Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/47

Rh had wronged them in violation of every treaty, and usurped the fair lands over which their forefathers had once roamed, undisputed monarchs, chainless and free.

Knowing that General Jackson, who was then President, and who was his life-long personal friend, would sympathize with him in his efforts to benefit the Indians, he resolved to scrutinize the actions of the Indian agents and sub-agents, and report the result to the President. He never entered the councils nor joined in the deliberations, although he was at all times invited to take part in the councils of the Cherokees. The manifest injustice and cruel oppressions inflicted upon this people by the agents charged with the conduct of their affairs on their migration to the Indian country, were matters of history detailed to him by the old chief. One instance of the outrageous wrong done them may suffice. By treaty, they were to receive twenty-eight dollars per capita in exchange for the lands which they had on the Lower Arkansas. This aggregated a very large sum in money. Under pretence that they had no money, the agents issued certificates. The Indians received these certificates, and as they had always considered paper worthless, they were easily persuaded to part with their paper to the merchants, who were in collusion with the agents, and who purchased the certificates fraudulently, for a trifling sum, inducing the Indians to believe that it was doubtful whether the Government would ever be able to send them the money. For the sacred obligations of our Government, made under the sanctions of a treaty, these deceived exiles often received a "Mackinaw blanket, a flask of powder, or a bottle of whiskey." It is doubtful whether a fifth part of the money secured to them by sacred treaty ever passed into their hands, and even this fifth was wrung from them for whiskey, or in gambling. Preyed upon by abandoned speculators, whole tribes were robbed of the munificent grants of Congress.

General Houston had for more than a year a trading establishment between the Grand River and the Verdegris, and although at that time far from being a practical temperate man himself, he never permitted traffic in destructive drinks, and made unceasing efforts to prevent the introduction of ardent spirits among the Indians. Occasionally he indulged in intoxicating drinks to excess, at Fort Gibson and other white settlements, but his love for the red men and sense of right, forbade that he should ever be a party to the traffic or use of poisonous liquids to contribute to their crimes or misfortunes.

Holding no official station himself, and mingling freely with them, with no selfish aims, a voluntary exile to their wigwams, a witness of intolerable acts of outrage on the rights of a generous people, he determined to report these outrages to the General Government, that