242 anguish, of the widow and the orphan, have gone up from our prairies and valleys without ceasing. Our citizens have petitioned in the humblest manner-they have held primary meetings and remonstrated-our Legislatures have dinned into the ear of the General Government long, authentic, accounts of the exposed and bleeding condition of our frontier; all these have been backed by the representations, the influences, and the labors of our dele- gates in Congress. The answer has often been a sneer of cold, derisive, incredulity. We have been twitted with the amounts expended annually to defray the expenses of the regular troops quartered in the State. When we have asked for protection we have been answered by an enumeration of the infantry and mounted infantry the United States have sent to operate against the best horsemen in the world. On our side there have been suffering, sorrow, privation, and all the accompaniements of a barbarous warfare. On the side of the General Government there have been neglect, discourteous responses to the appeals of a people outraged as no others have been in modern times, and a fixed determination to discredit statements verified in the most solemn manner. When we have been invaded and assassinated in the most fiendish manner by our enemies, our officers, at Wash- ington City, have been apathetic, in different, and even indignant that we should trouble them with a recital of the calamities being inflicted upon us. In short the Federal Government has failed to protect us-it does not protect us now-nor does it seem likely we shall received protection at their hands. This is but a simple detail of a few facts. Having dwelt, at some length upon the past, let me call your attention to the present situation of the Texas frontier. The U.S. troops, many of them, now in this Military department have for several months been almost idle, because they have had marching orders for Utah. The frontier people, have been left unprotected, save what could be effected by a little more than one hundred Rangers under my command. The Comanches, the Yamparicos, the Lipans, the renegade Kickapoos, the Kiowas, and other Indians have been depredating upon the border settlers. And what is still worse there is every reason to believe that In- dians fed by the General Government, or, at least, drawing annui- ties from it, have aided and abetted in the commission of these depredations The Comanches, it is quite certain, have found a ready market for their stolen horses, among their more civilized brethern upon our borders. And what is still more discreditable to the American people, is, the almost indisputable fact, that
Powered by FlippingBook