Congress and should the other Tribes fail to make an agreement with the
Commission, then it will be necessary that some legislation shall be had
by Congress, which, while just and honorable to the Indians, shall be
equitable to the white people who have settled upon these lands by
invitation of the Tribal Nations.

Hon. Henry L. Dawes, Chairman of the Commission, in a letter to the
Secretary of the Interior, under date of October 11, 1897, says:
"Individual ownership is, in their (the Commission's) opinion,
absolutely essential to any permanent improvement in present conditions,
and the lack of it is the root of nearly all the evils which so
grievously afflict these people. Allotment by agreement is the only
possible method, unless the United States Courts are clothed with the
authority to apportion the lands among the citizen Indians for whose use
it was originally granted."

I concur with the Secretary of the Interior that there can be no cure
for the evils engendered by the perversion of these great trusts,
excepting by their resumption by the Government which created them.

The recent prevalence of yellow fever in a number of cities and towns
throughout the South has resulted in much disturbance of commerce, and
demonstrated the necessity of such amendments to our quarantine laws
as will make the regulations of the national quarantine authorities
paramount. The Secretary of the Treasury, in the portion of his report
relating to the operation of the Marine Hospital Service, calls
attention to the defects in the present quarantine laws, and recommends
amendments thereto which will give the Treasury Department the requisite
authority to prevent the invasion of epidemic diseases from foreign
countries, and in times of emergency, like that of the past summer, will