Colonel William Preston Johnston, The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston : His Service in the Armies of the United States, the Republic of Texas, and the Confederate States.

[99] that the chief motive of Mexico, in the colonization of Texas, had been to oppose the organization and valor of white men as a barrier between the restless and predatory Indians and interior Mexico, it seems a curious coincidence that the Government should begin to accord rights and privileges to savages, just when it was denying them to white men. The usurping Central Administration of Bustamante had, on April 6, 1830, absolutely forbidden the immigration of citizens of the United States, and was then trying to carry out its plan of arbitrary government in Texas.

On the 22d of March, 1832, Colonel Piedras was commissioned “to put the Cherokee families into individual possession of the lands they possessed ;” so natural is it for despotism to ally itself with barbarism, and to seek to depress its intelligent opponents by the aid of an inferior race. That the order to Piedras was obeyed, either technically or substantially, is not probable, as the Indians would not have been satisfied with an allotment of lands in severalty in lieu of the range of country which they hunted over. It served the purpose intended, however; and 50 or 100 Shawnees and Cherokees followed Piedras, the next June, to aid Bradburn, at Anahuac, against Austin's colonists. In the Declaration of Grievances, by the Ayuntamiento of Nacogdoches, the colonists complained that “Colonel Piedras had called in and employed Indians, in his meditated warfare on their rights ;” and “had insulted them by saying that he held Americans and Indians in the same estimation, and as standing on the same footing.” ¹

The Colonization Act of March 24, 1825, admitted Indians as settlers, “when any of them, after having first declared themselves in favor of our religion and institutions, wish to establish themselves in any settlements that are forming.” It has been pretended that the emigrant United States Indians were entitled to lands as colonists under this act; but, when we consider that its intention was to induce white men to come in for the purpose of keeping Indians out, it cannot be considered an invitation, but a conditional permission, to a certain class of Indians. It was framed in a spirit of equity, and plainly intends the case of Indians willing to become civilized and to settle in the colonies of Austin and other empresarios. The Cherokees did not comply with either the legal formalities or other prescribed conditions; nor, indeed, did they wish to acquire any rights under the law. In point of fact, the republic of Texas, in 1839, would not have denied reasonable allotments of land to any resident Indians wishing in good faith to try the experiment of civilization.

Up to 1832 the intruding Indians had been stragglers or discontented bands, which had broken away from the great tribes in the United States. Now, however, under the aggressive policy of that Government,