WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1839
319
towards the northern Indians. He could not take to himself so much influence; and whatever loss or gain that course might have been to the country, he was only entitled to his share among the other members of the consultation. Mr. Houston contended that duplicity toward the red man, at that time, was justifiable. The news of the fall of the Alamo had just arrived; the Mexican army was making rapid marches to the east, and our countrymen were flying before it. If the Cherokees had been dispossessed of their lands, they would very naturally have joined the enemy; and not only eastern Texas, but the whole country would have fallen under the united operations of the Mexicans and the Indians. In the emergency, conciliation was the part of wisdom, and the commissioners were appointed on the part of the consultation, to treat with them on the terms of amity and peace. Their exertions were crowned with success; the Cherokees became our warm friends, and their hands have never been stainecl by the blood of a white man!!!!! They had been in the country long before the white man, and held their lands by as good a tenure as we held ours. Some in- truders had settled upon their land and the Mexican government, and Mr. Ruez, the sheriff of Nacogdoches county, had been sent to remove them. Their rights had long been recognized by the Mexican government. By the terms of the treaty made with the commissioners ap- pointed by this government, the Cherokees were not bound to take up arms for our defence, but only to remain neutral. On their part, the stipulations of the treaty were faithfully performed. He was aware that the Mexicans had made many exertions to instigate them against us; but they had not been successful. The forwarding of a commission to the Bowl, was not proof that he was in treaty with the Mexicans; and we had no proof that he had accepted it. What if they did forward to him orders and instruc- tions how to prosecute th~ war against us? Did it follow that he would obey them? All of this only proves that the Mexicans had tried to corrupt him; but he was too much our friend to be in- fluenced by them. The Cherokees, he said was a dangerous enemy ;-and he had adverted to this subject, not to embrace the question before the house, but to show that some measures should be speedily adopted for the protection of the frontier. He sympathized with the suffering people of the west. But if the government would sustain the principles adopted long ago
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