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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
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occasion on which this subject, with many others, was inaugu- rated on this floor, when I was gagged down, between the hours of three and five o'clock in the morning, on the occasion of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. I shall never forget that.
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1 Cong1·essio11al Globe, Appendix, 1st Sess., 35th Cong., 1858-1859, p. 84.
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CONCERNING THE MASSACRE OF THE CALIFORNIA EMIGRANTS 1
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March 18, 1858. Mr. Houston. I think the resolution would be more perfect if it were to require an inqufry to ascertain who did this act- to find out first who perpetrated the act. Before we punish them, I think we had better ascertain who they were. Mr. Gwin. We know that our fellow-citizens were murdered. There is not one left to tell the story. Mr. Houston. Some persons killed them. The Mormons are suspected of it. Some Indians must have been in the vicinity. Now, Indians frequently go several hundred miles to start an expedition• for the purpose of killing the Indians near that place; and Indians from another quarter may come there and be inculpated and brought into jeopardy, while those who com- mitted the crime escape. I think that the inquiry would be more proper to ascertain who perpetrated the act, and not make war without any foundation. Mr. Gwin. It is well known that the Indians in the neighbor- hood had a part in the spoils. T.hat has been ascertained; they ought to be punished, and every one else to whom it can be traced. I have no doubt that an expedition, if sent there, could soon ascertain the tribe of guilty Indians, and the white per- sons, if any, who instigated it, as has been charged. Mr. Houston. That would be very unsatisfactory evidence, because Indians traffic, as well as white people, and exchange commodities. The murderers may have stripped them, and in passing back may have disposed of the articles to the tribes con- tiguous to where the massacre was perpetrated. I am opposed to this indiscriminate warfare upon Indians, or upon Mormons, or upon·any other people, until their guilt is clearly ascertained. I want the facts as to who perpetrated the crime to be ascer- tained, and then punishment to be inflicted according to the offense. But to imagine that somebody has done it, and there- fore that someone must be killed or massacred in retaliation, is
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