"And now, gentlemen of the Grand Jury, among the other responsible duties of your position is that of making a full, thorough, and complete investigation of the unprovoked, murderous, midnight assault committed by the negro soldiers of the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry upon the citizens and homes of Brownsville on the night of the 13th of August. An inoffensive citizen was shot down and killed by them while closing his gate. An unwarranted and cowardly assault was made on the Lieutenant of Police of Brownsville, and his arm shattered by their bullets, requiring its amputation.
"Fiendish malice and hate, showing blacker than their skins, was evidenced by their firing of volley after volley from deadly rifles into and through the doors and windows of family residences, clearly with the brutish hope on their part of killing women and children, and thus make memorable their hatred for the white race. Hard words these, but strictly true and warranted by uncontested facts.
"It was my province to come among your patient people even while their terrible fears and horror of another outbreak were upon them, and God spare me in my life the sorrow of ever again witnessing the faces of agonized women and fear-stricken children, tensioned with days and nights of suffering and waiting for relief, with none coming from either Nation or State to give them assurance that greater and unspeakable outrages were not to follow.
"Tardy relief did come. At the eleventh hour the fiends, who disgraced the uniforms they were permitted to wear and shamed a nation, were removed. That all of the three companies were blamable must be conceded, for they knew who were guilty and they shielded and sheltered them, and failed to give them up. Hence it is that it has been left to the civil authorities of the State, and especially to this District Court, to apprehend, if possible, those directly guilty of murder, assault to murder, and the ruffianly conspiracies to that end, as the authorities of the United States, in charge, have declared their inability to discover who were the uniformed thugs and murders that committed the outrages.
"The lengthy investigation of a committee of your leading citizens, made while these outrages were fresh, is at your service. I also present to you three affidavits made before me by W.J. McDonald, Captain of Company B of the ranger force of Texas, against twelve of the negro soldiers and one civilian, a negro ex-soldier. All these parties are under arrest, and within the jurisdiction of the civil authorities of the State, and to await the action of our courts. Hence it is that if it has ever been known by committee, Sheriff, State Ranger or other officer or individual who, if any of these men are guilty, that knowledge should come to you as the grand inquisitorial body that represents, not only the County of Cameron, but the State of Texas.
"I have no hesitation in saying that I share in the universal belief that among those under arrest are many of the murderers, but something more than mere belief and opinion are required to vindicate the law. Evidence must be had upon which to predicate an indictment, and warrant a trial. If you indict on mere suspicion or opinion and without evidence, you leave our people and community open to the charge of injustice and the proceedings will resolve themselves into mere delay, for in the end an indictment unsustained by evidence must be dismissed."
The Battle on the Rio Grande