WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1857
403
I know such has been the case, and I have no doubt it is so at this very moment. This is an evil which ought to be guarded against. If this amendment is intended to curtail the expense incident to the administration of that Department, I am perfectly willing to agree to it; and if it will give any facility to extend justice to the Indians and pay their annuities promptly, I shall be gratified at that. Annuties are withheld from the Indians, and they sell off the certificates that so much is due from the Government. The money remains in the Treasury of the United States, the agent not call- ing for it, but granting them certificates. The Indians, deeming this paper valueless, traffic it for mere nothing in the various stores and trading houses in the nation. The money is appropri- ated and lying in the Treasury; the agent does not call for it, and it is not sent. The Indian receives nothing but this valueless paper to him. A system of swindling, for the last forty years, to my certain knowledge, has been conducted in the Indian departments. I am not speaking with reference to the Commissioner here, for I have high respect for the present Commissioner of Indian Af- fairs. I think him a gentleman of integrity and marked ability, with a disposition to do great justice to the Indians, and pay them fairly, according to the intention of the Government, in the right manner. He stands forward as a safeguard to their rights when attempts have been made, not only to invade them but·to destroy them, and defraud the Indians out of every cent of the annuity that was appropriated by the Government. I intend no reflection on him or on the head of the Department of which his office is a bureau. I shall be glad to see any system adopted which can prevent these abuses. This amendment may prove beneficial to some extent. I am willing to see it adopted, and should be glad to go the full extent of covering the Indian against imposition, restrict- ing agents from the exercise of col"l'uption, and purging the De- partments of men who are deemed not very fit ornaments of society, and who are sent off ·as a kind of honorable exile, profit- able to themselves and their friends. I want no more of that. The Indians should have good moral men amongst them-men of character, men whose example they may imitate with advantage, and men who will have an influence in pacificating their disposi- tion towards the whites, and obtaining a control over them. That can be done by upright men, not by profligate and abandoned ones, as are sometimes sent, but men who will make their mark that the Indian may follow; so that when he walks in the white path he may not walk in darkness or pursue vice. They are too apt,
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