528
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
are the persons contemplated by the framers of the Constitution to perform duties of this character. It is said that regulars are necessary to protect the frontier. Did they protect the frontier of Georgia in old times? Have they protected the frontier of Florida? Have they protected the fron- tier of Texas? Have they protected the frontier of any portion of the United States on any occasion, or given security to fron- tiers that would not without their aid have been peaceful? I say not; or if so, it is beyond my reading or historical knowledge. Never have they done it. They cannot in the nature of things do it, whilst Indians have legs to run or horses to ride. They cannot do it, because Indians can go around their forts, and unless there is continual vigilance kept up along the border you cannot pro- tect the frontiers by regulars. There is no sense in saying that a fortification gives protection to the people when an Indian can go within a mile of it and pass down and butcher the inhabitants. Then you start and run after the Indian, but he laughs at you. But if you have rangers continually traveling from point to point, the Indian will not know when he is to fall in with them, or when they will come across his trail and pursue him and take present vengeance. Do this, and you will protect the frontier. Take away the regulars and employ them where you please. They may be useful, as I have said before, in taking care of permanent fortifi- cations and preserving arms. It is said, however, that discipline is to be maintained with a nucleus on which to form a regular Army in time of need. This amounts to declaring that you must have an adequate force for all emergencies. I was astonished the other day to hear the Sen- ator from Georgia [Mr. Iverson] say that certain massacres had taken place because there were no regular troops stationed at a particular point. I wonder, if they had been stationed there and the Indians had gone around them, what they would have done. The theory is that you must have regular troops enough to meet every emergency that is called for. If the diflfoulties contemplated in the speech of the Senator from Indiana should arise, he imagines it will be necessary to have a force of regulars on hand for the purposes he indicated. If you do that, you must have two or three hundred thousand men, for that number might be em- ployed perchance. If England, France, and Russia, as I have heard it suggested, were all to combine for the purpose of subjugating the United States, it would require three hundred thousand men, perhaps, and you must raise these three hundred thousand men to meet that contingency, for we do not know what will take
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