"
_27th_. _Fiscal_--Something has been out of kelter at Washington these
two years with regard to the rigid application of appropriations, at
least in the Indian Department. We have been literally without money,
and issuing paper to public creditors and employees. Surely a government
that collects its own revenues should never want funds to pay its agents
and officers.
Mr. Trowbridge writes: "The money pressure is nearly or quite over in
New York, but we feel it here in a dreadful degree. The want of public
disbursements this year, upon which we have always rested our hopes with
so much confidence, added to the over-introduction of goods for a year
or two past, has produced this state of things, and I sometimes think
that there will be no great improvement in this generation."
_29th_. _Medical Causes of Depopulation_.--The causes of Indian
depopulation are wars, the want of abundance of food, intemperance, and
idleness. Dr. Pitcher, in a letter of this date, says: "In your note (to
'Sanillac') on the subject of the diminution in numbers of our
aboriginal neighbors, you have seized upon the most conspicuous, and,
during their continuance, the most fatal causes of their decline.
Pages:
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693