6. It was seen that a crisis was near at hand. Boston had been held, for months past, in a state of siege. At length, on April 19th, came the encounter at Lexington. Accidents are constantly heard of wherein more lives are lost, but this little skirmish, small as it was, was enough, with its tidings, to fire the hearts of a continent. 7. The tidings of such an occurrence in our day outstrips the winds. In less than an hour it is known all over the Mississippi Valley, across the Rocky Mountains, and along the shores of the Pacific Ocean. But our ancestors of that day had no railways or telegraphs; so, it was fully two weeks after the militiamen slain at Lexington had stiffened in their blood that Richard Caswell heard of it in Petersburg, Virginia. 8. A courier was hurrying southward with the tidings, but it was not until May 19th that the people of Mecklenburg, in North Carolina, became aware of what had occurred. At the village of Charlotte upon that day a large concourse of the leading men of that county had assembled. Fired at the nature of the startling intelligence, they held a convention, and after remaining in session all night, on the morning of the 20th, passed resolutions of independence that will immortalize their names. 9. All America, while arming for the war, was still protesting loyalty to the King, but these men of Mecklenburg leaped to a conclusion, the expediency of which more than a year of blood was required to impress on the minds of their countrymen. Abraham Alexander presided in the meeting, and the famous "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence" was drawn by Dr. Ephraim Breyard. [NOTE--The men of Mecklenburg held another meeting on May 31st, and adopted a system of government and military commissions. These people publicly declared themselves free from English rule nearly fourteen months before the Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia.] 10. The news from Boston was speedily followed, in North Carolina, by mournful tidings from Perquimans county. Colonel John Harvey, after so many strenuous efforts to put North Carolina in readiness for the storm, sank under disease, and died at his place in "Harvey's Neck," on the Albemarle Sound. No braver or wiser man has ever borne a part in the conduct of affairs in North Carolina. 11. Apprehensive for his own safety and that of his family, Governor Martin at once made preparations for leaving New Bern. He sent his family to New York by sea, but went himself by land to Fort Johnston, at the mouth of the Cape Fear. * But even Fort Johnston proved unsafe as a place of refuge, and in July the Governor left it and went on board the war sloop Cruiser, then lying in the river before the fort. On the same day Colonel Ashe, with five hundred men, burned the fort to the ground.