William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 1

[331] whether a Black fellow kills his comrade than they care whether a Redskin scalps his neighbour. We learn, on good authority, that there were three thousand murders in Texas last year, and that nearly all these murders were committed by Negroes on their brother blacks. A few were Indian outrages, committed by the Kickapoos and Kiowas who swarm across the border out of Mexico in search of cows and girls; but these few Indian murders were not enough in number to affect the main results. But though the White men stand aloof, in pity and contempt, as they might stand apart when street-dogs or wild bulls are fighting, such offences help to keep Texas a savage country, and to stop the growth of villages on plains, which at the best are only one remove from desert wastes.

But when a Black man kills a White man, blood is certain to be shed; for neither race has yet acquired much confidence in the courts of law. In a society so young as that of Texas, courts of law are swayed by every storm of public passion, and the judges, chosen by a popular vote, feel bound to rule as the majority dictates. Hence verdicts are the sport of party victories. An Asiatic Greek believes he has some chance of getting justice from