been made, and not directly or indirectly encourage men to violate every principle of honor and humanity, and deride even faith itself.
After some remarks by Mr. Jones, of Tennessee, Mr. HOUSTON said:
The honorable Senator from Tennessee, in the course of his remarks, has fallen into several errors; he certainly has misapprehended me as to the import of my remarks about the force necessary to guard the emigrants. I estimated them, perhaps, at three thousand annually; I do not care whether it be three hundred or three hundred thousand; but in proportion as they are numerous, they will afford themselves efficient means of defense; and, according to my calculation, in twenty thousand there would be furnished five thousand fighting men. Then, as to a smaller force, if they were organized in the march, a small addition of soldiers would be sufficient to give them all the protection that would be necessary. It is necessary to subdivide them into such companies as can conveniently travel together, on account of grass, water, and other supplies that they must procure on the prairies.
As to the army and its efficiency, I remark, that if the army were filled up to the amount that is necessary, it would take three times fourteen thousand nominally, to furnish an efficient force of fourteen thousand in the field. I estimate the efficient force at about one-third of the number that appears on paper.
Mr. Shields. Will the Senator permit me to interrupt him?
Mr. Houston. With great pleasure.
Mr. Shields.The legal or authorized force is a little over fourteen thousand, but the actual force is about eleven thousand.
Mr. Houston. Then, Mr. President, for security, it will be necessary to keep encampments in sight from Fort Laramie until they reach California. If they are ever out of sight of a guard sufficient to protect them, they are liable to depredation. If small companies of only a hundred men can thus travel, they will travel at their own risk and go to their certain destruction, unless the Indians are conciliated; and that shows the necessity of making peace with them. The honorable Senator from Tennessee says that it is an imperative necessity to send the army. He says if the commissioners fail, you must have recourse to chastisement; but if they succeed, the force of three thousand men will be unnecessary.
But, Mr. President, my life upon it, and I do not say it lightly, if from three hundred to five hundred men were taken by the three commissioners; or, if they limited their escort to forty, or fifty, or one hundred men, they would succeed in conciliating every Indian on this side of the Rocky mountains, if in the meantime the white men do not commit aggression. If you send such discreet men as could be selected, you can keep peace; and yet, upon the contingency that they may not succeed, you are to go to the expense of an army. But if we can not keep up our present establishment of fourteen thousand complete and effective men for actual service, with all the resources of this nation, its increased bounty, and pay, and rations, let us give up the army; let them go to more useful employments. What is the use of talking about making the establishment commensurate with the present wants, if you can not keep up the present establishment to the necessities and exi-
