WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
482
for wrongs done to them or property taken from them; they will be able to explain their grievances if they have any; and the attitude which they may occupy before this nation will not depend on the statements of interested parties. When this shall b.e your policy in regard to the Indians, you will need no standing army among them. It has been said in the course of the debate that volunteers are more cruel than the regulars. Sir, I do not know from what facts that conclusion is drawn; but I may say, that I have never known of any acts of atrocity within the last half century on the part of volunteers that would not find a parallel in the action of regulars. I am not aware of any greater inducements they have to cruelty or butchery than the regular soldiers. I would much sooner trust them than I would trust men who know noth- ing about the Indians, who have no sympathies with them, who have been reared where oceans rolled between them and the Indian, and who have only heard of them as of beasts for slaughter. The volunteers generally have some sympathy, though they may be exasperated at aggressions committed by lawless Indians, and by lawless parties from different bands. We often find that some lawless individuals will congregate and depredate on the settlements while the councilors and the mass of the In- dians know nothing of their purposes. The depredators flee. A company immediately pursues their trail, which lies in the direc- tion of a village. They escape their pursuers by a by-way, but the pursuers come on and attack the village whose people are harmless. Whilst the murderers escape, the innocent are the sufferers. That is the kind of warfare which is liable to be pur- sued by the regulars, if they ever pursued anybody successfully, as well as by the volunteers; but I have not heard of their over- taking any Indians that committed depredations. It will be recollected that those on the Blue Water were not pursued; but they were met accidentally, with all the incumbrances of camp equipage and provisions for the season, and they were attacked at a time when they were in a fit condition to negotiate, but not to fight. I prefer a volunteer force because I believe it to be more effi- cient, more useful, and certainly equally as cheap as, if not cheaper than, a regular force. When volunteers are out of service, they return to their homes to support themselves. If emergency calls for them, they are on the spot in a few days; and when they perform the service for which they are needed, they return to their homes, and mingle again with their fellow-citizens; they
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