WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
480
troops act. They may surround women and children; they may attack the warriors on the prairies, when they are attended by their women and children; moving, perhaps, to winter quarters, or, perchance, coming to hold a treaty, and seeking amity with the United States. They are surrounded from the consideration that some achievement ought to take place to show that the regular force had not been idle, and that there was some excuse for having raised them. I saw that in olden times on the fron- tier of Texas. A company was raised for a certain time, and just before it expired they would have a difficulty with the Indians to protract their services. Mr. Davis: Will the Senator from Texas allow me to ask him to what case he refers, in which one hundred and fifty women and children were killed? Mr. Houston. I said one hundred and thirty. Mr. Davis. What was the case? Mr. Houston. The case where General Harney attacked them on the Platte. Mr. Davis. The Blue Water? Mr. Houston. Yes; I believe that was it; and it was done at the very time when they wished to confer. The onset, it was said, was made unadvisedly. The onset was made while the Indians were attempting to escape. Why were they not let go? Why were not the women and children allowed to pass unscathed? If you cannot attack the warriors, for mercy's sake let the little ones flee. But that is not all. There was another furious Sioux war, where a lieutenant went out and made an outrageous attack on the Indian camp; and when the matter was investigated, it was proved conclusively that it was an indiscretion on his part, a madness that had seized upon him from some influence or other, which brought on that war. It may be said that the Indians went to the trading houses exasperated, and took things that were there. The fact was that the white people had not paid them their annuities as they had promised to do; and the Indians, feeling that wrongs and aggressions, without provocation, had been in- flicted upon them, could only regard the whites as enemies. But, sir, I say here that if you will treat the Indians justly, kindly, truthfully, let them come and open useful commerce with the whites on the frontier; the Indian will become useful to the white people; he will preserve peace, and the chiefs of the various bands, when brought thus in contact with the citizens or officers of the United States, will chastise any of their fugitive warriors who may commit aggressions. They would punish them, because
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