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“Divide? You mean that you would break the Union?”
“Yes; most Texans hereabouts are ready to divide.
The case of New Orleans warns us. Having lately passed through fire, we feel the anguish of Louisiana in our hearts.
Look at our case, and tell me the sort of justice we are likely to obtain from the republicans of Boston and New York.”
In Texas the brief period of Negro supremacy was a bitter trial for the Whites, some of whom saw their former menials sitting over them as judges, legislators, and tax collectors.
Many of these Negro judges, legislators and tax-collectors could barely read their letters and sign their names.
Confusion then seemed chaos.
Crime increased, income decreased.
Rates were raised, till property was taxed beyond the power to pay. Houses fell empty.
Land became a burthen and a curse.
Instead of keeping within the law these ignorant rulers trampled justice under foot.
Under the lead of carpet-baggers — a low class of adventurers from the North-and covered by the presence of Federal troops, they seized the ballot-boxes and drove Wlhite
1875.
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