154
WRITINGS OF SAIII HOUSTON, 1855
But, sir, in order to sustain what I said in relation to officers ·of the army, I wish to read an extract from the last official report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior: "As heretofore reported to you, an association of persons has undertaken to appropriate to their own use a portion of the land ceded by the Delawares, fronting on the Missouri River, and south ·of Fort Leavenworth; have laid out a city thereon, and actually had a public sale of the lots of the same on the 9th and 10th of October last. These unlawful proceedings have not only taken place under the eyes of the military officers stationed at the fort, but two of them are said to be members of the association, and have been active agents in this discreditable business. Encour- aged by these· proceedings, and prompted by those engaged fo them, other persons have gone on other portions of the tract ceded by the Delawares in trust to the United States, and pretend to have made, and are now making, such 'claims' as they assert will vest in them the lawful right to enter the land at the minimum price under the preemption law of July 22, 1854." There is the authority from which I drew my conclusions in relation to the conduct of those officers. I have not branded them with an opprobrious terms. If they are innocent, what I said cannot injure them; if they are guilty, there is no condemna- tion too deep for them. · [Mr. Dodge, of Iowa. I hope the Senator from Texas will name the persons who have been guilty of the conduct to which . he alluded.] Mr. Houston. I have given the quotation from the official docu- ments. I will tell the Senator the reasons why I referred to that transaction. In the first place, it was to demonstrate the fact that aggressions are committed upon the Indians; and is not this calculated to dissolve the bands of peace, and bring on war? In the next place, this country is under the control of the military; and why have they not restrained those people from such an outrage? 1congres 8 ional Globe, 1854-1855, Part 1, pp. 437-441, 443-444, 446, 494- 497, 499, 500-502; W. C. Crane, Life and Selec.t Lite1·a1-y Remains of Sam Houston, 423-458; State Gazette, May 19, 1857 (extracts); C. Edwards Lester Authentic Memoirs, 362-383, Texa.s State Times, February 24, 1855. The odcasion for the speech was the fact that the House of Representatives had sent to the Senate a bill making appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending June 30, 1856. The Senate had gone into a committee of the whole for general debate on the bill, the pending question
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