ARKANSAS. 



ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



half of one per cent, for all purposes, but may 

 levy an additional tax of one half of one per 

 cent, to pay existing indebtedness at the time 

 of the adoption of the Constitution, the Court 

 uses this strong and emphatic language : 



This section furnishes the measure and limitation 

 upon the taxing power of the counties, and neither 

 the Legislature, nor the State Courts, nor the Federal 

 Courts can direct or force a county to make a valid levy 

 in excess of these limitations. 



The Court say, however, that there may be 

 an exceptional case arising under the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States, forbidding any State 

 to pass laws impairing the obligation of con- 

 tracts. 



One of the most important subjects to the 

 State of Arkansas relates to the establishment 

 of a territorial government by Congress over 

 the Indian Territory. The five Indian tribes 

 occupying the Territory west of Arkansas have 

 until recently been almost unanimously op- 

 posed to breaking up their tribal relations, and 

 have been bitterly hostile to all measures for 

 their future development. These views have 

 changed among the Choctaws and Chickasaws, 

 whose recently elected rulers were chosen to 

 support a change. Arkansas has within her 

 limits about fifty thousand square miles. Im- 

 mediately west of the State lies the Indian 

 Territory, with sixty-five or seventy thousand 

 square miles, which was set apart and ceded 

 by solemn treaty, about fifty years ago, as a 

 country and a future home for the Southern 

 Indians. This cession was made to be per- 

 petual ; the lands were granted in fee simple, 

 and the tribes were guaranteed independent 

 self-government and freedom from taxation. 

 But Congress, some ten years ago, without 

 notice or hearing, extended the revenue laws 

 and taxation over all countries lying within 

 " the bounds of the United States." Treaties 

 with the tribes hitherto had always been held 

 to be sacred, being made with independent and 

 not subject nations; and they had been so 

 recognized always by the political power, and 

 repeatedly by the Supreme Court of the United 

 States. All this has now been reversed. The 

 Congress in effect destroyed all treaties when 

 it destroyed the sovereignty of one of the par- 

 ties by extending over the Indian country, 

 without its consent, the revenue laws of the 

 United States. In the noted case of E. C. 

 Boudinot . the United States, Mr. Boudinot 

 resisted the right of the United States to do 

 this thing, quoting in vain the treaties with 

 the tribes and the repeated decisions of the 

 Supreme Court sustaining their inviolability. 

 The Cherokee authorities, in maintaining the 

 rights of the Cherokee Nation, employed coun- 

 sel to aid them. But the Supreme Court sus- 

 tained the action of Congress, and Mr. Boudi- 

 not was ruined, and with him the cause of his 

 people. 



This is regarded as a precedent for the abro- 

 gation of all treaties with the Indians by simple 

 legislation, and the time will perhaps be short 



when it may be held up as a solemn declaration 

 by Congress and the Supreme Court of the 

 subjugation of all tribes and the nullity of all 

 treaties now or hereafter made ; as the estab- 

 lishment by the President, the Congress, and 

 the courts, of a far-reaching principle, on 

 which must follow the policy of settling all 

 Indian questions hereafter. Since the decision 

 of the Supreme Court referred to, it has be- 

 come a question propounded openly in Con- 

 gress " whether it is not time that the Govern- 

 ment should cease longer to attempt by force 

 of treaties to govern and civilize the Indians." 



The Indian appropriation bill passed in May, 

 1878, contained a clause to remove all the wild 

 Nez Perces tribes into their territory. In the 

 Senate, General Maxey, of Texas, moved to 

 strike out this clause. His motion was re- 

 jected. Mr. Edmunds proposed to remove 

 these wild tribes to such part of the Indian 

 Territory as the Government had a right to 

 use, and it was agreed to. Mr. Teller, of Col- 

 orado, offered a proviso that the removal should 

 be dependent upon the consent of the civilized 

 tribes, and forthwith his motion was rejected. 

 These indications bring the question home to 

 the five tribes whether they shall at some 

 future day be crowded with all the savage 

 tribes, involved in wars, and driven out at 

 last, or whether Congress shall, after giving 

 each Indian of them a fee simple in land 

 enough to live on, and paying them the price 

 of the balance, open their country to settle- 

 ment by the whites, and establish a territorial 

 government, giving the Indians equal rights 

 with the whites, and enabling them to live in 

 peace and perfect their civilization. 



ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. The 

 army on October 15, 1878, consisted of 24,- 

 761 enlisted men, which is a reduction of 

 about five thousand since the previous year. 

 The desertions during the year ending June 30, 

 1878, were 1,678; during the previous year 

 2,516. In the expenditures for the army there 

 was a reduction over the previous year of 

 $4,323,734.54, which arose in part from the 

 diminution of the force. The appropriation 

 by Congress was $25,712,500. 



The only active service of the army during 

 the year was caused by some Indian disturb- 

 ances which were confined to a comparative- 

 ly small number of Indians. The discontent 

 among the Bannocks, which led first to acts 

 of violence on the part of some members of 

 the tribe, and finally to the outbreak, appears 

 to have been caused by an insufficiency of food 

 on the reservation, and this insufficency to 

 have been owing to the inadequacy of the ap- 

 propriations made by Congress to the wants 

 of the Indians at a time when they were 

 prevented from supplying the deficiency by 

 hunting. After an arduous pursuit by the 

 troops of the United States, and several en- 

 gagements, the hostile Indians were reduced 

 to subjection, and the larger part of them sur- 

 rendered themselves as prisoners. The other 



