WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
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would never surrender him into the hands of the Texians without resistance," and he furthermore expresses the opinion "that if Johnson was delivered over to the Texians, his people would leave the reservation, take to the Prairie and become a source of annoyance to the frontier settlers of Texas for years to come." Upon receipt of the letter from this Department making a requisition for Johnson, the Secretary wrote to the superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Leased District, Mr. Rector, to deliver up the Indian upon the proper demand from this State, but subse- quently countermanded the orders, and says, "But being advised by the Superintendent, Rector, that the apprehension and extradi- tion of Johnson would result in the abandonment by the Indians of their Reserves and would, in his opinion, not only jeopardize the peace along the entire Texian frontier, but certainly eventuate in war, I came, after due deliberation to the resolution to Tele- graph Superintendent Rector, to suspend action on the letter from this office of August 7th, respecting the Indian Johnson, and ad- vised, with the view of gaining .time to take the matter into further consideration." Again the Secretary writes, "The claim of the Executive of the State of Texas for the extradition of one of their (the Indians') most revered chiefs, if complied with, must dispell ours, and the Indians' hope for quiet and peace, as totally delusive. Only abso- lute necessity should induce this Department to risk a contingency and consequences which Superintendent Rector, and in my opinion justly, apprehends to be now impending," and he concludes by respectfully submitting "whether some method could not be de- vised" by the executive of Texas to "relieve himself as well as the Department from the difficulties created by this unpleasant and unfortunate affair." The Executive has lost no time in apprising you of the de- termination of the Department of the Interior in this peculiar case. From the extracts above given, it would appear that the apprehension and fears which have controlled the actions of the Secretary are not altogether without foundation. The various tribes upon the Leeper Agency, North of Red River, have been driven from their homes in Texas by the frontier people and though justice may demand the rendition of Johnson, a com- pliance with her rigid decree might wake the animosity of that people, now sleeping under the remembrance of supposed wrongs and involve our whole frontier in a merciless savage war destroy-
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