Washington sentinel., 1854-02-24
Masbingtnn gsntinel
NEBRASKA AND KANSAS TERRITORIES.
SPEECH OF MR.. WELLER,

SPEECH OF MR.. WELLER,
OF CALIFORNIA,
In the United States Senate, February l3, 1864.
The Senate having under consideration the
bill to organize the Territories OF Nebraska
and Kansas
Mr.. WELLER said:
| Mr. PRESIDENT: If any person came here to-
day with the expectation that | intended to
make any reply to the very extraordinary speech
which was concluded on Friday last, he will
| find himself very much deceived. There are
| personal considerations which alone would pre-
vent me from having any controversy upon this
| floor with the senator who delivered that speech.
| only intend to-day, so far as the condition of
my health and my voice will permit, to discuss
| some of the various questions which have been
alluded to in the course Of this debate.
| do not intend to go into lengthy argu-
ment for the purpose Of showing the necessity
! there is for the organization OF government IN
| the section Of country where it is proposed to
establish the Territories of Kansas and Ne
braska. There are very few plain facts which,
in my Judgment, ought to be sufficient to salts
fy any one that the organization OF one or more
territorial governments in that region is indis-
pensable.
u
an immense territory lying on the shores Of the
Pacific ocean. You have organized there a
State government, which ere long is destined
to be one of the mightiest States of the Union.
You have, in addition to this, organized two ter
rtorial governments There is an immense
tide of emigration flowing rapidly into that sec
ton of the Union. The overland emigration
to that portion passes directly through that re-
gion of country which it is now proposed to or
ganize into territorial governments. This is
now occupied by a large number Of hostile In
dians.
In order to give protection, then, to the en-
icrants against these Indians; in order to at
ford them the facilities to which they are enti-
tied; in order to enable them to reach that dis
tant portion Of the confederacy in safety, the
organization Of a territorial government is, In
nv Judgment, indispensable. Besides that,
there are yearly three hundred thousand emil
grants who are coming to your shores from the
Old World. The commissions and revolutions
in Europe will, in all probability increase rath
er than diminish the number. Driven by the
prosecutions Of the Old World, they come here
for the enjoyment Of religious and political lib
erty. They desire, under our liberal policy, to
sit down with us under our vine and fig tree,
where there are none to modest or make them
afraid. Besides, there are many in the differ
ent States of the Union who desire to emigrate
to that region. There are many. sir, in the
older States who are compelled to labor from
| day to day, and from year to year, and yet are
| unable to procure more than the ordinary me-
| cessaries of life. They desire to 60, with no
bank bills in their pockets, perhaps, but with
honest hearts and strong arms, to build up for
themselves home in this district of country.
They will settle down upon the rich and pro-
/ \ II. .horE n Nntvso vsoclyns. %lo
Indian lodge will soon be broken up; the
council-fires will be extinguished; and the viii
/ derness Of to-day will bloom and blossom as the
rose. With their energy, their industry, and
their enterprise, they will soon surround them
selves with all the necessaries and all the com
| forts of civilized life. By making them the
owners of the soil they cultivate, you lay the
permanent foundation of your government
broad and deep in the affections of the people.
The best security for the maintenance of the
republic will be found in making the great bo-
dy of the people landholders. As each is a
part of the sovereignty, SO he should be the
owner of portion Of the soil.
The only difficulty which has presented it.
self to my mind has grown out Of the fact
that there are located upon a portion of this
Territory of Kansas a large number of Indians,
who have been removed from the older States
upon the solemn pledge of the government
that they should not be disturbed. / DESIRE
Mr.. President, above all things, to maintain
the plighted faith Of this government, whether
it be given to the powerful or the weak wheth
er it be pledge given to civilized nation or
to the unfortunate aborigines of America.
/ desire to do no act here, as public officer,
| which shall violate in the slightest degree the
| plighted honor of this government to the un
| fortunate Indians; and therefore it was, Mr.
President, that was exceedingly anxious, in
the organization of these territorial govern
ments, that every care should be taken to pro-
tect the rights Of the Indians. believe that
they are amply secured under the provisions of
the-bill and the proposed amendments. We
have been compelled, in times past, to treat
these Indians with great hardship. We have
prevailed upon them to leave the homes of
their ancestors, the graves of their fathers,
their old familiar hunting grounds, upon the
pledge that there, in that distant west, the
white man should never disturb them. Little
did we think then that in few years the wants
and necessities of our own people would de-
mand the lands upon which they were located.
Sir, it is a melancholy reflection that these
Indians must in the end be entirely DESTROYED.
| There is no human hand that can stay the on
ward progress of the white population. You
might as well attempt to arrest the rolling
current orchain thedeep" as to stop that onward
progress. Humanity therefore dictates that
we should do all in our power to alleviate their
sufferings, and to soften the blow which stern
necessity may require us to inhict. know,
too, sir, that it is very common for Us to exag-
gerate the inhumanity and the cruelties Of the
Indian population. ] know that these charges
are often concocted by the white man. |
know there are thousands of unrecorded
wrongs which have been ncommittedupon this un-
fortunate population. They have no historian;
they have no newspapers to chronicle the wrongs
that the white man may perpetrate upon them.
Tribes that numbered their warriors by thou
sands few years ago have entirely disappeared
from the face of the earth. They have faded
away before the resistless march of the white
man. They are now between the upper and
the neither milestone, and determination seems
to be inevitable. know of no policy which
can prolong their existence for any considera-
BILE period. trust, therefore, that, fprovision
| is not already made in the bill, III do not pre-