Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1851-10-24
Correspond ence OF the Indiana State Sentinel
Wild Cat and His Policy.
ny CORA MoNTGoM oMERY.
EAGLE pAss. Texas Sent z IL.

EAGLE Pass, (Texss,) Sept. 7, 1851.
Wild Cat the Seminole Chief, is decidedly the lead.
ing character in precincts He 10 an historical per.
sonage and may leave behind him still deeper tracks
than heretofore the bloody annals of border
fare. 1t is entirely in the power of government
make him instrument for good evil service for his
restless ambition and versatile talents must be employed
and in his fate and plans there pause for breath
and decision which bold prompt policy would fail
TO seize and turn to the right Shall this
tanned tiger OF the desert make his spring on
the savage tribesf They his enemies they are
ours, and but give him easy scope and encourage
ment enough, he will bound them teeth and claws
His pride of rule and his savage fame the breath of
his nostrils he lives but 10 win command and would
freely die to have il said in his death chant that he
the highest chief of hundred tribes. If the whites
Will open to him pathway TO renown by sending him
against the hostile tribes he will do their work better
than half dozen regiments. II they shut the door up.
on him, then he will continue his plans Of combination
end strive to pour out upon this border 6ery torrent of
desolaon. Eagle Pass nestes safely in its nook and
has less fear than the richer settlements that spur out
and fringe the edge Of the cultivated country bat
where hocks and herds in open district Of
one hundred and fifty miles wide by fifteen hundred long
on this frontier. Yet, Wild Cat, with regiment Of
dragons and company two Of mounted Texan IA
nemen, would sweep this region clean in year, and
leave dainty and secure as the Capitol grounds
Rating family al the value OF Washington dray
horse IL would be economy supply this force and
few hundred settlers from death and captivity.
A few days since Wild Cat Unexpectedly drew bride
at our door, attended only by his interpreters and
yanta small confidential train for chief who delights
10 ride forth with strong display of armed warriors
and captive servants II was quiet business call full
OF meaning, and bearing as directly that chief
shows his hand The great plan OF his life In order
to become the foremost of the Red Race il as
necessary chastise and subdue the refractory
10 win and combine the willing tribes. He has
lately returned from of his long nexplicabe trips
and looks thin and His dress plain and
travelsoed and altogether there something stern
and unsatisfed in his air. He wore a shirt of blue
printed cotton and overss Of dark dressed deer.skn
lringed down the seams AT the first glance he might
have passed for border hunter attred for long expe
don but scrutiny revealed many little Indian
peculiarities silver ped medal de
ed ais breast, and collar OF bead-work encrcled his
neck All the party wore ay-eolored handkerchiefs
wreathed around their heads in style that would be
egitmately the brow Of Arab and strange
to say Of his interpreters is Arab. The other s
negro, whose immediate parents were African. Bya
curious coincidence, the three races hardly pressed
by the relentless agrasping whites, confronted
with one of the conquerng race and on mission that
indirectly avonched his supremacy Pundered Asia
ensaved Africa, and martyred America were each re-
presented in blood character and suffering by linea
son. and TO make the meeting complete it sin
guar the fourth of this extraordinary convocation
of that naughty Franco Norman stock which for
thousand years has filled the thrones of Europe and
written its laws with the swords point every land in
TO which it has cast its usurpng hordes. The theme
that occupied these four thus strangely brought
gether in this faraway district lately wrested from
another naton enclosed in each pithy sentence the
reer Of these They were occupied in making yet
solid and ncontestabe the pride and dominion Of
the overweening white race.
The African true TO the records OF three Thousand
years, plant, docie, thoughtess OF nation
atty and only intent laugh out his day and his
chief in the way he is best pleased 20 be served yet
coward witha and genial and generous he is
less of the future. George Leppard-that bright pro-
phetc, l.understood of genus-once said that in
the life and growth of races, the African still an
undeveloped infant and had its career still before H.
while the Red Race had perhaps rounded It's zenith and
Fastening in the ullness of ages is downward
the grave Certainly the hoping, joyous tru,t
uness of TIE child is as general character OF the light
hearted African the absence of this trait of youth s
strong pecnarity Of the sad and soical Indian. The
Arab, or they called him, Malay Moor, had the DID,
stately selfpoised mein of bis people, and manifested
less lively interest than the African in the chief plans and
talk but he finds action and pastime in war and be
is as ready 10 follow Wild Cat in foray against Red
American as Whteone, il is because neither Of them
sh trader and sold into slavery at Havana but be escap
ed into Florida after time, and became an adopted
child of Wild Cats tribe. Like John, the Afncan, h.
has drank of the chiefs cup and shared his tent and
wherever he leads they follow without question: for hes
to them home, country and faith
But what of the chief hmself7 What TO be the
destiny of this active and redoubtabe fragment OF an
exed and expiring peoplel He is hopeless of the shat
tered disesrdant unplant Red II they were capa-
bic of uniting for nober destiny he would live foS,
work for, die for the gories Of their ancient traditions
but as they not he is ready blot ont the degene
tribes and lean upon the power and alliance OF the
whites for the safety Of the remnant. To do this he has
rough-hewed in his mind the pillars OF new temple Of
which his ambitious spirit seeks 20 be the cap stone
His plan doubtless to with the clans he can unite
under his command into the service OF the United States
and wage in behalf of the whites and of himself
against those savage tribes who will keep no terms with
either This would have been doubtful experiment
when the Indians compact and formidable,
and the power of the whites less understood BY such
tribes as Wild Cat would command, bat in these days
there could be better policy. Let the Indians who
will do nothing else do the border fighting, and que
each other, while the whites plant fields and build up
settlements in the wilderness they resign To take
the tribes that desire into regular pay and give them
fixed homes and something to do is one step towards
better things.
0-The Swansea Herald gives the following lines,