WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1839
337
"Another reason, which should interest the sympathies of ·the Republic, and enlist the aid of government, in favor of Texas, is its locality, being adjoining the territory of a powerful nation, whose established policy towards the aborigines has a tendency to flood Texas with Indian emigrants of a character dange1'0us in the extreme. The wide extent of wilderness, forming a natural boundary between Texas and Coahuila, places an indispensable barrier in the way of Coahuila's extending the efficient means of defense they might wish. " This circumstance alone demands that all the energies of Texas should be embodied, to prevent the calamity which threat- ens this favored country; and which nothing short of a well regu- lated government of a free, unshackled, and independent State can provide against. " Be it known, therefore, that we, the people of Texas, view with regret and censure, the present unfortunate situation of the North American Tribes of Indians residing in Texas, and much deplore the transaction which have occasioned it. " It is a well known fact, that the Cherokee claim by way of grant, a tract of land situated about thirty miles northwest of Nacogdoches; which claim they have been told, is worth about as much as the paper it is written on. The Shawnees also:- to say nothing of those other tribes, which have settled in the coun- try- and have been promised possessions. The promise is still protracted. " When the Indian (inclined as he is to believe that a promise made, eventually must be fulfilled,) become too frequently the dupe of craftiness and oppression, he naturally becomes discon- tented, unfriendly and hostile; and in the present instance, might be made more troublesome to us, than those tribes which no con- cession will nullify. " The Indians' repeated request to obtain their rights, are unattended to; because an accredited agent of the government has been illegally suspended, by a military officer of the last dynasty, who, in continuance of his system of deception and conciliation, and with a view to enlist their aid declared to the Cherokee (at the time we began to evince a disposition of throw- ing from our necks the insupportable weight of military op- pression,). 'The Americans grasping for land, intend making· the attempt of driving a.ll my countrymen from this state; and an ex~irpation of you all will soon follow.'
Powered by FlippingBook