CHAPTER X ANOTHER DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE A LMOST every problem of national life had been illumined and made more hopeful by the searchlight of war save one-the irrepressible conflict between the African and the Anglo-Saxon in the development of our civilisation. The glare of war only made the blackness of this question the more apparent. While the well-drilled negro regulars, led by white officers acquitted themselves with honour at Santiago, the negro volunteers were the source of riot and disorder wherever they appeared. From the first, it was seen by thoughtful men that the Negro was an impossibility in the newborn unity of national life. When the AngloSaxon race was united into one homogeneous mass in the fire of this crisis, the Negro ceased that moment to be a ward of the nation. A negro regiment had been in camp at Independence during the war and was still there awaiting orders to be mustered out. Its presence had inflamed the passions. of both races to the danger point of riot again and again. The negro who was editing their paper at Independence had gone to the length of the utmost license in seeking to influence race antagonism. When the regiment of which the Hambright company was a member was mustered out at Independence, Gaston was invited to deliver the address of welcome home to the soldiers, and a crowd of five thousand people were present, one-half of whom were negroes. While Gaston was speaking in the square, a negro trooper passing along the street refused to give an inch of the sidewalk to a young lady and her escort, who met him. He ran into the girl, jostling her roughly, and the young white man knocked him down instantly and beat him to death. The wildest passions of the negro regiment were roused. McLeod was among them that day seeking to increase his popularity and influence in the coming election, and he at once denounced Gaston as the cause of the assault, and urged the leaders in secret to retaliate by putting a bullet through his heart. The The white regiment had been mustered out, and their guns in most cases had been retained by the men. negro troops were to be mustered out the next day. Late in the afternoon Gaston had received information that a plot was on foot to kill him that night, when a negro mob would batter down his door on the pretense of searching for the man who had assaulted the trooper. The Colonel of the regiment just disbanded heard it, and that night his men bivouacked in the yard of the hotel and slept on their guns. A little after twelve o'clock, a mob of five hundred negroes attempted to force their way into the hotel. They met a regiment of bayonets, broke, and fled in wild confusion. This event was the last straw that broke the camel's back. In the morning paper a blazing notice in display capitals covered the first page, calling a mass meeting of white citizens at noon in Independence Hall. The little city of Independence was one of the oldest in the nation. It boasted the first declaration of independence from Great Britain antedating a year the Philadelphia document. The people had never rested tamely under tyranny nor accepted insult. The McLeod Negro-Farmer Legislature had remodelled the ancient charter of the city, and under the new instrument a combination of negroes and criminal whites had taken possession of every office. One half of these office holders were incompetent and insolent negroes. The Chief of Police was an ignoramus in league with criminals, and their Mayor, a white demagogue elected by pandering to the lowest passions of a negro constituency. Burglary and highway robbery were almost daily occurrences. The two largest stores in the city and four residences had been burned within a month. Appeal to the police became a farce, and it was necessary to hire and arm a force of private guards to patrol the city at night. When arrests were made, the servile authorities promptly released the criminals. Negro insolence reached a height that made it impossible for ladies to walk the streets without an armed escort, and white children were waylaid and beaten on their way to the public schools. 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 We demand the overthrow of the criminal 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 thirtyfive 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. 66 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." 66 We must decline such responsibility unless ❞—the negro started to argue the question. 66 The meeting stands adjourned!" quietly announced Gaston, taking up his hat and leaving the room followed by his Committee. At seven-thirty next morning no answer had been received. Gaston called for seventy-five volunteers to execute the decrees. Within thirty minutes, five hundred men swung into line at eight o'clock, and marched four abreast to the office of the negro paper. It was promptly burned to the ground, its editor paid its cash value, and with a rope around his neck, escorted to the depot and placed on a north bound train. As Gaston handed him his ticket for Washington he quietly said to him, "I have saved your life this morning. If you value it, never put your foot on the soil of this state again." 66 Thank you, sir. I'll not return." While this guard, under strict military discipline, was executing this decree, a mob of a thousand armed negroes concealed themselves in a hedge-row and fired on them from ambush, killing one man and wounding six. Gaston formed his men in line, returned the fire with deadly effect, charged the mob, put them to flight, driving them into the woods outside the city limits, and placed the town under informal but strict martial law. By ten o'clock |