WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1855
143
powder. He said, "No, you can not get one grain of powder or lead." "Why," say they, "our women and children are crying with hunger, and we want to go out and kill game and feed them; we want the powder." "No, you can not get powder," says he. They then said, "If you drive us off, we will have to go and join the northern Comanches. We have always been disposed to be friendly, but we can not stay and starve. We must go and join the stronger party." "Well," says the officer, "you may go." "But," they say, "if war comes on." The reply is, "War is my trade; bring it on as soon as you please." They separated; and the agent had to send two hundred miles a friendly Delaware Indian, before he could overtake that band, and with difficulty he got them back. The agent had to traverse and ride seven hundred miles to effect the restoration of harmony. That is the way they manage. If these are the gentlemen that are to hold the lives and property, and the security of our citizens in charge, I want them to be men of some discretion, some wis- dom, some little experience, not those who have just burst from the shell, or juveniles from the Military Academy, without ever having seen an Indian, and knowing nothing of their disposition. Send men of age and discretion, who have some sympathy for the whites, if they have no respect for the Indians. Then, sir, you may dispense with a great deal of the force which you now have, or ought to have, to make the army efficient. Now, you see the consequences of this wiping out of the Indians, and making them respect you. Whenever you attack them, you embody them; for we are told by an agent, Mr. Vaughan, a gentle- man of high respectability, as I understand, that the Indians are disposed to live in perfect amity with the United States; and that they do not only say that they are disposed to be at peace, but that they report the hostility of other Indians, and say that they will co-operate with the whites in giving them any informa- tion and aid that they possibly can; and will assist them in a conflict with hostile Indians; so that there is no danger to be apprehended. If you conciliate but one part, the others will not attempt to enter into hostilities. It is for the accomplish- ment of this that I desire to see the appliances of peace, not of war, used. Here, for instance, Mr. Vaughan says : "The brulies from the Platte, the Ouh-Papas, Blackfeet, Sioux, a part of the Yanctonnais, Sans Arc, and Minecougan bands of the Missouri, openly bid defiance to the threats of the Govern-
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