Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1854-03-04
SPEECH OF Mr.. HOUSTON, OF TEXAS,
In favor Of maintaining faith aeitt the Indian tribes
TX SENATE. FEBRUARY IA, 1854.


In favor Of maintaining faith ritht the Indian tribes.
liz SENATE, FEBRUARY II, 1854.
The Senate having under consideration the bill to
canize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas
Mr. HOUSTON said regretted extremely yesterday,
Mr. President that too much ndsposed to proceed
to address the Senate to facilitate the progress Of
this bill as far may be connected with it. Though
ndsposed to-day have disposition to embarrass the
bill in the slightest degree, and therefore shall now
proceed and though the apprehension of the Senate
may be that shall be tedious, from the number of books
which are here exhibited it is my intention to occupy
but short time. have brought these books, respec-
table from their numbers if for nothing else, matter
of reference and that the Senate may see how much
pains has been taken in relation to the Indians by the
Government of the United States whether to negotiate
treaties with them TO deceive them by promises or to
confirm to them rights long promised
am aware Mr. President, that, in presenting myself
as the advocate Of the Indians and their rights shall
claim but little sympathy from the community at large,
and that shall stand very much alone, pursuing the
course which feel it my imperative duty to adhere to-
It is not novel for me seek to advocate the rights of
the Indians upon this floor and elsewhere. familiar
knowledge of them their manners, their habits and their
with this Government for the last half CEN
tury from my early boyhood through lfe have placed
within my possession facts and trust implanted in me
principle enduring life itself That principle is to
the Indian against wrong and oppression and to
vnd;cate him in the enjoyment Of rights which have been
solemny guaranteed him by this Government; and that
is the principle, Mr. President which shall insist grows
of the course of policy avowed by this Government
as far back 1885, The Hopewe treaty was then ne
gotated with the Cherokee Indians of Tennessee The
country in which they lived solemny guaranteed to
them 1t promised that they should be regarded as
people in alliance with the United States, and that they
should have delegate in Congress How far that has
been complied with the history Of more than NIFTY years
testify.
Successive promises were made from 1885 to 1902 du-
ring the administration of Gen. Washington and the
pledges Of amity and regard that or he in 1909
diaRs ny HIN pYfses to them provided they would mi
CRATE of the Mississippi Long anterior to that they
had been seduced by the promises OF this Government
They of the Mississippi and were recognised
by the United States that territory was ac
quired from France. They continued there up to 1914
1916, and 1917, under the promises of the Government
battling against the hostile wild Indians and relying
upon the pledges of the different Presidents of the United
States their great father that they should not be modest
cd in their settlement there The treaty of 1917
negotiated after the of 1872, in which it viii be
collected that the Cherokees, allies OF the United
States enlisted under the banner of this Government and
marched 10 battle under the immediate command of Gen.
Jackson They engaged in all the of the Creek
Of 1913 and 1914. Here earnest of their
fidelity to the pledges which they had given to the Gov
eminent of the United States In consequence of these
services they considered in the treaties of 1914
made with the Creeks After that the policy Of the
Government became more stringent upon them and
disposition arising owing to pressure from surrounding
States to them to Arkansas it proposed that
the whole nation Of Cherokees east OF the Mississippi
should migrate and exchange their lands the
lands lying the far west. The white people had
rounded them. 1t suggested that it necessary
for them to remove that when the white and the
Indian in contact, and particularly when the In
dams surrounded By white men, they could no
longer prosper that they were now surrounded and had
outle that they not prepared precisely to go
into the abodes of civilized and therefore it
necessary to withdraw them from that vicinity and
give them boundless latitude to the west.
These were the suggestions, and the most solemn
pledges made by this Government that if they would
IA etnft
again be surrounded by white men, and that they should
have boundless and ntermnable outlet far the
jurisdiction Of the United States extended. This was
soemnly guaranteed those Indians and in ODE
dence to that and to the desire of the Government
emphaticaly expressed, almost amounting to command
the nation divided and portion of them went to Arkan
They had been driven from their first settlement;
they had gone beyond the white settlements in Arkan
Territory and had located themselves at Point Re-
move, called from the fact of their removal it. They
remained there until Loveys purchase made north
of the Arkansas from the Usage Indians White people
Immediately fscked in beyond them cutting off again
their outlet and circumscribing them within limits
treaty negotiated in 1929 think in which it was
declared to them that in exchange for the territory they
then occupied several hundred miles below Lovey's pur-
chase and by the settlers Lovelys purchase the Neo-
sho and Grand rivers and Yerdigrs, they should be
moved below Fort Smith, and that they should have eter
nal possession of that land The exchange took place
the settlers Lovey's purchase were removed down
head rights prescriptions granted to them
reeompense for the sacrifice which they had made by
Surrenderng the cabins which they had occupied and
each received three hundred and twenty acres Of
land The Cherokees received for their compensation
nominal sum- aud removed the country in which they
abide. This country given to them under every
solemn obligation Of perpetuity Every right that the
United States possessed invested in them and it
declared that it should nure to them and their poseriy
perpetually. The most solemn pledge had been made
that boundess outlet should be given that the white
should again settle beyond them in the jurs-
dcton of the United States In conformity with that the
Cherokees made the treaty Up to 1888, think it was,
the nation divided portion Of it remaining east
Of the Mississippi, the other west where they had mi
they settled upon the Western Cherokees and
they treated independent and separate tribe
from that east of the Mississippi.
have some knowledge personally of the inducements
which furnished the Indians which were held out
to them persuade them quit their eastern location
and remove to that proposed in the west Under the
treaty of 1877 by Gen. Jackson, il agreed that the
Of the nation should be taken and annuites dvid
ed between its branches that the amount of annuity
should be apportoned to each third think, to
the Indians Of the Arkansas and wohrds to those
east that supposed be in proportion 10 their
numbers might have distrusted the fact of the pledges
given had ! not heard them with my can
hardly be charged with egots by connecting myself with
Facts as certainly was not very conspicuous situation
which held nor were the services rendered very mpor
tant but they afforded opportunity Of estimating
these pledges aud the circumstances under which they
were given to the Cherokee Indians.
In 1917 delegation Of two, think came from Arkan-
to the Cherokee agency, where then was subal-
tern detailed from the army in the capacity Of assistant
agent Col Meigs These Indians came in his absence
and Gov McMinn ex-ofcio superintendent Of Indian af
fairs held council The Cherokee authorities east Of
the Mississippi refused positively send delegation