Gen. Philip Sheridan
Before the 1875 Texas Legislature
The Border and the Buffalo
Pages 163 & 164
By
John R. Cook
When he heard of the nature of the Texas bill for the protection of the buffaloes, he went to Austin, and,
appearing before the joint assembly of the House and Senate, so the story goes, told them that they were
making a sentimental mistake by legislating in the interest of the buffalo. He told them that instead of stopping
the hunters they ought to give them a hearty, unanimous vote of thanks, and appropriate a sufficient sum of
money to strike and present to each one a medal of bronze, with a dead buffalo on one side and a discouraged
Indian on the other. He said, “These men have done in the last two years, and will do more in the next year, to
settle the vexed Indian question, than the entire regular army has done in the last thirty years. They are
destroying the Indians’ commissary; and it is a well known fact that an army losing its base of supplies is placed
at a great disadvantage. Send them powder and lead, if you will; but, for the sake of a lasting peace, let them
kill, skin, and sell until the buffaloes are exterminated. Then your prairies can be covered with speckled cattle,
and the festive cowboy, who follows the hunter as a second forerunner of an advanced civilization”
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Before the 1875 Texas Legislature
The Border and the Buffalo
Pages 163 & 164
By
John R. Cook
When he heard of the nature of the Texas bill for the protection of the buffaloes, he went to Austin, and,
appearing before the joint assembly of the House and Senate, so the story goes, told them that they were
making a sentimental mistake by legislating in the interest of the buffalo. He told them that instead of stopping
the hunters they ought to give them a hearty, unanimous vote of thanks, and appropriate a sufficient sum of
money to strike and present to each one a medal of bronze, with a dead buffalo on one side and a discouraged
Indian on the other. He said, “These men have done in the last two years, and will do more in the next year, to
settle the vexed Indian question, than the entire regular army has done in the last thirty years. They are
destroying the Indians’ commissary; and it is a well known fact that an army losing its base of supplies is placed
at a great disadvantage. Send them powder and lead, if you will; but, for the sake of a lasting peace, let them
kill, skin, and sell until the buffaloes are exterminated. Then your prairies can be covered with speckled cattle,
and the festive cowboy, who follows the hunter as a second forerunner of an advanced civilization”
Back
