399
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1853
the whole course of my life, knew a treaty to be violated by the Indian community which was made with the United States in good faith. It never will be done. The Indians always regard their faith. They know that they are the weaker party, and that in the event of a collision, they would be the sufferers. They know that they have not the resources of the white man; and let me add; they are almost always the injured party. Why press upon this little handful of Indians? Are the necessities of Florida so great that, extended over a vast area of country with a sparse population, her people cannot find employment within the settled limits of their country for the investment of their capital, without running in upon the hammocks of the Indians, and interfering with their fisheries and their hunting grounds? There is no necessity for it. Let us use a little forbearance. Billy Bowlegs is not such a terrible scare-crow, or so anxious for war when he cannot be advantaged by it, that he is going to invade the formidable State of Florida. I will not vote for the amendment. I am satisfied that any encouragement given to the Executive of the State will be suc- ceeded by demands upon the Executive of the United States;- they will be so importunate; and newspapers will get up stories of combats; the most melancholy and terrible details will be narrated, but all will turn out to be fustian at last. Yet such tales will be circulated throughout the United States, and there will be a great cry raised of the cruelty of the Indians, and of their massacres of the people on the frontier. The country will be alive with the cry, and people will be ready to fly to the standards of Flordia to defend her against a few hundred poor, miserable, half-starved Indians, whom humanity requires that you should feed rather than exterminate. The Indians want justice, and I wish there were an abler man than myself to stand up on this floor and demand, in their behalf, that justice shall be done to them. Sir, they are despoiled of everything. Their territory is taken from them. They are robbed of their annuities, and the purchase money for their lands is taken by felons. Is not this something that should be looked at and considered? They have no one here to appeal [to] in their behalf, or to tell their griefs and wrongs to American ears; but it is nevertheless true . that their history is a history of wrongs untold. If Senators, inde- pendent of their position, cannot stand forth and vindicate the wronged Indian, where is he to look but to the Great Spirit for
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