WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1830
169
supplied with wholesome rations, and not short rations. Let the Agents be honest, capable, and acceptable. The Cherokees antici- pate the arrival of such a man among them. Let the Government make the regular remittances to pay the contingencies of existing treaties. This has not been the case for th~·ee years with the Creeks on Arkansas. Let these things be done, and let the case be fairly understood by the Indians, and I would rejoice to see them remove to Arkansas; but until this is done, (and -it only requires a word to do it), humanity must shudder at the wrongs which will be suffered on Arkansas, if the present Agents, and present system, of which Col. McKenney is the author, should be continued. To say less than this would be inhuman, and to say more would be needless. I am one of those who entertain no doubt but that the Indians, if a proper course were pursued by the Government, would be infinitdy better and happier in new homes, selected and defined in limits on Arkansas, than they can ever be within the limits of the States, whose jurisdictional rights are, to my mind, un- questionable; and, further, my opinion is, that if the exertions which are used in opposing the views of the pr~sent Executive, (as well as the long settled policy of the Government), were wisely directed to the aid of the Indians, and settling them in new homes, supplying their most needful wants, and the im9le- ments of hubandry and agriculture, that it would be much better for the Indians, and would be productive of the proudest reflec- tions to the donors, when they have reason to know that they have cm1f'ed the "desert to blossom as the rose." This would be of more real avail to the h;:ilf naked Indians, than all the rhetorical swells of the fanciful Col. Thos. L. McKenney, about "LION, HORRORS, DESERT, BIRDS, HEAVEN, STORMS, TEM- PESTS, CATS, and RATS." The Colonel need not complain that he is fired at from a masked battery. Heretofore it has been his own mode of warfare, but success in several triumphs has given him courage, and he is gradually assuming a bold~r front; and from the manner of his using the personal pronoun "I" singularly, I apprehend that He intends becoming Father Confessor to the Secretary of War, and taking upon HIMSELF the responsibility of the Department. STANDING .BEAR Note.-Under the contract of Major du Va! tak~n by his Over- seer, there are now on Arkansas, between 400 and 500 bushels
Powered by FlippingBook