Always favoring practical reforms, I respectfully call your attention to one abuse of long standing which I would like to see remedied by this Congress.  It is a reform in the civil service of the country.  I would have it go beyond the mere fixing of the tenure of office of clerks and employees who do not require “the advice and consent of the Senate” to make their appointments complete.  I would have it govern, not the tenure, but the manner of making all appointments.  There is no duty which so much embarrasses the Executive and heads of Departments as that of appointments, nor is there any such arduous and thankless labor imposed on Senators and Representatives as that of finding places for constituents.  The present system does not secure the best men, and often not even fit men, for public place.  The elevation and purification of the civil service of the Government will be hailed with approval by the whole people of the United States.

Reform in the management of Indian affairs has received the special attention of the Administration from its inauguration to the present day.  The experiment of making it a missionary work was tried with a few agencies given to the denomination of Friends, and has been found to work most advantageously.  All agencies and superintendencies not so disposed of were given to officers of the Army.  The act of Congress reducing the Army renders army officers ineligible for civil positions.  Indian agencies being civil offices, I determined to give all the agencies to such religious denominations as had heretofore established missionaries among the Indians, and perhaps to some other denominations who would undertake the work on the same terms—­i.e. as a missionary work.  The societies selected are allowed to name their own agents, subject to the approval of the Executive, and are expected to watch over them and aid them as missionaries, to Christianize and civilize the Indian, and to train him in the arts of peace.  The Government watches over the official acts of these agents, and requires of them as strict an accountability as if they were appointed in any other manner.  I entertain the confident hope that the policy now pursued will in a few years bring all the Indians upon reservations, where they will live in houses, and have schoolhouses and churches, and will be pursuing peaceful and self-sustaining avocations, and where they may be visited by the law-abiding white man with the same impunity that he now visits the civilized white settlements.  I call your special attention to the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for full information on this subject.