Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/237

 Houston" just in the hands of the people, the second and short session of the Thirty-third Congress met Dec. 4, 1854.

The speech of Houston, in reply to the numerous assaults made on him, which brought out the whole nobleness of his character, was made on the last day of the year, Dec. 31, 1854. From the most opposite points, from the younger Dodge of Iowa, in the Northwest, and from Mr, Mallory in the Southeast, came the coincident charge that Houston was inspired by either a real or professed sickly sentimentality in his appeals for justice to the Indians; Senator Dodge averring that an abolitionist of Western New York could not show greater weakness; Senator Mallory insinuating that Houston was seeking to win the vote of the "Know Nothings," who opposed the promotion of Irish Catholics, in his expected canvass for the Presidency; while the spirit of detraction went so far as to charge that when, more than two years before, he was one of the Senate Committee to convey the body of Henry Clay for burial to Kentucky, he had, for effect's sake, kissed the forehead of the admired leader in compromise, when the coffin was opened for his fellow-citizens to view, for the last time, the face of their adored political leader. Houston's reply was calm, dignified, and heroic. He said, in the progress of his speech:

"Mr. President, I hardly know what to say in reply to the Senator from Iowa. In the first place, let me say to that Senator, and to the honorable Senator from Florida, that they were talking about things of which I know very little, for I was not in the United States when the occurrences to which they alluded took place, and I was not, therefore, familiar with the history of those wars. I have already stated that occasions occur where outlaws among the Indians commit acts of aggression on the whites, and the whites immediately retaliate on the Indian nations; and these nations, in self-defence, become involved in war. But I never knew a case where a treaty, which was made and carried out in good faith, was violated by the Indians. I have stood here alone in this body, against a powerful array of talent and influence, contending for what I conceived to be a great principle, and which must obtain, or the Indian race be exterminated." After quoting high authorities who agreed with him, Houston added: "There are not less than two thousand prisoners in the hands of the Comanches; four hundred in one band in my own State. The prisoners can be reclaimed from these Indians, who are coming down to settle upon their reservations. They take no prisoners but women and boys. The boys they treat with a degree of barbarity unprecedented, and their cruelties toward the females are nameless and atrocious. Our Government is silent in relation to them. Has humanity no claims upon us in this respect? Has justice no demand unanswered? In my boyish days, before manhood had hardened my thews and muscles, I received balls and arrows in this body in defence of suffering humanity, particularly women and children, against the Indians; and I aided in reclaiming the brightest spot of the South—Alabama. When I remember that, in those early days, I assisted in rescuing females and children from the