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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
ly taken to crush those guilty hopes of our l\Iexican foes, by expelling from amongst us their savage auxiliaries, upon whose boasted prowess l\Iexico relied with so much confidence for the triumph of her sangui- nary projects; and thus was the nation rid of an impudent race, who having been flattered by the success of their past audacity, had vainly hoped to find continued impunity, in the weakness of this government, or the fears of the people. That the Cherokees were our natural enemies, and that they would prove a perpetual source of inquietude and disaster to the American settlements, was not a matter of disappointment or surprise to those who were familiar with their utter destitution of moral principle, ·and indifference to all the obligationB of social and political virtue; but that any portion of our American population-and I speak it more in sorrow than in anger-should be so unmindful of their Country's rights and safety, as to take sides with these savages against their .own fellow countrymen, and foster and prqtect such a lawless and cruel band, on their presumptuous attempts to erect and maintain a separate independ- ent government within the limits of our republic, is a cause of profound astonishment and regret, and exhibits a melancholy example of the un- natural hallucinations to which the human mind is liable when under the dominion of passion. Had the Executive turned a deaf ear to the continued complaints of the outrages committed and instigated by the Cherokees-had he se- cretly connived at the known connexion between them and the :Mexicans, without taking any measures to thwart their meditated incursions- had he lent his official countenance to their claims to absolute dominion and exclusive possession of jurisdiction over a large portion of our finest territory, and co-operated with them in opening a broad field in the very bosom of our Country for the emigration of their kindred tribes from the United States, to whose Vandalic ferocity all Eastern Texas would have soon fallen an immolated victim-had he been guilty of all or any of these acts of treasonable characfor, what then would have been the voice of his injured and sufl'ring fellow citizens? What coul<l it have been in justice to themselves & the whole nation less than un- mitigated scorn and execration? But, gentlemen, instead of having thus laid himself liable to the righteous resentment of an indignant people, the Executive now finds that because he did not, and could not do these things, it is by some, made a matter of accusation and reproach against him, and has sub- jected him to much personal denunciation. So far as regards these personalities merely, neither the Executive nor the nation can have any concern about them; but it may be a matter of some consequen~e to the people to reflect for a moment upon the advantages which are pro- posed to flow to the Country from an .indiscriminate proscription of an administration, against which the expulsion of the Cherokees, under existing circumstances, constitutes the greatest subject of complaint. In the course which I have felt constrained to -adopt towards the various Indian tribes within our limits, I haYe been actuated by no other desire than to give protection and security to our exposed and suffering fellow citizens. The Savages have been constantly admonished of the certain retribution with which we were determined to visit their unprovoked barbarities; and in every instance the promised chastise-
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