gencies of the country? Let them do that, and expose the fallacy of the theory which says that we must keep on increasing the army until we get the requisite number to keep up to the established standard. Let them reduce the officers to the number of men. That is the way to do it. We must have some criterion to go by; and until we do it we shall never have an efficient army. The army is small enough. Its efficiency is the great object. Now, fourteen thousand men are sufficient for all the exigencies of the country; and we must have some mode to give the emigrants security, or they must go at their own hazards or adventure. I desire to give them protection. You have to rely upon the disposition of the Indians for security to our emigrants. Unless you conciliate them, all the armies we can take will never give the emigrants protection. What kind of security can you give to emigrants for a distance of fifteen or eighteen hundred miles? You can give no protection where the troops would be a mile apart, for the unprotected emigrants might be attacked and slaughtered before any succor could come to them. Sir, it is the feelings of the Indians which you have to conciliate; it is their friendship, their confidence, you must obtain. Treat them with justice and liberality, and a hundredth part of the money which you spend in supporting the army will keep them faithful. They will not violate a treaty unless the aggression is commenced by the whites. A few outlaws of a tribe may; but in such a case the tribe will not sacrifice its annuities for the lives of outcasts. It will either execute them or hand them over to the military authority of the country for condign punishment.
In this way a few examples would have an electric influence upon all the tribes, for they have a more direct communication than the United States Government possesses with all its mail facilities, until it establishes a telegraph. They carry intelligence a hundred miles in twenty-four hours, and do you think that the laying off of this town in Kansas is not already communicated to every tribe of Indians in the prairies?' Yes, it is; they know that the white man has told the Indians, the Delawares, a lie; they know they have stolen their land; they know there is no faith to be reposed in them. Keep faith with them, send men who are wise and instructed in the Indian disposition and character, and they will give you peace—my life upon it. You have not a solitary man between the Mississippi and the Pacific coast, but knows that all the money in the Treasury lavished, will never give you peace or protection to the emigrants, until you have the confidence and the friendship of the Indians. Were you to pay ten thousand, or a hundred thousand, or two hundred thousand dollars to keep the troops there, they would render no aid of importance to the emigrants, unless you secure the friendship of the Indians. Whenever that is secured you will have peace, but as long as you rely on military force to give protection to the emigrants, you will not have peace.
After a speech by Mr. Dodge, of Iowa, Mr. Houston said:
Mr. President, I am impressed with the belief that any effort of mine, on the present occasion, will be unavailing for the accomplishment of the object which I have in view; but, nevertheless, I regard it as an imperative duty to do everything in my power to prevent the adoption of a course of
