The Cherokee Indians, a portion of whom we had just met on such friendly
terms, are probably destined to act no inconsiderable part in the future
history of Texas. Within the last few years, they have given a severe
lesson to the governments of both Texas and the United States. The
reader is already aware that, through a mistaken policy, the government
of Washington have removed from several southern states those tribes of
half-civilised Indians which indubitably were the most honourable and
industrious portion of the population of these very states. The
Cherokees, the Creeks, and the Choctaws, among others, were established
on the northern banks of the Red River, in the territory west of the
Arkansas.
The Cherokees, with a population of twenty-four thousand individuals;
the Creeks, with twenty thousand, and the Choctaws, with fifteen, as
soon as they reached their new country, applied themselves to
agriculture, and as they possessed wealth, slaves, and cattle, their
cotton plantations soon became the finest west from the Mississippi, and
latterly all the cotton grown by the Americans and the Texians, within
one hundred miles from the Indian settlements, has been brought up to
their mills and presses, to be cleaned and put into bales, before it was
shipped to New Orleans. Some years before the Independence of Texas, a
small number of these Cherokees had settled as planters upon the Texian
territory, where, by their good conduct and superior management of their
farms, they had acquired great wealth, and had conciliated the good will
of the warlike tribes of Indians around them, such as the Cushates, the
Caddoes, and even the Comanches.
As soon as the Texians declared their independence, their rulers,
thinking that no better population could exist in the northern districts
than that of the Cherokees, invited a few hundred more to come from the
Red River, and settle among them; and to engage them so to do, the first
session of congress offered them a grant of two or three hundred
thousand acres of land, to be selected by them in the district they
would most prefer. Thus enticed, hundreds of wealthy Cherokee planters
migrated to Texas, with their wealth and cattle. Such was the state of
affairs until the presidency of Lamar, a man utterly unequal to the task
of ruling over a new country.
Under his government, the Texians, no longer restrained by the energy
and honourable feelings of an Austin or a Houston, followed the bent of
their dispositions, and were guilty of acts of barbarism and cruelty
which, had they, at the time, been properly represented to the civilised
people of Europe, would have caused them to blot the name of Texas out
of the list of nations.
I have already related the massacre of the Comanches in San Antonio, and
the miserable pilfering expedition to Santa Fe, but these two acts had
been preceded by one still more disgraceful.
The Cherokees, who had migrated to Texas, were flourishing in their new
settlement, when the bankruptcy of the merchants in the United States
was followed by that of the planters. The consequence was, that from
Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas, hundreds of planters
smuggled their negroes and other property into Texas, and as they dared
not locate themselves too far west, from their dread of the Mexicans and
Indians, they remained in the east country, upon the rivers of which
only, at that time, navigation had been attempted.
These new comers, however, had to struggle with many difficulties; they
had to clear the ground, to build bridges, to dry up mud-holes and
swamps; and, moreover, they found that they could not enter into
competition with the Cherokees, who having been established there for a
longer time, and raising abundant crops of maize, cotton, and tobacco,
were enabled to sell their provisions at one-half the price which the
white planter wished to realise. The Europeans, of course, preferred to
settle near the Cherokees, from whom they could obtain their Indian corn
at fifty cents a bushel, while the American planters demanded two
dollars and sometimes three. In a short time, the Cherokee district
became thickly settled, possessing good roads, and bridges and ferries
upon every muddy creek; in short, it was, in civilisation, full a
century ahead of all the other eastern establishments of Texas.
The Texian planters from the United States represented to the government
that they would have no chance of cultivating the country and building
eastern cities, as long as the Cherokees were allowed to remain; and,
moreover, they backed their petition with a clause showing that the
minimum price the Cherokee land would be sold at to new comers from the
United States was ten dollars an acre. This last argument prevailed,
and in spite of the opposition of two or three honest men, the greedy
legislators attacked the validity of the acts made during the former
presidency; the Cherokees' grant was recalled, and notice given to them
that they should forth with give up their plantations and retire from
Texas.
To this order, the Cherokees did not deign to give an answer, and, aware
of the character of the Texians, they never attempted to appeal for
justice; but, on the contrary, prepared themselves to defend their
property from any invasion. Seeing them so determined, the Texians'
ardour cooled a little, and they offered the Indians twelve cents an
acre for their land, which proposition was not attended to; and probably
the Cherokees, from the fear which they inspired, would never have been
molested had it not been for an act of the greatest cowardice on the
part of the Texian government, and a most guilty indifference on that of
the United States.
In Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas, labour had fallen so low, that
thousands of individuals had abandoned their farms to become
horse-thieves and negro smugglers. Many among them had gone to sell the
produce of their depredations to the Cherokees, who not only did not
condescend to deal with them, but punished them with rigour, subjecting
them to their own code of laws. These ruffians nurtured plans of
vengeance which they dared not themselves execute, but, knowing the
greedy spirit of their countrymen, they spread the most incredible
stories of Cherokee wealth and comforts. The plan succeeded well, for
as soon as the altercation between the Texians and Cherokee Indians was
made known to the Western States, several bands were immediately formed,
who, in the expectation of a rich booty, entered Texas, and offered the
Congress to drive away the Cherokees. As soon as this was known,
representations were made by honourable men to the government of the
United States, but no notice was taken, and the Western States, probably
to get rid at once of the scum of their population, gave every
encouragement to the expedition.
For a few months the Cherokees invariably discomfited their invaders,
destroying their bands as soon as they were newly formed, and treating
them as common robbers; but, being farmers, they could not fight and
cultivate their ground at the same time, and they now thought of
abandoning so unhospitable a land; the more so as, discovering that the
Cherokees were more than a match for them in the field, a system of
incendiarism and plunder was resorted to, which proved more disastrous
to the Cherokees than the previous open warfare.
The Cherokees wisely reflected, that as long as the inhabitants of the
Western States would entertain the hope of plunder and booty, they would
constantly pour upon them their worthless population. They, therefore,
destroyed their farms and their bridges; and collecting their horses and
cattle, they retreated upon the Red River among their own people. The
Cherokee campaign is a topic of much boasting among the Texians, as they
say they expelled the Indians from their country; but a fact, which they
are not anxious to publish, is, that for every Cherokee killed, twenty
Texians bit the dust.
Since that period the Cherokees, Choctaws, and Creeks have had several
war councils, and I doubt not that they are only waiting for an
opportunity to retaliate, and will eventually sweep off the entire
eastern population of Texas.
The fact is, that a democratic form of government is powerless when the
nation is so utterly depraved. Austin, the father of Texian
colonisation, quitted the country in disgust. Houston, whose military
talents and well-known courage obtained for him the presidency, has
declared his intention to do the same, and to retire to the United
States, to follow up his original profession of a lawyer. Such is the
demoralised state of Texas at the present moment; what it may hereafter
be is in the womb of Time.