Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/441

 loss. These are the provisions of the intercourse laws. In this case, did either of the officers make a demand on the chiefs? The chief sent an assurance that justice would be done and the individual given up, though he did not belong to their band. The officers, unwilling to receive that assurance, dispatched a handful of men against several lodges of Indians, and among whom there had been some ground of complaint. The consequences which I have narrated resulted from this indiscretion and violation of law. It was a violation of law, for no demand was made upon the chiefs for indemnity, and no response was received from them. These gallant gentlemen thought they should go there and make war. They are paid for it; "it is their vocation." Are such men entitled to sympathy? Are they entitled to respect? But their conduct alarmed the Sioux; and because that tribe proposed to confederate with other tribes, we are asked to increase the military force of the country; forsooth, we are to wage war upon the winds, for you might as well do it as upon the prairie Indians.

But this is not all that grew out of that transaction. A clamor is raised about the mail party who were destroyed subsequently to that. It was very natural to expect that it would be done. The Sioux chief, who was wounded on the occasion to which I have referred, was taken to the Arkansas, and there he expired in consequence of the injury he had received. His kindred resolved to revenge his death. The Indian appreciates the ties of kindred far beyond any white man. They may have less intelligence, but the chords of nature are stronger, the sensibilities of the heart more lively than those which stimulate our Christian, enlightened action. It is well known that the grief which resounds through the Indian camp when a warrior or chief expires, or when a relative dies, is like the wailing of Egypt. When this chief expired his friends sought for a white man, that they might take vengeance on him—not for those who had inflicted the wrong, but whoever they might happen to find among the whites. They first came upon the mail party. One, who was not a relative of the chief, said to one of his kindred, "There is a white man, you can now take vengeance on him; you are a coward if you do not do so." He said: "I am no coward; but if you say it, I will kill him." Then he went and killed two out of the three composing the mail party.

Now, sir, what had been the condition of the Indian country previous to these occurrences? I have been assured by gentlemen who have passed from California to Fort Laramie, a distance of one thousand four hundred or one thousand five hundred miles, that they met individuals traveling alone through that vast region. They passed through a wilderness of one thousand four hundred or one thousand five hundred miles unassailed, and without injury from any one. Did this look like a desperate feeling on the part of the Indians, when they allowed unprotected individuals, sometimes singly, occasionally in small companies of three or four persons, to pass through their country unmolested? No, sir. It is some sudden act of wrong and outrage which stimulates the Indian to aggression. He has no inducement to it unless he expects great plunder, because he is very well aware that if he cultivates kind and friendly relations with the whites, he can receive from them supplies that he can not obtain any other way—things which gratify his taste for dress, and supply his wants and appetites. For