Fort Worth: A Frontier Triumph

8. The Hand of Friendship

CHAPTER 8 The Hand of Friendship WoULD the north of the Republic be a promise of homes for men or a stark wilderness? That depended upon peace between red and white men. To continue the war with the Indians begun by Lamar's policy would make the north a forbidden land where men's hope would end in the war whoop. To restore peace to Indian camps would cause the upper valleys of the Trinity and Brazos to blossom with farms and towns, while stagecoaches and ox freighters would etch roads across the prairies . The north of the Republic should be the "Land of Promise" for immigrants from the United States and Europe. Such was the reasoning of President Sam Houston. He took up his quill and wrote in bold strokes to Tod Robinson, chairman of the fmance committee in the house of Congress: I should have the means of procuring peace with the Indians on our borders. . . . I should be gratified to have an appropriation of fifteen or twenty thousand dollars as an Indian fund. Procrastination had no place in Houston's affairs. It was January 5, 1842, less than a month since his second inauguration as the third president of the Republic of Texas. This brief note revealed that Houston intended to fulfill his campaign promises made in the summer of 1841, BOOK I and to carry out the policy which he had explained to Congress shortly after his inauguration in December. He had promised to end the war with the Indians and to practice rigid economy. He needed funds for immediate use. A request for $20,000 for Indian affairs was rigid econo~ my in comparison with Lamar's expenditure which had amounted to $2.5 million. Lamar's extravagant spending in dealing with Indians had produced war and closed the northern area to settlement. It was imperative that Houston be frugal. Texas, in 1842, faced bankruptcy with a debt of about $7 million with currency unacceptable in world markets and without credit among nations. Houston had spent less than $100,000 on Indian affairs during his first administration. And in his opinion and that of his friends, he had produced satisfactory relations with the red man by frequent councils, peace treaties, trading houses, and gifts. Now faced with an empty treasury, Houston planned to pursue the same inexpensive Indian policy in his second term as president, and to promote the colonization of the northern border. Houston carried out his policy and made another chapter in the history of Fort Worth and Tarrant County. The campaign to prevent the north from remaining uncolonized was underway by the spring of 1842. Houston explained his plan in official correspondence written from the Executive Department, Houston, April 14, 1842: "Indian trade from the headwaters of the Trinity to the Rio Grande" should be controlled by the Republic. Texas Indians should be lured from the Mexican trading post at Santa Fe, New Mexico, and from Coffee's trading house on Red River. Without delay, a trading post should be established on the upper Brazos beyond the frontier line, as well as other posts. Indians would discover that trade in the Republic was as profitable as at Santa Fe and at Coffee's. When trade flourished, war would end. It was believed Indians would cease stealing people and horses, and Texas could reclaim her captive individuals. Houston, however, was a realist. He planned protection for the trading posts. He ordered good pickets and cabins placed at these business places with good lots enclosed with stout rails. To strengthen the new bond of friendship, he announced that peace treaties would be signed, and after these pacts were concluded a guard of from ten to twenty men would be sufficient at each trading post. A policy of trade and treaties, Houston declared, would cost the government one dollar to $100, which in the past had been expended to keep up the mockery of war with the red man. Indians should know that a new "White Father" offering peace and trade now guided Texas. In the words of Houston, "The sun is again CHAPTER 8 37 shining upon us.... Sorrow will no longer fill our hearts." Agents were made ready to go to the border chiefs to inform them of this fact. In May, Houston had requested Attorney General George W. Terrell to see and induce Joseph Durst and Colonel Leonard Williams to...