Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/467

 driven the offenders from their land. It is not neutral territory; it is their property; and the United States is pledged, by treaty, and by honor, to protect them in its possession. They have delegated a trust to the United States to sell this land if they dispose of it for their benefit; but they have not given it to the aggressor. Will the Government permit the wrongs to go unredressed? Where is the military authority there, that they do not expel the aggressors, in obedience to the intercourse law—persons who are there without permission? Sir, the nation's honor grovels in the dust, its ermine is soiled, its glories are clouded.

Mr. President, I am reluctant to detain the Senate; but I must take the liberty of making a suggestion, and it may be regarded in the character of prophecy or fancy, as may be most convenient and acceptable. Raise the three thousand troops, make a general war with the Indians, and it will take five years to terminate it. It will become a focus of excitement. It will virtually arrest emigration to California and to Oregon. It will cost you fifty millions of dollars, and you then will have to approach these Indians through the medium of pacification. Send your wise men, three commissioners, if you please, and send two or three hundred men, as discreet men might designate, and you will make peace with every man in the course of nine months, and give perfect security to your emigrant trains. You will not hear of bloodshed, unless it results from a spirit of retaliation provoked by the whites. This being done, you would have the blessed reflection that you have saved the effusion of human blood. The women and children of the Indians will be preserved. But if you call the attention of the warriors to war and battle, and to marauding, by way of retaliation, upon your trains, starvation will ensue for want of the means of subsistence. Mark these words; pacific force will give peace and save millions of money; a hostile force will expend millions, waste human life and dishonor the nation.

After some remarks by Mr. Dodge, of Iowa, and Mr. Mallory,

Mr. said: Mr. President, I hardly know what to say in reply to the honorable Senator from Iowa, for I hardly know what to think of his speech. [Laughter.] If I were to characterize his remarks in any way, I should say that they were, at least, very remarkable. In the first place, let me say to that honorable Senator, and to the honorable Senator from Florida, that they were talking about things of which I knew 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. If I am not mistaken, however, it was an outrage of a very delicate character which brought on the Florida war.

Mr. That is a mistake, sir.

Mr. . Well, sir, that was the report which was brought to Texas. Whether it was true or not, I do not know; but that was the information which I received from people from that section of the country. As for the Black Hawk war, I know little or nothing about it; for in Texas, at that time, we had no mail communications with the United States, and we got but few papers from the States, so that I remained uninformed in relation to those matters; but no doubt they were very exciting. The Senator from Iowa said the Black Hawk war was brought on by a council of the nation;