468
WRITl:'lGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1858
inefficient to protect the country. They can give no protection, for the reason that they cannot pursue their assailants; and the Indians, seeing that they are perfectly harmless and inefficient, regard them no more than they would a parcel of stockades. I have yet to learn that when an inroad has been made within our settlements, regular troops have pursued the Indians, and made reclamation for injury, or have retaken property. There may have been such instances, but I cannot think of them. If they have occurred, they would have made a deep impression on my mind. I have heard of none such; or, if I have, I have not retained them in my memory. This is the situation of the frontier of Texas. In order to remedy the existing evils, in consequence of the description of troops you send there, and their stations in relation to our fron- tier, Texas desires to have a more efficient force. She wants men who understand the disposition of the Indians, and who under- stand the description of warfare that will render a defensive force efficient against them. She does not ask for an increase of the regular military force of the United States. You may with- draw every regular soldier of the artillery, infantry, and dragoons, from the border of Texas, and take them to Utah or any other station you think proper, if you will give her but a single regi- ment, one thousand or even eight hundred men, of Texas rangers to protect her frontier. She would derive real advantage from that, but not from stationary forces. The expense now incurred for transportation and provisions alone, for the regular force there, would nearly support that number of Texas rangers. They are men who are acquainted with action; they are efficient; they are athletic; they are inured to toil, to enterprise, to danger; and they carry with them a spirit that is not to be found in the troops that are generally collected in the regular Army, who are confined to a routine of duty, un- inured to toil and exercise, and without a quick eye to perceive the movements of au adversary. Every man who would be in the corps of rangers would be a man who is himself capable of controlling a campaign; some of them would be men accustomed from early infancy to duty and enterprise of this kind. This is the force asked for by Texas. It is of a peculiar description, such as her necessities and her condition require, but not such as have been stationed there for years past. It was alleged by the honorable Senator from Geo1;gia [Mr. Iverson], that the fortresses which had been constructed on our frontier had been for the purpose of protecting settlements, and
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