one need be late in coming, and immediately
proceeded to business. The meeting was not altogether a formal one--for
purposes prescribed by law--but it was a characteristic of those men, to
do everything "decently and in order"--to give all their proceedings
the sanction and solemnity of mature deliberation. They organized the
assemblage regularly--calling one of the oldest and most respectable of
their number "to the chair" (which, on this occasion, happened to be the
root of a large oak), and appointing a younger man secretary (though
they gave him no desk on which to write). There was no man there who did
not fully understand what had brought them together; but one who lived
in the "bottom," and had been the mover of the organization, was still
called upon to "explain the object of the meeting." This he did in a few
pointed sentences, concluding with these significant words: "My friends,
it is time that these rascals were punished, and it is our duty to
punish them."

He sat down, and a silence of some moments ensued, when another arose,
and, without any preliminary remarks, moved that "a company of
regulators be now organized, and that they be charged with the duty of
_seeing the law administered_." The motion was seconded by half a dozen
voices--the question was put in due form by the chairman, and decided
unanimously in the affirmative.

A piece of paper was produced, and the presiding officer called on the
meeting for volunteers. Ten young men stepped forward, and gave their
names as rapidly as the secretary could enrol them. In less than five
minutes, the company was complete--the chairman and four of the meeting,
as a committee, were directed to retire with the volunteers, and see
that they were fully organized--and the meeting adjourned. All, except
the volunteers and the committee, went directly home--satisfied that the
matter needed no further attention. Those who remained entered the house
and proceeded to organize in the usual manner.

A "compact" was drawn up, by the terms of which the regulators bound
themselves to each other, and to their neighbors, to ferret out and
punish the perpetrators of the offences, which had recently disturbed
the peace of the settlement, and to rid the country of such villains as
were obnoxious to the friends of law and order. This was then signed by
the volunteers as principals, and by the committee, as witnesses; and
was placed in the hands of the chairman of the meeting fo