Wagon-train travelers obeyed law because courts awaited them at both ends

Evidence

This is no paradox. The travelers were transients; they were moving along a path they had never gone on before, and would never travel again. As Reid points out, under these circumstances, and in the artificial communities of the wagon trains, there was no chance for new “customs” to develop. The “law” that prevailed was “the taught, learned, accepted customs” of the people; it was part of the baggage they brought with them. Even more important, perhaps, was the influence of peers and of destinations. Behind them, in the East, were courts, judges, police; ahead of them, at the end of the road, more courts, judges, and police. They were in an interlude, a halfway point, between two points of law. Under these conditions, the old habits held firm; respect for “law”—​and fear of punishment—​did not snap in two. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2122