WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1853
438
of them was less than the admiration of great warriors amongst us? They are men, Mr. President, and have high impulses-the same high impulses that stimulate us to noble and generous deeds. Is it not wrong, with more cultivated and intelligence, to disregard their necessities and forget their wants? Sir, they claim nothing but right; they ask for no favor-they expect no boon. If you intend to do any justice to them, redeem your plighted faith. Send honest men to pay their annuities; and when they come amongst you, set them·the example of hospitality and good faith, and they will emulate your example, and you will make them equal to yourselves. They have claims upon you, however little they may be regarded, and you must redeem your faith to them. If they had no claims previously, superior in- telligence on the part of the white man has placed the officers of this Government under obligations to the Indians. When we reflect upon· what the Indian once was, and upon the reverse which has taken place since the time he roamed over this vast continent its sole possessor, when he crossed the mountain summit, when he kindled his beacon fires upon their heights to admonish the friendly tribes of his presence, and concealed his night fires from his adversaries, when he was the proud monarch of all he surveyed, and had a vast continent for his domain i'llimitable, when he knew that he was the possessor of all, and when he was able to go to war with all nations, and if victorious, like Alexander, extend his dominion to some unknown portions of the world, we should endeavor at least to fulfill our pledge to him. A sad reverse has come upon him. No longer the proud Indian, he is looked upon as a degraded being not equal to a white man. He is not exactly a serf to the white man. He has claims to your justice. Wrong has been returned to him for kindness, and it seems that the once proud possessor of your country is only to be visited by Divine vengeance, for having permitted the landing of the first white man upon the continent. Think you that he believed he saw evil in the white speck upon the ocean, which he beheld advancing towards his shore? Did he feel that it was the destroyer of his ti'ace, and that it boded as much evil to him as the advent of the serpent into the garden of Eden? Did he believe, when he received the white man, that he was receiving the enemy of his race with the power greater than all he knew or thought of? Little did he fancy the extent of the ruin involved. The evil was small at first, but was enlarged every moment from that time to the present, until the white
Powered by FlippingBook