Special Message

To the House of Representatives:

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 3d of February last, requesting the President "to require a competent, experienced military officer of the United States to execute the duties of an Indian agent so far as to repair to the Red Cloud Agency, and, in His discretion, other Sioux agencies, with instructions to inquire into the causes of" the exhaustion of the appropriation for the subsistence and support of the Sioux Indians for the present fiscal year; "as also his opinion as to whether any further and what amount should be appropriated for the subsistence and support of said Indians for the remainder of the current fiscal year," I have the honor to transmit herewith the report of Lieutenant-Colonel Merritt, of the Ninth Cavalry, who was charged by the Secretary of War with the duty of making the inquiries called for by said resolution.

U.S. GRANT.