Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/445

firmly opposed to another removal. So fixed and settled was this idea, that propositions clearly for their interest were rejected by them.

"The residue of the tribes who have recently ceded their lands should, therefore, be considered (subject, in a few cases, to a contraction of limits) as permanently fixed. Already the white population is occupying the lands between and adjacent to the Indian reservations, and even going west of and beyond them; and at no distant day all the country immediately to the west of the reserves, which is worth occupying, would have been taken up. And then the current of population, until within a few years, flowing only from the East, now comes like an avalanche from the Pacific coast, almost overwhelming the indigenous Indians in its approaches. It is therefore, in my judgment, clear, beyond a doubt or question, that the emigrated tribes in Kansas Territory are permanently there—there to be thoroughly civilized, and to become a consistent portion of the population, or there to be destroyed and exterminated. What a spectacle for the view of the statesman, philanthropist, Christian—a subject for the most profound consideration and reflection! With reservations dotting the eastern portion of the Territory, there they stand, the representatives and remnants of tribes once as powerful and dreaded as they are now weak and dispirited. By alternate persuasion and force, some of these tribes have been removed, step by step, from mountain to valley and from river to plain, until they have been pushed half way across the continent. They can go no further; on the ground they now occupy the crisis must be met, and their future determined. Among them may be found the educated, civilized, and converted Indian, the benighted and inveterate heathen, and every intermediate grade. But there they are, and as they are, without standing obligations in their behalf of the most solemn and imperative character, voluntarily assumed by the Government. Their condition is a critical one; such as to entitle them not only to the justice of the Government, but to the most profound sympathy of the people. Extermination may be their fate, but not of necessity. By a union of good influences and proper effort, I believe they may and will be saved, and their complete civilization effected.

"Be that as it may, however, the duty of the Government is, in my opinion, plain. It should fulfill, with the greatest promptness and facility, every treaty stipulation with these Indians; frown down, at the first dawning, any and every attempt to corrupt them; see that their ample annuities are directed faithfully to their education and improvement, and not made the means of their destruction; incessantly resist the efforts of the selfish and heartless men who, by the specious plans and devices for their own gain, may seek to distract and divide them; require diligence, energy, and integrity in the administration of their affairs, by the agents who may be intrusted with their interests and welfare, and visit the severest penalty of the law on all who may violate its salutary provisions in relation to them. Let these things be done; the co-operation of the civil officers, magistrates, and good citizens of the Territory secured, and the most active efforts of the friends of the benevolent institutions now existing among them be brought into exercise for their moral culture; and, by harmonious and constant effort and action, a change may, and, it is believed, will, be brought