WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
161
years, I believe? Their inhabitants may settle upon it if they choose to do so, under regulations that the President of the United States may establish there, not reserving any national or tribal right to it whatever; but they may go and settle on it, subject to the regulations which the President of the United States may make. Texas has no sovereignty there, and no claim to the soil; she has unconditionally ceded it, merely reserving to her citizens who choose to locate there, the right of settlement. The Choctaws have not protested against my proposition, though their agent has. What good does it do him? I should like to know what connection he has with Texas. This tract of country lies upon our borders, and an ideal -line is all that separates us, and for many miles upon its sotith and it west, it is bordered by Texas. It is one hundred and fifty or two hundred miles from the Choctaw agent, and it is some forty miles from Fort Arbuckle. Is the fort any protection to it? No; but it is a fact conceded in the Department, that the Indians from the north making incursions upon Texas, do pass through this reserved territory and make their inroads upon Texas. But, sir, the Choctaw agent is a great man, I suppose; I have not the honor of his acquaint- ance; but we know that if you give a little power to an individual, and there is any show or display about it, he is very reluctant to yield it up. It curtails his dominion that he has never seen; it appropriates it to a useful purpose-the protection of Texas; but an agent, perhaps, would come within a hundred miles of him and settle, and then there would be somebody to contrast and compare with him, and if we get the one there that we want, I do not know that he will make by the comparison, but I am sure the other will lose nothing. I mean no reflection on the gentle- man. I fortunately do not know him; but he has assumed to protest against this in the name of the Choctaw nation. They are just as intelligent as he is, and just as capable of protesting for themselves; but they have not done it, and if they had pro- tested, they would have had no right to do it. They have ceded this territory; it is not theirs; it is the nation's. It was intended to colonize the Indians there; and for what purpose? That they might be brought within the control of proper officers, and that Texas might be redeemed from the suffering of many years. There are regular troops in Texas, but there is no fortress in this reserve. There is no society there for the officers; they cannot have the elegant accommodations that are necessary for officials to enjoy with a handsome salary. There are no splendid mansions
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