“Yes, you’ve got arms, but you’ll see how it’ll be yourselves!” said Hanson Baker, who had been haranguing the people outside the court house. “There’s a fellow from Texas here, two or more of ’em, and they’re going to kill that Town Marshall, and nobody isn’t going to know who done it, and then they’ll leave.”
“What does he or they know about John Carr, the Marshall?” asked a very large, but irresolute-looking black man.
“He’s been informed of his character, and I tell you John Carr won’t be living in this town three months, neither will some o’ the rest.”
“How about that Harmony Case?” asked the same voice (a case of massacre of blacks).
“Well, I wasn’t there, but they done it, and there’s a programme laid down for the white folks this year.”
“That is wrong,” said a voice.
“Well, if it is wrong, it is no matter; it’ll be done all the same. There is no laws now.”
“Ha! ha!” laughed the crowd, the whites applauding, and the blacks deriding the threats.
“Does yo’ pretend to say there a’n’t no law in the State now?”
“No, there a’n’t no law in this State, nor any other State. It’s been a hundred years since the Constitution of the United States, and it’s played out now, and every man can do as he likes. We’re going to get Chamberlain and his crowd out o’ the State House.”