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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1859
return for that protection. If the Government protects them, the Indians knowing that the citizens belong to the Government, will respect the citizens on the frontier; they will not depredate upon them. You must have some way of approaching Indians and connecting them with our people. It is through the medium of the· Government alone, that this can be done. Just so sure as this third reservation is not established in Texas, just so sure will the Indians commence hostilities. They have been promised it. It is said that it has been proposed to wait until next year to see what to do. What time is to intervene from the present period until your action next year? Soon the spring will be upon us, the very time that the Indians begin depredating, because then the grass affords them an opportunity of coming in with their horses, if they choose to bring them. They can graze them along the way. There is now no subsistence; they cannot well travel; but in the spring, when the grass grows up- and that will be as early as March in that region-the Indian can travel, and they can make their incursions, or they can steal horse~ and subsist them until they get them beyond pursuit. Recollect here, that the spring, and summer and fall, and next winter and spring, an entire year, will elapse before Congress will have any time to take action on it; and then it would require several months before the fact could be announced to these Indians, who have been in expectation of it for a year past; and you will have nothing to amuse them through the summer, but they will know that the promise of the Government to establish this r·eservation has not been complied with. They will be galling under the disappointment for an entire year. The conse- quence will be, that the Indians will be turned loose upon Texas. I do not wish to protract the debate. 1 Congressional Globe, 1858-1859, Part 1, pp. 695-698. The debate in the Senate was on the House Bill No. 664-making app1·0- priations for current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes, for year ending June 30, 1860. This bill had been reported to the Committee on Finance. Now, on January 31, 1859, it was reported back to the Senate with several amendments proposed: 1. For expenses of colonizing, supporting and furnishing agricultural implements and stock for Indians in Texas, and for the establishment of a reserve west of the Pecos Rive1·, the sum of $25,000. The Finance Committee offered instead of that amendment the following: "For expenses of colonizing, supporting and furnishing agricultural implements and stock for Indians in Texas; provided, That no part of the
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