WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1854 519 rights of the Indians to the Cherokee country, which they pos- sessed east of the Mississippi, and maintained himself in the controversy with great credit and ability; and the triumph of Mr. Adams, if it was one, was much less than he had obtained over the diplomatist of Spain [Mr. Don Onis], in relation to the occupation of Florida by General Jackson. The Senator from In- diana says that, in ancient times, Moses received a command to go and drive the Canaanites and Moabites out of the land of Canaan, and that Joshua subsequently made the experiment of incorporating one tribe of the heathen with the Israelites, but it finally had to be killed off. Therefore, the Senator concludes, the Cherokees can not be civilized. There may have been some- thing statesmanlike in the policy, but I do not discover the morality of it. I will say, however, that there is no analogy be- tween the two cases. The people of Judea who were killed, or exterminated, were idolaters, and the object was to keep the people of Israel free from the taint of idols and idolatry, under the command of Providence, and therefore the extermination in His dispensation became necessary. But the Cherokees never have been idolaters, neither have the Creeks, nor the Choctaws, nor the Chickasaws. They believe in one Great Spirit-in God-the white man's God. They believe in His Son Jesus Christ, and His atonement, and propitiation for the sins of men. They believe in the sanctifying efficacy of the Holy Ghost. They bow at the Christian's altar, and they believe the Sacred Volume. Sir, you may drive these people away, and give their lands to the white man; but let it not be done upon the justification of the Scriptures. They have well-organized societies; they have villages and towns; they have their statehouses and their capitols; they have females and men who would grace the drawing-rooms and saloons of Washington; they have a well-organized judiciary, a trial by jury, and the writ of habeas corpus. These are the people for whom I demand justice in the organization of these territories. They are men of education. They have more than one hundred native preachers in those tribes, as I have heard. They have their col- leges, as I remarked in my former address to the Senate on this subject. They become associated in friendship with our young men in the various institutions in the United States; and they are prepared to be incorporated upon equal terms with us. But even if they were wild Indians, untutored, when you deprive them of what would give them knowledge, and discourage them from mnk- ing an effort to become civilized and social beings, how can you expect them to be otherwise than savage?
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