WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1853
437
about ninety miles west, to what was called Lovely's Purchase, and left the Territory of Arkansas clear, the Arkansas river, from ~here Van Buren stands, becoming the line or point of separation between the whites and the Indians. Then it was necessary to remove, or to provide a country for the Creek nation of Indians that were about to emigrate to that country. The Cherokees were curtailed of their lands, and the Creeks settled upon them; and with the consent of the Cherokees, their limits were curtailed from the treaty stipulations that had been made with them. Subsequently to that, the Choctaws and Chickasaws were removed up the country between the Boto river and the Red river, at Fort Towson. The Cherokees acquiesced in that, and that was given to one half of the nation, those who had emigrated to the Arkansas, and settled at Point Remove when the transfer was made. Subsequently to that, without the full consent of the Cherokees, they organized a government according to their custom, upon the model of the whites. T'o tell the truth, Mr. President, I think the Indians have been badly treated up to this day, when it is now proposed to sanction an additional wrong upon them. I feel bound to stand up in the maintenance of their right; and the faith of treaties should be complied with; for if you take from them what it is now proposed, you had better take their lives-it would be an act of mercy. If you deny them justice, if you deny them the common rights of humanity, you may well assimilate the outrages of this Government with those that England is charged with having committed in the Indies. If you intend to maintain the faith of treaties, do so. The Indians are as sensitive to wrong, and as susceptible to kindness as the proudest man who stands in this Chamber. We never have known the cases of injustice that have been done to the Indians. We never have appreciated the broad land which we possess which was once theirs, when they felt as proud and as lordly in traversing their unbroken forests as the proudest possessor does his cultivated domain. The Indian could then appreciate his liberty. He was as loath to part with it as you would be to part with your extended possessions. Was not the chief as much revered and respected as is the Chief Magistrate of this nation? Think you that the Indians had no Washington? Think you that they have no heroes to protect their wives and children? Think you that they do not go to battle and bring home the trophies of victory? Think you that the admiration
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