WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1855
140
with which he was treated. Sometimes his men were in numbers of four, or greater or less, as it happened, and they were always in perfect security, and treated with the utmost hospitality. He often ventured himself with three or four men into the midst of Indian lodges, and received their hospitality; and when he rose from a council, in which all his men had been seated on handsome buffalo skins, those skins were carried to his tent as an expression of respect and hospitality. The Indians could, at any time, have annihilated his whole command; but he was a gentleman of discre- tion, and possessed of as much chivalry as any one who wore the uniform of the United States. That shows you that there is no actual danger. We hear constantly of traders going through the country; and when a gentleman here felt some little alarm on one occasion, and described his situation as most critical, he said that traders had gone out when these occurrences took place at Fort Laramie, and he would have sent for them, only he was afraid they would all be massacred. The Indian traders have gone on. They have nothing to defend them. They have no guards, no arms; and yet a simple trader, with persons enough, Indian or white, to pack and convey the articles of traffic which he possesses, or the proceeds of his trade, can go through the whole Indian country, and not meet with the slightest molestation or injury. How does it happen, Mr. President? Does it happen that the Indians are hostile, and that they will not attack a weak party; that they want the United States to send armies to hurl defiance at them? Sir, their complaint is, whenever aggression has been said to have been committed by them, or whenever they have retaliated, that it has been because the white man first blooded the path, and they wished to walk, too, in a path of blood. Yes, sir, that is the secret of it. When our traders can go from Fort Laramie, or from the frontier of Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minne- sota, to the Pacific Ocean, with perfect impunity, and return laden with stores from the desert or the wilderness, obtained in traffic with the Indians, I say when our troops are injured, there is a fault somewhere, and that fault is in not cultivating kind relations with the Indians, and treating them with justice and humanity. It is the interest of the traders to conciliate them, and we never hear of their being robbed. We are told that the .Indians exact blackmail from our emigrants to California. Yes, sir, they do; because persons who have preceded them have pro- voked and irritated the Indians. I grant you that no caravan
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