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 Texans, 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
Texans 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 Texan colonization,
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 demoralized state of
Texas at the present moment; what it may hereafter be is in the womb
of Time.
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