Standard [Clarksville, TX], March 10, 1860
The news of Indian slaughter is sickening. How it is possible for the National Congress to hesitate in the performance of a sworn duty, under the Constitution, “to provide for the common defence” is something that we cannot understand. Here, in Texas, where a line of frontier hundreds of miles in length is constantly outraged, the State is continually compelled to strain her inadequate resources to do the duty for which a General Government was especially provided. In Oregon or Washington territories, millions can be spent to defend the inhabitants, as they should be if necessary; but Texas, which is worth a half dozen Oregon and Washington territories, must submit to having the property of her frontiersmen stolen—the very work animals needed to provide subsistence for their families—must have those families, whenever their natural protectors are absent, fiendishly outraged—ending with death, and all this—all THIS, scarcely seems to excite an emotion at Washington, where dainty gentlemen, well fed, are intent upon the election of a subordinate officer of Congress, or preparing for the next Presidential election. Small matters of murder, and dastardly outrage upon helpless women, scarcely commands a moment’s attention.
How much longer has Texas unavailingly to call upon the General Government for its rights! How much longer has human nature to be shocked with atrocities which cause sympathetic human beings to shudder with horror?