168
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
It is to prevent this that I wish to have an agency created there, and attach it to the Texas superintendency. If there had been an agent there, subject to the supervision of the Texas agency, what necessity would there have been for the recent battle of Ford with the congregated Indians in that reserve! There was an agent appointed-a clever man, I am told; but he may be not very well suited for an Indian agent. Fifty thousand dollars were appropriated by the last Congress to be expended for the advantage of the agency, to restrain the Indians from out- lawry or violence upon us; and what has been the consequence? He went there, and staid three days at Fort Arbuckle, -within about forty miles of the limits of the agency, and never went into the agency. How can these Indians become civilized without the influence of intelligence upon them, and without some care and regard paid to them? That is the way we have been treated. Our frontier has been assailed, our citizens slaughtered, and our property stolen; and what is the conduct of the United States when we demand reclamation, though their agent was never there to interpose his influence, or exercise his functions in preventing depredations? They say we might have done it ourselves; and it comes at last to that with Texas. She has to do it herself; and you will not reimburse her the expense. Now, sir, we have a claim on the nation. Billy Bowlegs has got on our side of the Mississippi; and we will cry "Billy Bowlegs," and then you will call out the militia, and you will have to pay them. [Laughter.] So, if Florida has lost anything by Billy's emigration, we have gained. I do not wish the nation to lose on account of Billy, as has heretofore been the case; but if Texas should gain as much · as Florida, without any acts of error, I shall have no objection. [Laughter.] Texas wants help now. We wish these Indians placed in a situation where they will be accountable to our superintendency. In seeking this object I am supported by high authority. I am not going to be deluded in this matter, or diverted from my purpose by any letters of -the Indian bureau or the Interior Department. I will have justice; and if official power inflicts wrong, I will rebel against it. Now, I propose to read a letter from the Texas superintendent, which was submitted to the Department as far back as March 6, 1857, in which he gives some of the reasons evincive of the necessity of a transfer of this agency. Major Neighbors, in this letter, speaking of the country in which the Witchitas are, says: :
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