time to excess and by the habits and diseasesthat they acquire from the whitepeople. Smallpox and other diseases are carried among them and they are car ried offin large numbers. Virtuallyyou kill them in that way, and they murder your white people. That is the system that is going on. You mur der them by the whisky you carry among them, and they retaliate by murdering your women and children. That is the system, and I do not think any system can be devised which is any worse than this. I think the ComIndAffrs should bring in a plan for a change. Ifyou turn it over to the military you will make it somewhat better, because then ou will have a Dept more responsible than any you can organize for this special purpose. I think it would be still better to turn them over to the new States and Territories, and let them take care of them. That would be better than the way you are doing, and more humane. The present plan is the most inhuman, the most degrading, and the most lamentable in all its consequences you can conceive of. You cannot make it any worse by any change. But now, inasmuch as there is an agreement made with these Indians and if we do not carry it out on our part, there will be immediate and terrible consequence visited upon the innocent that are upon the plains under the impression that they are to be protected, and that there would be treaties made we are bound to vote the appropriation. The JtResolution was reported to the senate without amendment, orderengross for a 3rd reading, read the 3rd time, and passed. CONTRACTORS FOR VESSELS and MACHINERY.