CHAPTER XXXI.
The Cherokee Indians, a portion of whom we had just met on such friendlyterms, are probably destined to act no inconsiderable part in the futurehistory of Texas. Within the last few years they have given a severelesson to the governments of both Texas and the United States. Thereader is already aware that, through a mistaken policy, the governmentof Washington have removed from several southern states those tribes ofhalf-civilized Indians which indubitably were the most honourable andindustrious portion of the population of these very states. TheCherokees, the Creeks, and the Choctaws, among others, were establishedon the northern banks of the Red River, in the territory west ofthe Arkansas.
The Cherokees, with a population of twenty-four thousand individuals;the Creeks, with twenty thousand, and the Choctaws, with fifteen, assoon as they reached their new country, applied themselves toagriculture, and as they possessed wealth, slaves, and cattle, theircotton plantations soon became the finest west from the Mississippi, andlatterly all the cotton grown by the Americans and the Texans, withinone hundred miles from the Indian settlements, has been brought up totheir mills and presses, to be cleaned and put into bales, before it wasshipped to New Orleans. Some years before the independence of Texas, asmall number of these Cherokees had settled as planters upon the Texanterritory, where, by their good conduct and superior management of theirfarms, they had acquired great wealth, and had conciliated the goodwillof the warlike tribes of Indians around them, such as the Cushates, theCaddoes, and even the Comanches.
As soon as the Texans declared their independence, their rulers,thinking that no better population could exist in the northern districtsthan that of the Cherokees, invited a few hundred more to come from theRed River, and settle among them; and to engage them so to do, the firstsession of congress offered them a grant of two or three hundredthousand acres of land, to be selected by them in the district theywould most prefer. Thus enticed, hundreds of wealthy Cherokee plantersmigrated to Texas, with their wealth and cattle. Such was the state ofaffairs until the presidency of Lamar, a man utterly unequal to the taskof ruling over a new country.
Under his government, the Texans, no longer restrained by the energy andhonourable feelings of an Austin or a Houston, followed the bent oftheir dispositions, and were guilty of acts of barbarism and crueltywhich, had they, at the time, been properly represented to the civilizedpeople of Europe, would have caused them to blot the name of Texas outof the list of nations.
I have already related the massacre of the Comanches in San Antonio, andthe miserable pilfering expedition to Santa Fe, but these two acts hadbeen preceded by one still more disgraceful.
The Cherokees, who had migrated to Texas, were flourishing in their newsettlement, when the bankruptcy of the merchants in the United Stateswas followed by that of the planters. The consequence was, that fromTennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas, hundreds of planterssmuggled their negroes and other property into Texas, and as they darednot locate themselves too far west, from their dread of the Mexicans andIndians, they remained in the east country, upon the rivers of whichonly, at that time, navigation had been attempted.
These new comers, however, had to struggle with many difficulties; theyhad to clear the ground, to build bridges, to dry up mud-holes andswamps; and, moreover, they found that they could not enter intocompetition with the Cherokees, who having been established there for alonger time, and raising abundant crops of maize, cotton, and tobacco,were enabled to sell their provisions at one-half the price which thewhite planter wished to realize. The Europeans, of course, preferred tosettle near the Cherokees, from whom they could obtain their Indian cornat fifty cents a bushel, while the American planters demanded twodollars, and sometimes three. In a short time, the Cherokee districtbecame thickly settled, possessing good roads, and bridges and ferriesupon every muddy creek; in short, it was, in civilization, full acentury ahead of all the other eastern establishments of Texas.
The Texan planters from the United States represented to the governmentthat they would have no chance of cultivating the country and buildingeastern cities, as long as the Cherokees were allowed to remain; and,moreover, they backed their petition with a clause showing that theminimum price the Cherokee land would be sold at to new comers from theUnited States was ten dollars an acre. This last argument prevailed, andin spite of the opposition of two or three honest men, the greedylegislators attacked the validity of the acts made during the formerpresidency; the Cherokees' grant was recalled, and notice given to themthat they should forthwith give up their plantations and retirefrom Texas.
To this order the Cherokees did not deign to give an answer, and, awareof the character of the Texans, they never attempted to appeal forjustice; but, on the contrary, prepared themselves to defend theirproperty from any invasion. Seeing them so determined, the Texans'ardour cooled a little, and they offered the Indians twelve cents anacre for their land, which proposition was not attended to; and probablythe Cherokees, from the fear which they inspired, would never have beenmolested had it not been for an act of the greatest cowardice on thepart of the Texan government, and a most guilty indifference on that ofthe United States.
In Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas, labour had fallen so low, thatthousands of individuals had abandoned their farms to becomehorse-thieves and negro smugglers. Many among them had gone to sell theproduce of their depredations to the Cherokees, who not only did notcondescend to deal with them, but punished them with rigour, subjectingthem to their own code of laws. These ruffians nurtured plans ofvengeance which they dared not themselves execute, but, knowing thegreedy spirit of their countrymen, they spread the most incrediblestories of Cherokee wealth and comforts. The plan succeeded well, for assoon as the altercation between the Texans and Cherokee Indians was madeknown to the Western States, several bands were immediately formed, who,in the expectation of a rich booty, entered Texas, and offered theCongress to drive away the Cherokees. As soon as this was known,representations were made by honourable men to the government of theUnited States, but no notice was taken, and the Western States, probablyto get rid at once of the scum of their population, gave everyencouragement to the expedition.
For a few months the Cherokees invariably discomfited their invaders,destroying their bands as soon as they were newly formed, and treatingthem as common robbers; but, being farmers, they could not fight andcultivate their ground at the same time, and they now thought ofabandoning so unhospitable a land; the more so as, discovering that theCherokees were more than a match for them in the field, a system ofincendiarism and plunder was resorted to, which proved more disastrousto the Cherokees than the previous open warfare.
The Cherokees wisely reflected, that as long as the inhabitants of theWestern States would entertain the hope of plunder and booty, they wouldconstantly pour upon them their worthless population. They, therefore,destroyed their farms and their bridges; and collecting their horses andcattle, they retreated upon the Red River among their own people. TheCherokee campaign is a topic of much boasting among the Texans, as theysay they expelled the Indians from their country; but a fact, which theyare not anxious to publish, is, that for every Cherokee killed, twentyTexans bit the dust.
Since that period the Cherokees, Choctaws, and Creeks have had severalwar councils, and I doubt not that they are only waiting for anopportunity to retaliate, and will eventually sweep off the entireeastern population of Texas.
The fact is, that a democratic form of government is powerless when thenation is so utterly depraved. Austin, the father of Texan colonization,quitted the country in disgust. Houston, whose military talents andwell-known courage obtained for him the presidency, has declared hisintention to do the same, and to retire to the United States, to followup his original profession of a lawyer. Such is the demoralized state ofTexas at the present moment; what it may hereafter be is in the wombof Time.