Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/462

 gentleman here felt some little alarm on one occasion, and described his situation as most critical, he said that traders had gone out when these occurrences took place at Fort Laramie, and he would have sent for them, only he was afraid they would all be massacred. The Indian traders have gone on. They have nothing to defend them. They have no guards, no arms; and yet a simple trader, with persons enough, Indian or white, to pack and convey the articles of traffic which he possesses, or the proceeds of his trade, can go through the whole Indian country, and not meet with the slightest molestation or injury. How does this happen, Mr. President? Does it happen that the Indians are hostile, and that they will not attack a weak party; that they want the United States to send armies to hurl defiance at them? Sir, their complaint is, whenever aggression has been said to have been committed by them, or whenever they have retaliated, that it has been because the white man first blooded the path, and they wished to walk, too, in a path of blood. Yes, sir, that is the secret of it. When our traders can go from Fort Laramie, or from the frontier of Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, to the Pacific Ocean, with perfect impunity, and return laden with stores from the desert or the wilderness, obtained in traffic with the Indians, I say when our troops are injured, there is a fault somewhere, and that fault is in not cultivating kind relations with the Indians, and treating them with justice and humanity. It is the interest of the traders to conciliate them, and we never hear of their being robbed. We are told that the Indians exact blackmail from our emigrants to California. Yes, sir, they do; because persons who have preceded them have provoked and irritated the Indians. I grant you that no caravan ought to go without some military protection. The male portion of the party well armed, with a small military force, can always defend themselves against as many Indians as can remain embodied in any country where the buffalo is not abundant. I am for giving ample protection, wherever it may be, to the emigrant trains; but they should go in such detachments or caravans as will render it convenient to afford them subsistence, for I would not that one scalp shot. Id be taken.

I can exemplify, to some extent, an impression that I have when I contrast war measures with peace measures. I well recollect in 1835, 1836, 1837, and 1838, in Texas, we had peace. The Comanches would come down to the very seaboard in amity and friendship, would repose confidently in our dwellings, would receive some trifling presents, and would return home exulting, unless they were maltreated, or their chiefs received indignities. If they did receive such, they were sure to revisit that section of the country, as soon as they went home, and fall upon the innocent.

For tiie years I have mentioned, in Texas, we had perfect peace; and, mark you, it did not cost the Government over $10,000 a year. We had no standing army. A new Administration came in, and the Legislature immediately appropriated $1,500,000 for the creation of two regular regiments. Those regiments were raised. What was the consequence? The policy had changed in the inauguration of the President. He announced the extermination of the Indians. He marshaled his forces. He made incursions on a friendly tribe, who lived in sight of our settlements, where the arts of peace were cultivated and pursued by them—by agriculture and other arts, and by the exchange and traffic of such