506
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1858
was done? At the commencement of a new term in the executive chair of that Republic, the Indians were hostile; but the Govern- ment of Texas appropriated $10,000 and put it at the qisposal of the President for the purpose of securing peace, and in eighteen months we had peace from the Rio Grande to the Red River. We opened commerce with the Indians, and the peace and concord we had with them lasted for years after the annexation of Texas. The Senator from Mississippi has spoken of the achievements performed in Texas by the dragoons. A single company of rangers would have done all that. Jack Hays, Ben McCullough, and Gil- lespie, achieved more than that; and I believe they never had over seventy-five men, and those for a few days only. Give us rangers in Texas. I ask you to give us one regiment of a thousand men of rangers, and you may withdraw your regular troops and dispose of them according to the other requirements of the coun- try. Give us one thousand rangers, and we will be accountable for the defense of our frontier of eighteen hundred miles. We will give a quittance if you will give us a thousand rangers. We ask for no regular troops; withdraw them, if you please. I ask this not through any unkindness to them, but because they have not that efficiency which is necessary for frontier service. Troops in garrison never gave protection to a frontier. I am willing to contribute all in my power to the general defen- sive interests of the country, where it does not conflict with some great principle; but I tell you the interests of the country will be best subserved by volunteers. You must rely on them, at least, as you have in every emergency. Every free country must rely on volunteers. They will not desert you. They are identified with the institutions of the country. They have their homes to defend; their wives, their children, their honor, and their country's glory. They have an ancestral blood which flows in their veins, a rich heritage which has descended with the blessing of God from their ancestors to them. You may rely upon them. [A dialogue between Houston and Jefferson Davis is omitted.] Mr. Houston. There is one fact I wish to have understood in regard to the encounter on the Blue Water; that General Harney did make a report, which I have, in which he says emphatically what I have insisted upon. It is this: "A parley ensued between their chief and myself, in which I stated the causes of the dissatisfaction which the Government felt toward the Brules, and closed the interview by telling him that his people had depredated upon and insulted our citizens whilst
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