WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, }854
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civilize and christianize them. If that object is not worthy the gravest contemplation of Senators and legislators, as well as the high functionaries of the Government, I shall realize the most melancholy apprehensions which I have entertained in relation to the fate of this devoted people. It seems to be a foregone conclusion that the Indians must yield to the progress of the white man-that they must surrender their country-that they must go from place to place, and that there is to be no rest for them. Is not the earth wide enough for all the creatures the Almighty has placed upon it? But they seem not to be re- garded in the light of human beings, and are driven like wild beasts; and when their habitation is made in one place, they are only considered as temporary residents, to be transferred at will to some more distant station. If they commence the arts of civilization; if they remain in homes; if the domestic circle is formed, and little neighborhoods begin to rise; if schools are established, and scholars sent, it is but a little while before the necessities of the white man demand the territory, and they are pushed forward, to some new home, to some wilderness scene, and told that it will be of great advantage to them, and. a great deal more pleasant. Dissuade them from their passion for hunting; give them a place for agriculture, and the means to pursue it, and then you civilize them; for no man can become civilized unless he cultivates agricultural and social arts. Do this, and you save this people; neglect it, and you only carry out the process of annihilation. If you are prepared, it is in your power, gentlemen, to do it. Be just, and posterity, at least, will appreciate it. The country will be filled up some day, and our actions will be estimated by some moral standard, and not by the passions of men for accumulation of soil, or a disposition to transgress upon the public domain. You may ask, What shall be done with them? You have given them a country; can they ever become civilized, if you keep forcing them from wilderness to wilderness? And are they not demoralized when sent from under what ought to be the protec- tion of our Government? Men introduce liquor among them, to deprive them of the little articles necessary to their comfort, by every possible means; and if they cannot obtain them by the aid of whisky or of artifice, they take them by force. If the Indian resents, he is called the aggressor, and extermination follows the crime.
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