Mr. DOOLITTLE. Allow me to state on that subject the facts. During the last year hostilities were prevailing all over the plains. GenlCurtis was in command, General Sully bein with the expedition far northwest, GeneralIhdge down on the Arkansas. It will be remembered by my honorable friend that a committee was appointed on the part of congress last year to inquire into Indian affairs; and the gentleman who now sits in the chair, [Mr. Fosrnn] myself, and other gentlemen, were appointed upon that committee. When we were upon the upperArkansas, we were decidedly of the o inion that it was better to make peace with these Indians than it. was to carry on this system of warfare, which was so enormously expensive and produced such very little results so far as the capturing of any of the Indians was concerned. We pressed the consideration of it upon the President, the SecyWar, and the SecyInterior. They had consultations here in answer to our communications to them by telegraph and otherwise; and we received telegraphic communications from them in return; and upon full consultation in the Cabinet with the President, it was determined to enter upon a system of negotiation of peace with the tribes instead of carrying on hostilities. All the military commanders were so directed by the SecyWar and the SecyInterior, upon instructions that were agreed upon between the SecyWar and the Interior Dept, with the sanction of the President. Commissioners were a pointed to negotiate treaties of peace in the In ian country and up the arkansas. Among those who were appointed to nego tiate treaties on the upperAr ansas were General Harncy, who is famous among the Indians as a great general in fighting them, and Kit Carson, who was equall famous. In negotia ting the treaties on the latte and north of the Platte in Dakota, GenlCurtis, who had been in command of the Dept, was employed as one of the commissioners, and he entered into those treaties that have been already confirmed. Other gentlemen were with him, General Sully and General Sibley, the very officers of the Army who had had most to do with those Indians and knew the Indians best, and as I understand it GenlCurtis is the one who invited these Indians to these councils. GenlCurtis, as I understand, is to go out at the head of the commission with a view of nego tiating the very treaties which they are invited to make. This has all been done with the full sanction both of the War Dept and the Interior Dept and with the express sanction of the President, and I may say upon the urgent recommendntion of those gentlemen who were connected with that congressional committee to look into Indian affairs; and I have no doubt that if you carry out the policy and carry it through of negotiating treaties, and if we comply with our treaties in good faith and give them the supplies which we promised, the blankets and provisions which we promised, we may have eace with them at a tithe of the expense of p dealing with them by the sword. These are the facts. I know, as my honorable friend knows, that dealing with these Indians is a very different thing from dealing with a great nation like England or France; and of all the committees, I doubt not, in the Senate of the U.S., there is no committee that has so difficult atask to manage and get along with as this very Indian Committee; dealing with them is so uncertain. It is after all an experiment. We are dealing with a feeble people, with adying people; they will soon pass away, and nothing will remain of the Indian tribes but the beautiful names which they gave to our rivers and our towns. This is to be their inevitable destiny; but while they are passing along like sick children on our hands, it is better to deal in the spirit of humanity, to feed these dying people, than it is to turn in and slaughter them by the sword. That is my settled conviction from all the information I have been able to obtain in relation to Indian matters.