WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1839
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not binding? He was not the advocate of savage brutality, but every attribute of justice requires that this pledge should be faithfully fulfilled. But men who had lately been most bitter in their opposition to the Cherokees, had been the first to recommend their claims : he alluded to a gentleman through whose recommendation they had been allowed to settle in the country, and exempted from Em- presario contracts. Here Mr. H. read from the laws of Coahuila and Texas-De- cree No. 190, Art. 27, to show that Indians were admitted to settle in this country under more favorable terms than any other foreigners were. Under this provision, said Mr. H. the Cherokee emigrated to Texas- they received their land in the same way that all other emigrants did, and their rights were protected by a civil and military chief of that nation. Is this no evidence of their right? The Cherokee took no part in the Fredonian War, but re- mained true to this country which had guaranteed their rights, and when this country was invaded by Santa Anna, the· Cherokees could have turned the scale of victory in his favor. But they received a pledge from the provisional government of Texas that their rights should be guaranteed to them, and were dupes enough to believe it! Ill-fated Cherokees-when did the Ameri- can people ever respect the rights of the Indians, or stay the destroying steel when upraised against the children of the forest? The Mexicans then owned Texas- it did not belong to the present inhabitants till it was won by the sword! We have con- quered it, but we must receive it as we find it- we have no right to lay a sacriligious hand upon the property of individuals or communities- we must respect private rights, and private prop- erty- and as well might we violate the rights of settlers in all Empresario contracts, as to lay an unholy hand upon the terri- tory of the Cherokees. When Gen. Austin went to Mexico, he advised that government to let the Cherokees have their lands- and begged that they should not be made our enemies by a refusal. Gen. Austin could not be accused of bad faith to a country which owed its existence to his exertions; and it was his opinion, deliberately expressed that the Cherokees ought to have the territory they occupied. Mr. H. adverted to the Decrees of the Consultation- it was, he said, a solemn decree: but it had been urged that it had been
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