Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest, Vol. V

56

No. 43 MESSAGE FROM GEO. T. Woon TO THE SENATE

Executive Office November 30 1849

Gentlemen of the Senate The Executive has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a resolution of your Honorable body requesting him to inform the Senate under what Law or authority he ordered into the service of the State the two companies of troops referred to in his message and his reason for doing so &c. In reply he has the honor to say that in May last informa- tion of a most reliable character was received by him that the country around Corpus Christi and between that place and the Rio Grande was infested by large bodies of hostile Indians ·who were committing almost daily extensive depredations and fre- quent murders upon the citizens of that portion of our State. The enterprising pioneers who were attempting to form settle- ments in that quarter were not only interupted in their employ- ment, but driven for safety into the neighboring towns in many instances compelled to abandon their burning homes and every thing they possessed It was at the same time known to the Executive that several companies of United States troops, principally infantry and artil- lery, were stationed on the Rio Grande, but it was equally well known to him that this force either from its injudicious disposi- tion or from a want of adaptability had proved itself utterly in- adequate or unfit for the purposes of protection. That such was the fact was neither the fault of the officers or men who com- posed this force, it arose necessarily from the nature of their organization belonging as they did to an arm of national defence wholly unfit for the peculiar service required. They are unable to protect against such an enemy moving uniformly on horseback and with great celerity any more than the space covered by their encampments or within the range of their guns. The Government of the United States was addressed di- rectly upon this subject as well as its military officers in imme- diate command here. They were slow however to recognize the neecssity of action on their part, and the State was left no other resource against outrage and violence but an appeal to the pa- triotism of her own citizens to protect her territory against sav- age cruelty.

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