Today in Chickamauga History - March 3
1832, March 3: Cherokee leaders successfully challenged Georgia in the U. S. Supreme Court (Worcester v. Georgia). This decision held that states did not have the right to impose regulations on Native American land. President Jackson refused to follow this ruling.
1832, March 3: – In the case of Worcester v. Georgia, Chief Justice John Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court declares the recent laws of the State of Georgia null and void and that the Cherokee Nation East has the right to protection of the federal government from harassments by the states, and orders the release of Worcester and Butler.
1837, March 3: The first Indian party removed at the expense of the United States Government composed of 466 persons including Major RIDGE, John RIDGE, and Stand WATIE families, departs from ROSS’ Landing (near present-day Chattanooga, TN) under Dr. John S. YOUNG.
1854, March 3: LIFE AND SELECT LITERARY REMAINS OF SAM HOUSTON, OF TEXAS – Page 412 -
HOUSTON SPEECH ON THE NEBRASKA AND KANSAS BILL, U.S. SENATE
Mr. President, I have very little hope that any appeal which I can make for the Indians will do any good. The honorable Senator from Indiana [Mr. Pettit] says, in substance, that God Almighty has condemned them, and has made them an inferior race; that there is no use in doing anything for them. With great deference to that Senator, for whom I have never cherished any but kind feelings, I must be permitted to dissent from his opinions. He says they are not civilized, and they are not homogeneous, and can not be so, with the white race. They can not be civilized 1 No ! Sir, it is idle to tell me that. We have Indians on our western borders whose civilization is not inferior to our own. It is within the recollection of gentlemen here that, more than twenty years ago, President Ross, one of them, held a correspondence upon the rights of the Indians to the Cherokee country, which they possessed east of the Mississippi, and maintained himself in the controversy with great credit and ability; and the triumph of Mr. Adams, if it was one, was much less than he had obtained over the diplomatist of Spain [Mr. Don Onis], in relation to the occupation of Florida by General Jackson. The Senator from Indiana says that, in ancient times, Moses received a command to go and drive the Canaanites and Moabites out of the land of Canaan, and that Joshua subsequently made the experiment of incorporating one tribe of the heathen with the Israelites, but it finally had to be killed off. Therefore, the Senator concludes, the Cherokees can not be civilized. There may have been something statesmanlike in the policy, but I do not discover the morality of it.
I will say, however, that there is no analogy between the two cases. The people of Judea who were killed, or exterminated, Indian Statesmen Eminent / and Tribes Civilized. 413 were idolaters, and the object was to keep the people of Israel free from the taint of idols and idolatry, under the command of Providence, and therefore the extermination in His dispensation became necessary. But the Cherokees never have been idolaters, neither have the Creeks, nor the Choctaws, nor the Chickasaws. They believe in one Great Spirit—in God—the white man's God. They believe in His Son Jesus Christ, and His atonement, and propitiation for the sins of men. They believe in the sanctifying efficacy of the Holy Ghost. They bow at the Christian's altar, and they believe the Sacred Volume. Sir, you may drive these people away, and give their lands to the white man ; but let it not be done upon the justification of the Scriptures. They have well-organized societies; they have villages and towns ; they have their state-houses and their capitols; they have females and men who would grace the drawing-rooms or saloons of Washington ; they have a well-organized judiciary, a trial by jury, and the writ of habeas corpus. These are the people for whom I demand justice in the organization of these territories. They are men of education. They have more than one hundred native preachers in those tribes, as I have heard. They have their colleges, as I remarked in my former address to the Senate on this subject, They become associated in friendship with our young men in the various institutions in the United States; and they are prepared to be incorporated upon equal terms with us. But even if they were wild Indians, untutored, when you deprive them of what would give them knowledge, and discourage them from making an effort to become civilized and social beings, how can you expect them to be otherwise than savage ? When you undertake to tame wild horses, do you turn them from you and drive them into the desert, or do you take care of them and treat them with humanity? These Indians are not inferior, intellectually, to white men.
John Ridge was not inferior in point of genius to John Randolph. His father, in point of native intellect, was not inferior to any man. Look at their social condition, in the nations to which I have alluded. Look at the Chickasaws who remain in the State of Mississippi. Even among white men, with all their prejudices against the Indians, with their transcendent genius and accomplishments, they have been elected to the Legislature. Whenever they have had an opportunity, they have shown that they are not inferior to white men, either in sense or capability. But the honorable Senator from Iowa [Mr. Dodge] characterizes the remarks which I made in reference to the Indians as arising from a feeling of " sickly sentimentality." Sir, it is a sickly sentimentality that was implanted in me when I was young, and it has grown up with me. The Indian has a sense of justice, truth, and honor, that should find a responsive chord in every heart. If the Indians on the frontier are barbarous, or if they are cannibals and eat each other, who are to blame for it ? They are robbed of the means of sustenance ; and with hundreds and thousands of them starving on the frontier, hunger may prompt to such acts to prevent their perishing. We shall never become cannibals in connection with the Indians, but we do worse than that. We rob them, first of their native dignity and character ; we rob them next of what the Government appropriates for them. If we do not do it in this hall, men are in¬ vested with power and authority, who, officiating as agents or traders, rob them of everything which is designed for them. No less than one hundred millions of dollars, I learn from statistics, since the adoption of this Government, have been appropriated by Congress for purposes of justice and benevolence toward the Indians; but I am satisfied that they have never realized fifteen millions beneficially. They are too remote from the seat of government for their real condition to be understood here; and if the Government intends liberality or justice toward them, it is often diverted from the intended object and consumed by speculators. I am a friend of the Indian, upon the principle that I am a friend to justice. We are not bound to make them promises; but if a promise be made to an Indian, it ought to be regarded as sacredly as if it were made to a white man. II we treat them as tribes, recognize them, send commissioners to form treaties, and exchange ratifications with them, and the treaties are negotiated, accepted, ratified, and exchanged—having met with the approval of the Senate—I think they may be called compacts ; and how are those compacts regarded ?
Just as we choose to construe them at the time, without any reference to the wishes of the Indians, or whether we do them kindness or justice in the operation, or not. We are often prompted to their ratification by persons interested; and we lend ourselves unintentionally to an unjust act of oppression upon the Indians by men who go and get their signatures to a treaty. The Indian's mark is made; the employes of the Government certify or witness it; and the Indians do not understand it, for they do not know what is written. These are some of the circumstances connected with the Indians. Gentlemen have spoken here of voting millions to build ships, and placing the army and navy at the disposition of the President in the event that England act inconsistently with treaty stipulations. This is done because, if England violates a treaty with us, our national honor is injured. Now, I should like to know if it becomes us to violate a treaty made with the Indians when we please, regardless of every principle of truth and of honor ? We should be careful if it were with a power able to war with us ; and it argues a degree of infinite meanness and indescribable degradation on our part to act differently with the Indians, who confide in our honor and justice, and who call the President their Great Father, and confide in him. Mr. President, it is in the power of the Congress of the United States to do some justice to the Indians by giving them a government of their own, and encouraging them in their organization and improvement by inviting their delegates to a place on the floor of the Senate and House of Representatives. If you will not do it, the sin will lie at your door, and Providence, in His own way, mysterious and incomprehensible to us though it is, will accomplish all His purposes, and may at some day avenge the wrongs of the Indians upon our nation. As a people we can save them ; and the sooner the great work is begun, the sooner will humanity have cause to rejoice in its accomplishment. Mr. President, I shall say but little more. My address may have been desultory. It embraces many subjects which it would be very hard to keep in entire 6rder.
We have, in the first place, the extensive territory; then we have tried considerations due to the Indians ; and then we have the proposed repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which seems to require the most explanation, and to be the main point in the controversy. The great principle involved in that repeal is non-intervention, which, we are told, is to be of no practical benefit if the Compromise is repealed. It can have no effect but to keep up agitation. Sir, the friends who have survived the distinguished men who took prominent parts in the drama of the Compromise of 1850, ought to feel gratified that those men are not capable of participating- in the events of to-day, but that they were permitted, after they had accomplished their labors, and seen their country in peace, to leave the world, as Simeon did, with the exclamation : " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." They departed in peace, and they left their country in peace. They felt, as they were about to be gathered to the tombs of their fathers, that the country they had loved so well, and which had honored them—that country upon whose fame and name their doings had shed a bright luster which shines abroad throughout all Christendom—was reposing in peace and happiness. What would their emotions be if they could now be present and see an effort made, if not so de¬ signed, to undo all their work, and to tear asunder the cords that they had bound around the hearts of their countrymen ? They have departed. The nation felt the wound ; and we see the memorials of woe still in this Chamber. The proud symbol (the eagle) above your head remains enshrouded in black, as if deploring the misfortune which has fallen upon us, or as a fearful omen of future calamities which await our nation in the event this bill should become a law. Above it I behold the majestic figure of Washington, whose presence must ever inspire patriotic emotions, and command the admiration and love of every American heart. By these associations I adjure you to regard the contract once made to harmonize and preserve this Union. Maintain the Missouri Compromise ! Stir not up agitation f Give us peace ! This much I was bound to declare—in behalf of my country, as I believe, and I know in behalf of my constituents. In the discharge of my duty I have acted fearlessly. The events of the future are left in the hands of a wise Providence.
For the years I have mentioned, in Texas, we had perfect peace ; and, man; you, it did not cost the Government over $10,000 a year. We had no standing army. A new Administration came in, and the Legislature immediately appropriated $1,500,000 for the creation of two regular regiments. Those regiments were raised. What was the consequence? The policy had changed in the inauguration of the President. He announced the extermination of the Indians. He marshaled his forces. He made incursions on a friendly tribe, who lived in sight of our settlements, where the arts of peace were cultivated and pursued by them—by agriculture and other arts, and by the exchange and traffic of such Indians Friendly to all but Soldiers. 447 productions of the soil as were convenient. They lived by traffic with Nacogdoches. The declaration was made, and it was announced by the Cabinet that they would kill off "Houston's pet Indians." Well, sir, they killed a very few of them; and my honorable colleague knows very well, if it had not been for the volunteers, they would have licked the regular army—as the Indians said ; I was not there. The Cherokees had ever been friendly; and, when Texas was in consternation, and the men and women were fugitives from the myrmidons of Santa Anna, who were sweeping over Texas like a simoon, they had aided our people, and given them succor; and this was the recompense. They were driven from their homes, and were left desolate. They were driven up among the Comanches. What was the consequence ? Every Indian upon our borders, from the Red River to the Rio Grande, took the alarm.
They learned that extermination was the cry; and hence it was that the flood of invasion came upon our frontiers, and drenched them with blood. The policy of extermination was pursued, and a massacre of sixteen chiefs at San Antonio, who came in amity for a treaty, took place. That was in 1840. Before this army was raised they had been in the habit of coming down for purposes of peace and commerce. But an army of Indians marched through the settlements to the seaboard, one hundred or one hundred and fifty miles, undetected, I grant you, avoiding the dense settlements, went to Linville, upon tide water, rifled the stores, and slaughtered the men, if there were any, the women treated with cruelty, and their children's brains were dashed against the walls of their peaceful habitations. The exterminating policy brought it on. The country became involved in millions of debt, and the Indians in Texas were kept in constant irritation. That was in 1840; and it was not until the year 1843 that intercourse could be had with them through the medium of the pipe of peace, the wampum, and the evidences of friendship. Then, what I related the other day occurred, and kind relations were again brought about, which subsisted until 1849. For the last year there has not been the life of a citizen lost on our borders that may be attributed to the Indians. One old man and three children were found neat Medina, and another than was found, not scalped, and we know not by whose hands he came to his death—whether he was killed by Indians or Mexicans. They have detected companies of felons there, whites and Mexicans, stealing horses, and running them through the wilderness to Red River. The forts, they knew, were there, and they could dodge them, and go within one mile, or twenty, or thirty, just as they please. They are perfectly harmless. The Indians have killed several soldiers—and why ? Whenever they get the chance they treat them like dogs.
What did they do? The agent made an agreement with the principal officer, for the Indians (to enable them to subsist), that they should have a certain amount of powder and lead; and the sutler should be permitted to sell it. The commanding officer was absent. Perhaps the young lieutenant, or the junior—I hope the Senator will not ask for the name, for, indeed, I have forgotten it—was in command. The Indians came in, and asked the sutler for powder. He said, " No, you can not get one grain of powder or lead." " Why," say they, " our women and children are crying with hunger, and we want to go out and kill game and feed them ; we want the powder." " No, you can not get powder," says he. They then said, " If you drive us off, we will have to go and join the northern Comanches. We have. always been disposed to be friendly, but we can not stay and starve. We must go and join the stronger party." " Well," says the officer, " you may go." " But," say they, *' if war comes on." The reply is, " War is my trade ; bring it on as soon as you please." They separated; and the agent had to send two hundred miles a friendly Delaware Indian, before he could overtake that band and with difficulty he got them back. The agent had to traverse and ride seven hundred miles to effect the restoration of harmony. That is the way they manage. If these are the gentlemen that are to hold the lives and property, and the security of our citizens in charge, I want them to be men of some discretion, some wisdom, some little experience, not those who have just burst from the shell, or juveniles from the Military Academy, without ever having seen an Indian, and knowing nothing of their disposition. Send men of age and discretion, who have some sympathy for the whites, if they have no respect for the Indians.
Then, sir, you may dispense with a great deal of the force which you now have, or ought to have, to make the army efficient. Now, you see the consequence of this wiping out of the Indians, and making them respect you. Whenever you attack them, you embody them ; for we are told by an agent, Mr. Vaughan, a gentleman of high respectability, as I understand, that the Indians are disposed to live in perfect amity with the United States; and that they do not only say that they are disposed to be at peace, but that they report the hostility of other Indians, and say that they will co-operate with the whites in giving them any information and aid that they possibly can; and will assist them in a conflict with hostile Indians ; so that there is no danger to be apprehended. If you conciliate but one part, the others will not attempt to enter into hostilities. It is for the accomplishment of this that I desire to see the appliances of peace, not of war, used. Here, for instance, Mr. Vaughan says: " The Brulies from the Platte, the Ouh-Papas, Blackfeet, Sioux, a part of the Yanctonnais, Sans Arc, and Minecougan bands of the Missouri, openly bid defiance to the threats of the Government, and go so far as to say that they do not fear the result, should soldiers come to fight them."
That is all hearsay. It is reported as hearsay, not as being authentic. " The rest of the tribes in this agency are disposed to do right, and many of them at once will unite in exterminating the above bands. Several of them have come voluntarily to me, and stated that, should a force be sent here to chastise these, they will hold themselves in readiness to give any information relative to their locality and movements in their power, and render any assistance that may be required of them." Well, now, when you can divide the Indians in this way and have one party, suppose you were to send two hundred men against hostiles, you could acquire an equal Indian force, so as to countervail them, and the whites would deter¬ mine at once the preponderance in favor of our Government. Mr. President, I assure you I can not agree to the proposition. Besides, the general objections which I have to the increase of the army as the policy of the Government, I will say that we have enough in the present force, if properly employed, with the exception of the convoys necessary to the emigrant trains, and it would be very easy to digest a system for that purpose short of the contemplated three thousand troops.
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