The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1857-10-15
SLAVERY AGITATION AMONG THE cHocrAws

tiicJ may Dc iuuuc cuOicui.
SLAVERY AGITATION AMONG THE cHoCTAws
The Choctaw nation Of Indians are governed by a
constitution modelled after that of the United States
designed to recognise and establish "the general,
great, and essential principles of liberty and free
government Every safeguard that Legislative wis
dom has yet suggested has been placed around the
citizen and the general machinery of their govern
ment is calculated to secure the ends imbodied in
their "bill of rights"
On the. question of slavery it is declared in the
constitution, The general council shall have no
power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves
without the of their owners unless where the
slave shall have rendered to the nation some distin-
guished service--in which case the owner shall be
paid full equivalent for the slave to be emanci-
pated. They shall have no power to prevent emil
grants to this nation from bringing with them such
persons deemed slaves by the laws Of any one
of the United States SO long as any person of the
age description shall be continued in slavery
by the laws Of this nation provided that such person
slave be the bona de property of such emigrants
and provided, also, that laws may be passed to pro-
hibit the introduction into this nation of slaves who
may have committed high crimes in any Of the Uni
ted States. They shall have power to pass laws to
permit owners Of slaves to emancipate them, saving
the rights of creditors, and preventing them from
becoming public charge They shall have full
power to oblige the of slaves to treat them
with humanty-to provide for them necessary cloth
ing and provisions to abstain from all injuries them
extending to life limb and in of their neglect
refusal to comply with the direction OF such laws,
to have such slave slaves sold for the benefit Of
the owner or owners ETC.
The constitution was adopted in January last,
and is now in complete operation in the Choctaw
ton.
The treaty of June, 1855, secures to the Choctaws
the unrestricted right Of sefgovernment and full
jurisdiction over persons and property within their
limits, and provides "that all persons, with their
property, who are not by BIRTH adopted, OF other
wise, citizens members of either the Choctaw or
Chickasaw tribe and all persons not being citizens
members of either tribe, found within their lin
its, shall be considered ntruders and Be remored from
and kept out Of the same the United States agent
sisted, IF necessary, BY the military"
From the above it will be seen that the Choctaws,
AZ "a eAAS VI poPudi 5oNcA0iki-
y,' have, in their wisdom, established or recog-
missed the institution of slavery.
But in the Choctaw nation, as elsewhere, there are
AaIrAroRs. Tandy Walker, the president of the con-
vcntion that framed the constitution in an address
for the Choctaws, while defending that instrument
from the violent assaults Of few opponents, says
II cannot allow this opportunity to pass without adj
monshing people Of the danger of agitating the
subject Of slavery. Even if majority of them were
adverse to the institution, which is not the case it
would be suicidal for them to express that opposi-
ton, because we have Arkansas on one side and
Texas the other both slaveholding States, whose
people would not sit quietly by and permit another
Canada or runaway harbor to be established upon
their borders. We are too weak to resist such
force, and the inevitable result ould be that zee should
be operrun, and nationality destroyed, and our
country taken aioay from US, and people forced
to find homes in the barren plains west of us. do
not hesitate to declare that any man. be he white or
red who undertakes to agitatc the subject of sla-
very among our people, is ito the peace and
,pell-being of the Choca,c nation
And such is doubtless the opinion of the majority
of that people.
It is a fact which admits Of no doubt-the infor-
nation comes from reliable source-that this sla-
very agitation is caused by northern missionaries
among the Choctaws. Instead of combining them
selves to tho Christian instruction of the fred men,
and promoting the reign of harmony and goodwill,
they seek to kindle the fame Of civil The more
rejecting part of the nation freely express the opin
ion that these paleaced agtators should be driven
ont of the country, because they justly consider
them dangerous to the peace of the people. In
word, as 'enemies" to social order.
1t does not require much wit to perceive, in view
of the circumstances above stated that the Choc-
Jaws are likely to get into difficulty similar to that
which has given the government and people so much
trouble in Kansas and that the sbotionists are at
their dangerous work even among the Indians The
Indian agents would have no fear of being unable to
manage the Indians if they were let alone but, we
repeat, the missionaries are for the greater part
aboitonists, who do aught else but foment diff |
culties.
There is reason to believe that organized plan
to abotonize the southwestern superintendcncy has
been matured If success should crown these efforts
there may be reenactment of the late disgraceful
scenes in Kansas.
The missionaries, from their constant intercourse
with the Indians at their hresides, sickbeds, and