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and for many months after the black population of Texas could not have been less than four hundred [[strikethrough]] and fifty [[/strikethrough]] thousand.  Since then a great reduction has occurred on account of the numbers who have returned to Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and other states.  Taking a period of two years, under the circumstances, when there was no government of any kind in the State for several months, and but few soldiers to enforce order, with the Country demoralized by war, and such a large number of slaves suddenly emancipated, it is remarkable indeed that a greater number of crimes were not committed, and a much greater number of convictions had.

A careful and unprejudiced review of the condition of Texas after the surrender, when forty or fifty thousand soldiers were disbanded a very large proportion of whom did not belong to this state, and the return of thousands more from beyond the Mississippi, with the emancipation of several hundred thousand slaves, and the demoralization naturally attendant upon war, the constant change and confusion since will convince any reasonable mind that, with all the crimes that have been actually committed, our people will compare most favorably in morality, christianity, and an observance of the laws, with the most favored sections of the Union.  With all the disadvantages under which we have labored the calenders of crime have been no more numerous or outrageous than in other communities of the same population where there was constant government, and no soldiers save their own among them, and where no thousands