177
WruTINGs OF SAM HousTON, 1858
the agent. I do not care who he is. Texas does not want an agent, she does not want to create one of her own citizens into an agent, but she wants security to her frontier and nothing else. Was I caviling for an agency, or intimating a wish to have an agency there? Mr. Johnson. I have not said such a thing. I do not believe you will do it. Mr. Houston. I know it. My friend said we were welcome to have it. I do not want it. I have not asked for it; I have not intimated a wish for it. I hope I divest myself of such consid- eration when there is a great national concernment in the way. He concedes that the fort shall be established at the foot of the Witchita mountains within this reservation; that an agent shall reside there; and that the Indians shall receive their annuities through our country, or in connection with us, and not from the opposite point on the Arkansas. I want to draw their i;ninds to Texas, and to show that that is the object to affiliate with them, so far as we can with our relations; that we shall teach them to view us as friends, and not ·as enemies. Let the benefits come from us; and the Indian, who is a material being, will realize it to a certain extent, as far as his senses will go, that we are his friends, and are not opposed to him. Sir, this is an important object. It is to keep the peace. The gentleman tells you that this proposition will save millions. I tell you, that if this little amendment is passed, in the course of five years it will save $10,000,000 to your Treasury, and you can take your troops from there, and do what you choose with them. You may disband them. You may station them where they can get supplies, without each ration costing fifty cents. You can take them away. Leave us a single regiment of our own; give us the agency, and the Choctaws will rejoice at it. Why? Because they send their children in our country to have them educated. On the Red river there is nothing but that little line or narrow strip. They move over into our State. The wealthy portion of them even own plantations in Texas. They purchase our land. They are cut off from Arkansas and move over to us and have their children educated among us. They never send their children to Arkansas to be educated, nor locate themselves in the limits of Arkansas. The Choctaws are our friends. They would be glad to be attached to the superintendency of Texas, and I am willing to accept them. I will not ask an agent unless his quali- fications are superior. I have nothing more to say except to
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