160
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
within a certain district of country, confining them to reserva- tions, withdrawing them from their predatory habits, and civiliz- ing and humanizing them as fast as possible. · For that reason this land was acquired, at a cost of not less·than $800,000; $600,- 000 of the money was given to the Choctaws for their interest in it, and $200,000 to the Chickasaws, in proportion to the popula- tion of the respective nations. This tract of country was intended to be settled on by the Indians for the purpose of civilizing them, of restraining them, of controlling them, and of giving protection to the inhabitants of Texas. Ever since the third year after the annexation of that State to this Union, we have heard of an almost uninterrupted series of :massacres, of murders, of rob- beries, and they continue unarrested until the present moment. It became the duty and the desire of Texas to call for some pro- tection against the wild and predatory bands of Indians that infest her northern border. She has annoyance enough for the distance of six or eight hundred miles from Indians who are immediately contiguous to her territory and south of the Red river; but the Kioways and Comanches are roaming over the country north .of the Red river, and they make predatory ex- cursions on us whenever it suits their convenience. They find a market in Kansas for the horses which they steal from us. This reserve is two degrees, or one hundred and twenty miles, in width. There is no fortress within it. The Indians find an uninterrupted resort to it, and they are permitted to issue forth, after organizing the lawless portion of each band of the northern tribes, to make a raid upon Texas. Have we any protection against it? None on earth. You tell me you have plenty of regular troops there-very regular; regular in doing us no good, giving us no protection, pursuing no Indians, and preventing the incursions of none. This is the way Texas is protected ; and if a claim is brought here for money paid out for purposes of defense, it is ruled out of order in the Senate,· or the Secretary of War says that there was no occasion for it, because the regular troops were in that country, and therefore he does not recommend that Texas be refunded the money she has paid out to protect her defenseless frontiers. That is the situation of Texas at this moment, and it is to arrest such evils in future that I now advo- cate this amendment as indispensable to her future security. This tract of country was acquired for the purpose of coloniza- tion from the Choctaws and Chickasaws. Did they not know for what it was they gave a perpetual lease upon it--for ninety-nine
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