309
PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
ville Baker must be within striking distance by that time & we will be certain of success-Let us drive these wild Indians off, and estab- lish a line of block houses, and we have done all we can now~ If 1 the U States will not remove their own Indians, to wit, Cherokees Shawnees, Delawares, Kickapoos .Choctaws, Alabamas, & Coshattes, r · to say nothing of these Caddoes who they have literally ordered & driven into our territory- I say if the U. S. is faithless enough to refuse to remove them We must await a more auspicious moment than the present, to exterminate them- I have just heard from a gentleman from Clarksville that the Kickapoos, are crossing R-ed River with their families & going back to Missouri; it is time, & I wish they would do the same, and the U States, ought to make them- I hope an efficient Militia Law will be passed, and the Commanding officer, be able to carry them into the field, without begging it as a particular personal favor of each man- I felt perfectly disgusted, when I saw in the Telegraph of 10th Ult- a resolution offered by the Hon W. H. Wharton, to appoint a Committee to draft an address to all the people of Texas. &c. &c. Great God! Is the defence of a bleeding frontier, a, matter of such doubtful policy, that grave Senators must appeal to the feelings & imaginations of the people to give them succor f Is there not a Law ( far more imperative and sacred surely than Senatorial opinions and ~, appeals" "For the protection of the frontier"? Why not then en- force it- Is there no Law or is it inadequate? Then make a new one. But for Gods Sake let it be law, and have the Energy of Law - And [not J "appeals", even from a Senate- It reminds me of the Th[r]eaten[ing] force of the French Revolu- tion, when the Legislative assembly proclaimed, "the Nation is in danger after the arrival of the allies in Paris- I have seen too many of these "appeals", when there was no remedy, and have wept- almost at what I believed to be the incipient death, or suicide, more properly of the Republic- Oh! how I have wished for a Despot's power, to force some gallant freemen to defend their Country-I speak feelingly upon this subject for I speak from experience -Experience which has cost me many a pang- Suppose the "appeal" made and successfully, the action of the Community under it, is spasmodic and effervescent, enthusiasm sub- sides, as soon as the orator concludes, or the liquor gives out and the comdg officer finds himself leading an army of malcontents who soon lead him-. No! Give us a good, that is a, forcible and enforcible Militia Law, and if the men will not do their duty, let them be made to do it- Let them go to the front with the Sober certainty of privations & dangers, not with the pseudo patriotism of a stump speech [or] the self erected heroism of a boy [ 1] Then we may have men that will do the country service- Excuse me if I transgress the limits of etiquette in writing to you thus plainly---~------- -----------
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