Such are the arrangements for the physical comfort and for the moral improvement of the Indians.  The necessary measures for their political advancement and for their separation from our citizens have not been neglected.  The pledge of the United States has been given by Congress that the country destined for the residence of this people shall be forever “secured and guaranteed to them.”  A country west of Missouri and Arkansas has been assigned to them, into which the white settlements are not to be pushed.  No political communities can be formed in that extensive region, except those which are established by the Indians themselves or by the United States for them and with their concurrence.  A barrier has thus been raised for their protection against the encroachment of our citizens, and guarding the Indians as far as possible from those evils which have brought them to their present condition.  Summary authority has been given by law to destroy all ardent spirits found in their country, without waiting the doubtful result and slow process of a legal seizure.  I consider the absolute and unconditional interdiction of this article among these people as the first and great step in their melioration.  Halfway measures will answer no purpose.  These can not successfully contend against the cupidity of the seller and the overpowering appetite of the buyer.  And the destructive effects of the traffic are marked in every page of the history of our Indian intercourse.

Some general legislation seems necessary for the regulation of the relations which will exist in this new state of things between the Government and people of the United States and these transplanted Indian tribes, and for the establishment among the latter, and with their own consent, of some principles of intercommunication which their juxtaposition will call for; that moral may be substituted for physical force, the authority of a few and simple laws for the tomahawk, and that an end may be put to those bloody wars whose prosecution seems to have made part of their social system.

After the further details of this arrangement are completed, with a very general supervision over them, they ought to be left to the progress of events.  These, I indulge the hope, will secure their prosperity and improvement, and a large portion of the moral debt we owe them will then be paid.

The report from the Secretary of the Navy, shewing the condition of that branch of the public service, is recommended to your special attention.  It appears from it that our naval force at present in commission, with all the activity which can be given to it, is inadequate to the protection of our rapidly increasing commerce.  This consideration and the more general one which regards this arm of the national defense as our best security against foreign aggressions strongly urge the continuance of the measures which promote its gradual enlargement and a speedy increase of the force which has been heretofore employed abroad and at home.  You will perceive from the estimates which appear in the report of the Secretary of the Navy that the expenditures necessary to this increase of its force, though of considerable amount, are small compared with the benefits which they will secure to the country.