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WRITINGS OF ~AM HOUSTON, 1836
treat with the Indians who had been restless during the Texas Revolu- tion. On December 20, 1836, Houston submitted to the Senate the treaty with the Cherokees that had been made by himself and Forbes on Febru- ary 23, 1836. On October 12, 1837, the Senate committee reported and advised that the Senate should "utterly refuse to ratify" the treaty with the Cherokees, but that it should consent to the "recent treaty" made by Rusk and Douglas with the chiefs of the Ioni and Anadaco Indians (Secret Jom·nctls of the Senate, 22, 78, 79, 80). In 1839, the Indian policy adopted by Lamar and his Indian commissioner, George W. Bonnell, made war with the Cherokees (see Indian Affairs, State Library) inevitable. Rusk with a company of volunteers and Burleson with regulars were both in the field awaiting the development of the ultimatum that had been given the Indians. To prevent friction in the ranks of the Texans (the volunteers contending that Rusk be the commander-in-chief, while the rei- ulars demanded that Burleson be given the place), Kelsey H. Douglas was put at the head of the Texan forces, and is usually given credit for expel- ling the Cherokees from East Texas. Douglas died at Nacogdoches on October 5, 1840. See the Southwestem Historical Quarterly, XXXI, 64-65; XXVI, 17; I, 43. Brown, History of Texas, II, 161-164. Yoakum, II, 268. H. Bancroft, No1·th 1vlexican States and Texas, II, 322. •Henry Millard. See Houston to D. G. Burnet, April 25, 1836.
TO THE TEXAS SENATE 1
Executive Department, Columbia, 12th Novr. 1836.
To the Honorable, The Senate Gentlemen In contemplation of a Treaty with the Indians, I have felt much anxiety. In the nomination of the Honorable John M. Dor, I was guided by these circumstances. He has been the Secretary of Col [onel] Benjamin Milam an Empresario of a Colony. He stands as fair and has for years, in the Town of Nacogdoches, as any man, and was clerk of the Ayuntamiento of that place, so long as it existed. He was Secretary when the Body was American and while it was Mexican. From all my intercourse, I deemed him a man of as strict honor as lived on the earth. In this I was liabel to mistake. He was master of the Mexican language, a necessary qualification of some member of the Commission. I will assert that he has contributed as liberally to the support of the war to his means as any man in the Re- public. In the nomination of the Honorable Adolfo Sterne, I was directed by the reasons, that he spoke the Mexican language; has an amiable family in Texas and would feel anxious to do what- ever was calculated to give security to them, and presen·e his interests in the country. He was elected to the Convention in
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