Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/433

 existence of any such associations. Then, for what ulterior purposes could I advocate the rights of the Indians, or invoke the justice of this Government toward them? Could it be any expectation of political benefits? None upon earth.

I presume the abolitionists are perfectly absorbed in the subject of abolition. For myself, I would rather see them turn their attention to the amelioration of the condition of the Indians on our Western wilds, or to the reclamation of those whom they hold in slavery. 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 those 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?

Sir, we have not seen the facts to which I have just alluded impressed on a page of our official communications from the War Department. The officers stationed near the places where those transactions have taken place have not reported them. No effort has been made to obtain appropriations for the reclamation and redemption of those prisoners. This is a subject which calls aloud for the humane influence of the Senator. There is no sickly sentimentality in this, but a manly upheaving of soul that, in consideration of suffering humanity, demands that the Government shall rescue them from the most cruel and unrelenting bondage.

I have been accused of catering to a morbid, sickly sentimentality. Sir, I never yielded anything of my own conscientious convictions to consult the opinions of others. I never stooped to solicit office; but I have received and accepted it to my own disadvantage. I might have hated the Indians, if I had a soul no bigger than a shell-bark. [Laughter.]

In my boyish days, before manhood had hardened my thews and muscles, I received balls and arrows in this body, in defense 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 relentless tomahawk and scalping-knife, it seems to me that the charge that I have stooped to court favor by the expression of my sentiments on this question is one which falls harmless at my feet.

Mr. President: I think that a petition of this kind ought to be received, and that it is not subject to the charge brought against it by the Senator from Illinois [Mr. Douglas]. It does not arraign our action by being drawn up after that action was had. The Nebraska bill passed this body on the night of the 3d, or, rather, on the morning of the 4th instant. The memorial appears to