While I had the honor to represent Washington Territory in Congress, and by request of several members of the Committee on Indian Affairs with whom I was acquainted, and while the bill reported by them was under consideration and general debate was in order, I made a speech on Indian civilization. I shall not reproduce that speech here, nor give an extended synopsis of it. I commenced with the declaration that the philosophy of an Indian's life was to put forth an act and to reap immediately, the result of that act; that he threw a baited hook into the water, and expected to obtain fish; that he sent an arrow or a bullet on its fatal mission, and he expected game; that he did not plant nor sow, because the time between planting or sowing, and reaping--the gathering and enjoyment of the result of his work, was too distant; that it requires the highest degree of civilization to do an act, or to make an investment, the profits of which are not to be realized until the lapse of considerable time: that this primary law inherent in an Indian's philosophy of life is fundamental, and no system for his civilization can disregard it. My next cardinal proposition was that Indian tribes, if civilized at all, must be civilized along the lines of their past history, habits and modes of life; that some tribes of Indians subsist, and have subsisted for ages, on the products of ocean, lake and river: that these are sometimes called fish Indians: that to make appropriations to teach these Indians agriculture, or the successful operation of the farm, is a wasteful expenditure of public money; they are naturally sailors, and have carried the art of canoe making and sailing to a high degree of perfection; their larger canoes are models of symmetry, safety and strength; that in them they fearlessly go out on the ocean a distance of 40 or 50 miles to obtain halibut, codfish and fur seals. Let the Government, I said, if it desires to civilize these Indians, build them a sailing-vessel of a hundred tons or more capacity, and they will almost intuitively learn to sail and manage it; it would act as a consort for their larger canoes and as a storehouse for the profits of the sea taken or captured by them; that with such a boat, the Neah Bay Indians, for instance, would soon become self-supporting. My views had a respectful hearing, and influenced to some extent the policy of the Government in that regard. A large number of copies of this speech were sent by me to the people of the Territory, and to all our Territorial papers; but none of these, so far as I know, noticed it further than to say that I had made such a speech. Copious extracts from it, containing its points, were published in many of the Eastern papers, while two published it in full. There was some discussion as to the soundness of my views, but generally they were approved. So far as the Neah Bay Indians were concerned, the Government did build a sailing-vessel of smaller dimensions, however, and many of