WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1857
411.
is really in a state of tutelage. He is not as intelligent as the white man. He has not the arts of civilization around him. He has his savage nature. He has associations and influences which operate on him, and lead him to a state of war by way of excite- ment or employment. But, sir, if you wish to make peace with the Indians, there is one fundamental principle which you must always observe, and then you will conciliate him: that is, to extend to him strict justice, to do him no wrong, to violate none of his rights. Do this, and you will make the Indian your friend. When you have once inspired him with confidence and secured his friendship, it is easy to lead him in the paths of civilization and improvement. Agriculture is an unnatural condition for the Indian; but it is not a condition at war with his inclinations, if you will show him inducements to pursue it. The Indian loves personal comfort as well as the white man; but he places his estimates upon a different kind of comfort from that of the white man. When, however, you substitute and place within his control a superior comfort, it is easy to induce him to pursue a course which will guaranty it to him. In my opinion, no Indian exists on the con- tinent of America who will not pursue the art of agriculture, if you show him that by it he insures subsistence for his wife and children. Sir, he has a stronger attachment, if possible, to his family than the white man possesses. You may appeal to the Indian warrior in his sternest mood-when he feels alive to the aggressions and outrages that have been committed on his tribe- and say to him, "Now, prosecute war, and the consequence will be that you will involve your wife and children in calamity; if you do not stop this, your path will be marked with blood, and your wife and children will be sacrificed"; and he will pause; you will see his manly bosom heave; you will see tears gather in his eye. He becomes subdued in consideration of the appeal of nature to a manly heart. But, sir, if you were to offer him an indignity in that moment, his nature would become iron, and he would yield only with existence to your indignity. Treat the Indian with conciliation and kindness; furnish inducements to them to withdraw them from their vagrant and wandering course of life; give them "a local habitation and a name," and then you secure and plant the affections of the Indian around you, and he is willing to undergo daily toil, surrounded by his family, when he knows that that will secure him against aggression from the white man-against surprise from border ruffians-men who are
Powered by FlippingBook