The incendiary organ of the negroes, a newspaper that had been noted for its virulent spirit of race hatred, had published an editorial defaming the virtue of the white women of the community. At eleven o’clock the quaint old hall, built in Revolutionary days to seat five hundred people, was packed with a crowd of eight hundred stern-visaged men standing so thick it was impossible to pass through them and thousands were massed outside around the building. Gaston, whose ancestors had been leaders in the great Revolution, was called to the chair. The speech-making was brief, fiery, and to the point. Within one hour they unanimously adopted this resolution: “_Resolved, that we issue a second Declaration of Independence from the infamy of corrupt and degraded government. The day of Negro domination over the Anglo-Saxon race shall close, now, once and forever. The government of North Carolina was established by a race of pioneer white freemen for white men and it shall remain in the hands of freemen._ “_We demand the overthrow of the criminal and semi-barbarian régime under which we now live, and to this end serve notice on the present Mayor of this city, its Chief of Police, and the six negro aldermen and their low white associates that their resignations are expected by nine o’clock to-morrow morning. We demand that the negro anarchist who edits a paper in this city shall close his office, remove its fixtures and leave this county within twenty-four hours.”_ A committee of twenty-five, with Gaston as its Chairman, was appointed to enforce these resolutions. By four o’clock an army of two thousand white men was organised, and placed under the command of the Rev. Duncan McDonald, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of the city, who had been a brave young officer in the Confederate army. Every minister in the county was enrolled in this guard and carried a musket on picket duty, or in a reserve camp that night. At six o’clock, Gaston summoned thirty-five of the more prominent negroes of the county including two of the professors in Miss Susan Walker’s college, to meet the Committee of Twenty-Five and receive its ultimatum. Stern and hard of face sat the twenty-five chosen representatives of that world-conquering race of men at one end of the room, while at the other end sat the thirty-five negroes anxious and fearful, realising that their day of dominion had ended. Gaston rose and handed them a copy of the resolutions. “We give you till seven-thirty to-morrow morning as the leaders of your race to carry out these demands,” he said gravely. “But we have no authority, sir,” replied the negro preacher to whom he handed the paper. “Your authority is equal to ours--the authority of elemental manhood. If you can not execute them in peace, we will do it by force.” “We must decline such responsibility unless”--the negro started to argue the question.