we came up to talk about. Things are in an awful condition! A negro
justice of the peace has opened an office on Market Street, and only
yesterday summoned a white man to appear before him. Negro lawyers get
most of the business in the criminal court. Last evening a group of
young white ladies, going quietly along the street arm-in-arm, were
forced off the sidewalk by a crowd of negro girls. Coming down the
street just now, I saw a spectacle of social equality and negro
domination that made my blood boil with indignation,--a white and a
black convict, chained together, crossing the city in charge of a negro
officer! We cannot stand that sort of thing, Carteret,--it is the last
straw! Something must be done, and that quickly!"

The major thrilled with responsive emotion. There was something
prophetic in this opportune visit. The matter was not only in his own
thoughts, but in the air; it was the spontaneous revulsion of white men
against the rule of an inferior race. These were the very men, above all
others in the town, to join him in a movement to change these degrading
conditions.

General Belmont, the smaller of the two, was a man of good family, a
lawyer by profession, and took an active part in state and local
politics. Aristocratic by birth and instinct, and a former owner of
slaves, his conception of the obligations and rights of his caste was
nevertheless somewhat lower than that of the narrower but more sincere
Carteret. In serious affairs Carteret desired the approval of his
conscience, even if he had to trick that docile organ into
acquiescence. This was not difficult to do in politics, for he believed
in the divine right of white men and gentlemen, as his ancestors had
believed in and died for the divine right of kings. General Belmont was
not without a gentleman's distaste for meanness, but he permitted no
fine scruples to stand in the way of success. He had once been minister,
under a Democratic administration, to a small Central American state.
Political rivals had characterized him as a tricky demagogue, which may
of course have been a libel. He had an amiable disposition, possessed
the gift of eloquence, and was a prime social favorite.

Captain George McBane had sprung from the poor-white class, to which,
even more than to the slaves, the abolition of slavery had opened the
door of opportunity. No longer overshadowed by a slaveholding caste,
some of this class had rapidly pushed themselves forward.