594 Presidential Addresses 



of office should be unaffected by partisan consid- 

 erations. 



The guardianship and fostering of our rapidly 

 expanding foreign commerce, the protection of 

 American citizens resorting to foreign countries in 

 lawful pursuit of their affairs, and the maintenance 

 of the dignity of the Nation abroad, combine to make 

 it essential that our consuls should be men of char- 

 acter, knowledge, and enterprise. It is true that the 

 service is now, in the main, efficient, but a standard 

 of excellence can not be permanently maintained un- 

 til the principles set forth in the bills heretofore 

 submitted to the Congress on this subject are en- 

 acted into law. 



In my judgment the time has arrived when we 

 should definitely make up our minds to recognize the 

 Indian as an individual and not as a member of a 

 tribe. The General Allotment Act is a mighty pul- 

 verizing engine to break up the tribal mass. It acts 

 directly upon the family and the individual. Under 

 its provisions some sixty thousand Indians have al- 

 ready become citizens of the United States. We 

 should now break up the tribal funds, doing for 

 them what allotment does for the tribal lands ; that 

 is, they should be divided into individual holdings. 

 There will be a transition period during which the 

 funds will in many cases have to be held in trust. 

 This is the case also with the lands. A stop should 

 be put upon the indiscriminate permission to Indians 

 to lease their allotments. The effort should be stead- 



