Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/464

 always been disposed to be friendly, but we can not stay and starve. We must go and join the stronger party." "Well," says the oflicer, "you may go."

"But," say they, "if war comes on." The reply is, "War is my trade; bring it on as soon as you please." They separated; and the agent had to send two hundred miles a friendly Dela*vare Indian, before he could overtake that band, and with difficulty he got them back. The agent had to traverse and ride seven hundred miles to effect the restoration of harmony.

That is the way they manage. If these are the gentlemen that are to hold the lives and property, and the security of our citizens in charge, I want them to be men of some discretion, some wisdom, some little experience, not those who have just burst from the shell, or juveniles from the Military Academy, without ever having seen an Indian, and knowing nothing of their disposition. Send men of age and discretion, who have some sympathy for the whites, if they have no respect for the Indians. Then, sir, you may dispense with a great deal of the force which you now have, or ought to have, to make the army efficient. Now, you see the consequence of this wiping out of the Indians, and making them respect you. Whenever you attack them, you embody them; for we are told by an agent, Mr. Vaughan, a gentleman of high respectability, as I understand, that the Indians are disposed to live in perfect amity with the United States; and that they do not only say that they are disposed to be at peace, but that they report the hostility of other Indians, and say that they will co-operate with the whites in giving them any information and aid that they possibly can; and will assist them in a conflict with hostile Indians; so that there is no danger to be apprehended. If you conciliate but one part, the others will not attempt to enter into hostilities. It is for the accomplishment of this that I desire to see the appliances of peace, not of war, used. Here, for instance, Mr. Vaughan says: "The Brulies from the Platte, the Ouh-Papas, Blackfeet, Sioux, a part of the Yanctonnais, Sans Arc, and Minecougan bands of the Missouri, openly bid defiance to the threats of the Government, and go so far as to say that they do not fear the result, should soldiers come to fight them." That is all hearsay. It is reported as hearsay, not as being authentic. "The rest of the tribes in this agency are disposed to do right, and many of them at once will unite in exterminating the above bands. Several of them have come voluntarily to me, and stated that, should a force be sent here to chastise these, they will hold themselves in readiness to give any information relative to their locality and movements in their power, and render any assistance that may be required of them." Well, now, when you can divide the Indians in this way and have one party, suppose you were to send two hundred men against hostiles, you could acquire an equal Indian force, so as to countervail them, and the whites would determine at once the preponderance in favor of our Government. Mr. President, I assure you I can not agree to the proposition. Besides, the general objections which I have to the increase of the army as the policy of the Government, I will say that we have enough in the present force, if properly employed, with the exception of the convoys necessary to the emigrant trains, and it would be very easy to digest a system for that purpose short of the contemplated three thousand troops.

Sir, I discovered furthermore that in the plan suggested the section of country