WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1853
400
redress? and that comes slowly when compared to the activity of the avarice of the wicked. I cannot vote for the amendment. I am satisfied that it will lead to a breaking out of hostilities, as they have been called. I have seen hostilities produced before, and I have seen a clamor run through the community in regard to it, and every man capable of bearing arms would be eager to rush to the standard; but when the facts came to be inqui·red into, it was found that it arose from a white man shooting an Indian walking through his own corn-patch, carrying his head so high, the proud rascal! Yes, sir, I have seen that. But, sir, we have the faith of the Government pledged to another frontier extending eight hundred miles. You do not hear resolutions or amendments introduced here for the protection of Texas. We have despaired of it. We can point to slaughtered citizens, to numberless massacred women and children who have fallen within the last four years, yet we did not make such loud complaints. The raking up of these Indian matters is the legitimate business of the Committee on Indian Affairs, and if I live to resume a place on this floor at the next session, I shall claim the high privilege of being on that committee, so that if I am permitted to have my claim responded to, I may stand forth not to seek favors for the Indians, but to vindicate them against wrongs and oppressions. So long as I stand upon this floor, I will vindicate their rights and they shall have justice done them if there is integrity or truth in the stipulations made by American officers to the Indians. [Mr. Mallory spoke.] I did not misapprehend the gentleman. I did not intend, and he should not suppose it, to imagine that the Governor of Florida would derive any authority from the notice which Congress proposed to give to this subject. I said that the representations of the Governor of Florida to the Executive of the United States, and the urgency of the applications made to him to carry out the provisions contained in this amendment would be irresistible. He would have to rely upon representations made to him, and he would probably yield to them; the consequence would be a protracted war; whereas by postponing the matter until the new Executive comes in, the result may be different. The ar- rangement was entered into by a former Executive, and he has not had time to complete them. He can still go on with the experiment to the end of his Administration.
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