TEXAS INDIAN PAPERS, 1846-1859
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dians occupying them, and forcibly to drive the Indians from their limits. On the 27th of December an attack was made on a part of the friendly Indians, who were encamped without the limits of the lower Reserve, and a number of the party killed; and it is believed at a time when they imagined themselves se- cure from all danger, nothing having occurred to interrupt the existing relations of peace and amity with their neighbors. Be- lieving that said act of violence would lead to hostility, and hav- ing reliable information of the organization of an armed force for such purpose by the whites, Proclamation was issued, warn- ing all persons against participating or engaging in any un- lawful means against the Indians occupying said Reserves. It is to be regretted that such warning has not had the effect so much to have been desired and expected; for although it seems a truce was agreed upon between the parties, which it was hoped would lead to a better understanding, reports have just reached me, through Capt S. P. Ross, of the Reserve Agency, furnish- ing information of further and still greater combinations now being formed in a number of the adjacent counties, whose object is directly to disturb the public peace and tranquility, by waging an unlawful war upon the Indians on the Reserves, and with the avowed object of breaking up and driving them beyond the limits of the State. It is in this state of affairs I have fe!t it my duty to appeal to you as men who, in your calmer moments, could not be in- duced deliberately to violate the laws of your country. The good sense and sound judgment which characterizes the frontier mind, cannot fail to show you, on reflection, the long train of evils that must inevitably follow such a course--evils far more numerous and more deeply to be regretted in their effects, as well upon yourselves and your families as upon the country generally, than any you have theretofore undergone. To what extent you have been wronged, or whether you have been wronged at all, by the presence of the friendly Indians in your midst, it is not for me to say, but I feel sure that these injuries, from the most exagerated accounts, cannot reach the magnitude of those which would follow a course of lawlessness and blood- shed upon your part. If you have suffered from unlawful acts of the Indians, a peaceable and lawful mode of proceeding (though slow, perhaps,) will surely obtain the proper redress, while acts of violence will as surely embarrass all efforts for relief, and in all probability thwart and prevent them entirely.
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