ORAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 229 



The President. By Indians, at any rate? 



Mr. Carter. By Indians in their canoes, in the way in which it was 

 ori.cinally carried on. That does not threaten the existence of the lierd. 



The President. That is a natural limitation. 



Mr. Carter. It is possible to do this. It would be possible for the 

 people, now engaged in pelagic sealing, to say, "the Indians are per- 

 mitted to engage in pelagic sealing. We are prevented from doing it. 

 We will just employ these Indians." 



The President. That is the diflicult point. It was the point I just 

 hinted at. 



Mr. Carter Yes; they might say, "We will employ those Indians. 

 We will employ them to do the work which we are prohibited from 

 doing." The Indians are perfect sealers. They can destroy this race 

 as quickly as anybody else, if you hire them to go out there as pelagic 

 sealers. I assume that cannot be done. The principles, the grounds 

 and reasons, upon which I rest the right of property of the United 

 States, proceed upon the assumption that the blessings of Providence 

 are to be preserved and made continually useful to man ; and whatever 

 the mode of attack which is made upon them which is in violation of 

 that principle must be suppressed. 



Senator Morgan. If you will allow me, Mr. Carter, I understand 

 your position to be this, and if I am mistaken I hope you will correct 

 me: that the United States Government, being the owner of these seals, 

 has a right to make an indulgence, an exception, in favor of those Indian 

 tribes because of their dependent condition, so long as they conduct 

 that sealing in accordance with their original customs? 



Mr. Carter. Yes. 



Senator Morgan. I wish to suggest that both Great Britain and 

 Canada and the United States have found it necessary, in order to 

 establish and promote agriculture, commerce, the peace of the whole 

 country, in respect to the Indian tribes, to deprive them, at their will, 

 of all of what are called their natural rights of hunting and wander- 

 ing — their nomadic wanderings — and confine them to reservations. All 

 of these countries have found it absolutely necessary to do so, until it 

 is a matter of universally admitted law throughout the continent of 

 North America, until you get to Mexico, at least — and even in Mexico — 

 that the Indians shall be dealt with in such way as the supreme jjower 

 chooses to do in their general public policies, giving them in the United 

 States, and doubtless in Canada, when they are tried in the courts, the 

 privileges and benefits of the provisions of the constitution, which 

 operate in favor of personal rights of liberty, property, etc; but neither 

 of these Governments has ever hesitated, on any occasion since they 

 have had power to enforce their laws against the Indians, to confine 

 them to reservations, cut them off from hunting on the plains the wild 

 buffalo, the deer and all other wild game, and absolutely to enclose 

 them within bounds, which they are not permitted to go beyond at all. 



Mr. Carter. Oh yes; that is perfectly well established in the prac- 

 tice of nations. 



The President. Is it in Canada? 



Mr. Carter. I do not know how it is in Canada. 



Mr. TUPPER. Since the President refers to me, I will say that there 

 is a distinction in all those cases. For instance, where the Government, 

 representing the Crown, makes arrangements by and with the consent 

 of the various tribes, they come then under treaty rights made with 

 the Crown. They have certain privileges, and, coming under the 

 direction of the Crown, they submit themselves to the care of the Gov- 

 ernment. The Government provides for them, giving them their rations 



