against this tendency, and it is useless to disguise and unwise to overlook it, if we mean to do a real service to the Indians.
For this reason I attach much more importance to the passage of legislation providing for the settlement of the Indians in severalty, and giving them individual title in fee-simple, the residue of their lands not occupied by them to be disposed of for their benefit, than to all the efforts, however well intended, to procure judicial decisions which, as I have shown, cannot be had. I am glad to say that the conversations I have had with senators and representatives in Congress on the policy of settling the Indians in severalty have greatly encouraged my hope of the success of the “severalty bill” during the present session.
I need not repeat here what I said in a letter to Mr. Edward Atkinson, which you may possibly have seen some time ago in thc Boston papers, about the necessity of educating Indian children. You undoubtedly understand that as well as I do, and I hope you will concur in my recommendation that the money collected for taking the Ponca case into the courts, which is impossible of accomplishment, and as much more as can be added, be devoted to the support and enlargement of our Indian schools, such as those at Hampton and Carlisle. Thus a movement which undoubtedly has the hearty sympathy of many good men and women, but which at present seems in danger of being wasted on the unattainable, may be directed into a practical channel, and confer a real and lasting benefit on the Indian race.
C. Schurz.
Mrs. Helen Jackson, New York.
MRS. JACKSON'S SECOND LETTER.
Hon. Carl Schurz:
Dear Sir,—Your letter of the 17th instant is at hand. If I
understand this letter correctly, the position which you take is
as follows: That there is in your opinion, and in the opinion of
the lawyers whom you have consulted on the subject, no way of
bringing before the courts the suits for the prosecution of which
money has been and is being contributed by the friends of the
Poncas; that the reason you do not approve of this movement
is that “it is evidently idle to collect money and to fee attorneys
for the purpose of doing a thing which cannot be done.” This is
