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lished almshouses to graduate savage paupers. The deadly fire-water, and the evil example of bad white men, completed the work of degradation.

Many of our presidents, whom I have known personally, have felt keenly the wrongs of the Indians. At my first visit to President Lincoln, after the Sioux massacre, there were tears in his eyes as I told him of our desolated border, and he said with impassioned voice, "When this civil war is over, if I live, this Indan system of iniquity shall be reformed." Secretary Stanton said to a friend of mine: "What does Bishop Whipple want? If he came to tell us of the iniquity of our Indian system, tell him we know it. But this government never reforms an evil until the people demand it. When the Bishop has reached the hearts of the people of the United States, the Indians will be saved." Presidents Arthur and Hayes gave me their entire sympathy.

In the first administration of President Cleveland, I called upon my friend, Chief Justice Waite, and said, "Will you tell me what you think of President Cleveland?" He answered, "I believe that he wants to know the truth; and when he knows it, no one can swerve him from his course." He took me to the President and introduced me. I told him that the Government had built dams on our Indian reservation, which had overflowed ninety-one thousand acres of pine land, destroyed their rice fields, and injured their fisheries; and that they had plead in vain for redress. Mr. Cleveland responded, "It is a great wrong. I will send for the Secretary of the Interior." He said to him, "I have asked Bishop Whipple to address you a letter giving the facts concerning these dams. When Congress meets send the letter promptly to me." sent a special message to Congress with my letter, and the appropriation was made.

In correspondence with President McKinley, before his inauguration, I was deeply impressed by his Christian character. Secretary Bliss feels keenly the government's responsibility for its Indian wards. There is much yet to be done, but the difference at the end of thirty-eight years is as between darkness and daylight.

The following facts speak volumes. Of the two hundred and fifty thousand Indians in the United States, besides those

in Alaska, eighty-eight thousand wear the civilized dress; twenty-five thousand live in houses; twenty-five thousand are communicants of Christian churches; twenty-two thousand are pupils in schools; thirty-eight thousand can read. The past year there were one hundred and seventy more births than deaths among the Ojibways in Minnesota. The records of the Interior Department show that in the past year fourteen Indians were killed by other Indians, and fortyfour Indians were killed by whites. The Indians last year sold to the United States government, and to others, more than a million bushels of wheat and corn.

Yes, thank God, the atmosphere is clearing. The sentiment of justice is beginning to vibrate in the hearts of men everywhere. I owe a debt of gratitude to the Christian people of America and of Great Britain for their sympathy and help. The Quakers of Philadelphia sent me two thousand dollars, with which the first cattle for the White Earth reservation were purchased. My friend, the Duke of Argyll, in writing me some years ago concerning our Indian wars, said, "That the government has treated the poor Indians with great injustice I have little doubt, for it is the habit of the white man so to treat all his half-civilized brethren all over the world." But the time has come when the cry that "there is no good Indian save a dead Indian" rings hollow, and he who utters it is no longer on the popular side. It may not be out of place in this jubilee year of that gracious Queen whom all Christian nations revere and honor for her noble Christian reign, to say that in that heart I have found a sympathy for my work for my brown children that could not be exceeded by the loving loyalty of my own countrymen.

For myself I have received an hundred fold for all my labors; and when I have finished my work, I would rather have one of these men, of the trembling eye and wandering foot, drop a tear over my grave and say, "He helped us when he could," than to have the finest monument.

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BIOGRAPHIC NOTES OF OLD SETTLERS.*

BY HON. HENRY L. MOSS.

Mr. President and fellow members of the Old Settlers' Association: It gives me pleasure to greet you once more, on the annual recurrence of the day when Minnesota became known to the world as an organized government, under the laws of the Federal Union.

The chairman of your Executive Committee, from the day that he assumed to exercise executive authority over the new Territory of Minnesota forty-eight years ago, has at all times been active in keeping alive the memories of the days of our beginning, and the developments of the new territory and future state. He has requested me to present on this anniversary of our association a review of the events which preceded the organization of the territory, and of the men who were active in perfecting it.

While there has been much written and published concerning the early days of our history as a state and territory, and the men who were active and participated in its organization, a further record thereof might seem unnecessary and cumulative; yet it will never be considered, I think, out of place for the "Old Settlers" of Minnesota, on the occasion of their annual gathering, to have their memories revived and refreshed of those who were once our associates and companions in the adventures of our early history and the struggles of a pioneer life, some of whom still remain with us, while the greater number are enrolled among the departed.

What then can be more appropriate, on this occasion of our annual meeting, than to mingle in memory with those who

A paper read before the Old Settlers' Association of Minnesota, at its annual meeting, June 1, 1897; also read at the monthly meeting of the Executive Council of the Minnesota Historical Society, December 13, 1897.

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