Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/630

 Instructions have been issued to Captains W. C. Dalrymple, Ed. Burleson, and John H. Connor, to raise each sixty men for immediate service. Since the initiative steps to effect this purpose were taken, the bill entitled "An act for the protection of the frontier," came into my hands. Inasmuch as the Legislature has thrown upon the Executive the entire responsibility of defending the frontier, it is but just to him and to the people of the State, that the Legislature should provide him with the means of meeting that responsibility, as the exigency before him requires. The bill in question but affirms a constitutional power already existing in the Executive. It provides the manner in which the troops shall be organized, and the rates at which they shall be paid; but the money by which they are to be paid and sustained in the field is unprovided for. Without a dollar at his command, it is impossible for the Executive to sustain rangers on the frontier, or accomplish much for the defense of the State; and although numbers of our citizens are ready to go to the scene of danger, relying upon the justice of the State to pay them for their services, yet they can not be expected to enter upon the dangerous service before them without necessary subsistence. The Executive is determined to use all the constitutional means in his power to give security to our border.

He will endeavor to send to the frontier efficient and reliable protection, and will call into the field no more men than appears absolutely necessary; but beyond this he has no power. The Legislature can alone provide and appropriate the money.

Our frontier people have long been harassed by Indians. They have been compelled, from time to time, to leave their homes in pursuit of them, to punish their aggressions, and recover property stolen. A feeling of insecurity exists which nothing but an active force, continually on the alert, can dispel. Scattered along the border, they are unable to get together in sufficient numbers to punish the enemy, without endangering their firesides. I have therefore determined to send them protection from the interior. If an emergency arise, or the Indians appear in force, they may then be called into service as minute men, without leaving their families long unprotected.

The defense of our settlements properly belongs to the Federal Government, and it is only in cases where protection is not extended by it, that we may resort to our own means of defense. It has been my belief for years that mounted rangers are the only species of troops calculated to afford efficient protection against roving bands of Indians. Thus far the Federal Government has not acted upon such a policy as respects our frontier. I shall at an early period urge upon the President of the United States, and the War Department, the necessity for such a force, as well as the propriety of mustering into the service of the United States the troops now being raised for the protection of our frontier.

I shall also urge upon the proper department, the importance of authorizing a treaty with all the Indian tribes on our border, and the payment of annuities directly to them, through a Texas agency, instead of by way of Arkansas as at present. The fact that these tribes respect the laws of Arkansas, and the civilized nations of Indians, and that no depredations are committed on that frontier, but altogether upon that of Texas, is a