The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-03-12
TOM DIXON ANSWERS CRITICS
OF 1.-THE CLANSNAN."

Trinity College, Durham, March 10.
TOM DIXON ANSWERS CRITICS
OF aTHE CLANSMAN."
The critics have not spared Tom
Dixon's new book 1.-The Clansman. .
and those who like it and those who
do not are reading it and talking
about it. 1t is the strongest book Tom
Dixon has yet written and has added
to his reputation. Replying in the
New York Times Book Review to
some critics Mr.. Dixon says:
Permit me a few words in reply to
some critics of 1.-THE Clansman.
''Mr. Edwin l.. Shuman. of the
Chicago Record Herald, whom / re-
gard as one of the best critics in Anne
RIGA, says that my portrait of Thad-
deus Stevens as Austin Stonemar" is
a gross caricature.
Twill Mr.. Shuman print verbatim
the bill and speech of Stevens which
provided for the confiscation of the
property of the South, its division
among the negroes and the reim-
bursting of himself for his burned mills
nd then defend his character? This
speech is on page 203 Congressional
Globe, March 1867. and was delivered
two years after the close of the war
while the South was yet i'll. her life
and death struggle with starvation
(Henry Timrod. the poet, died of in
sufficient nourishment in Columbia
Oct. Z, 1850.
"The following will identify this
address:
THE laws of war authorize us
to take this property by our SOW
ereign power. You behold at
your feet a conquered zoe. an
atrocious enemy! We have the
right to impose confiscation of
all this property-to impoverish
them. This is strict law and
good common sense. To this issue
/ devote the small remnant of my
life.
mo biographer of Mr.. Stevens has
ever dared to print his speeches.
Why? This speech is the one supreme
act of his life-an act which lights
with the glare of immortal infamY his
whole character and career.
II have not caricatured him. 1t
was necessary to soften. humaniZe and
idealize his character to make it fit
to print. My only errors are on the
side of mercy Let my critic put a
finger on a single line. page. scene or
insinuation in 1.-THE Clansman' in
which j do him injustice.
MY book will stand or fall as a
contribution to the history of Re-
construction on this character. I'M
less | have sketched him with hon
esty and accuracy / have committed
a crime. | rest the book on this issue.
Reply to Outlook.
'"The Outlook declares that | have
deliberately prostituted such talents
as l possess to arouse the worst pas
sions of my readers, made a case of all
devils against all angels, and that my
book will retard the harmony so
eminently desirable between the North
and South, Surely mott Could lit
erary fake, written by deliberate in
tellectual prostitute. retard anything?
1t is psychological impossibility for
a fakir to write a book of power I'M
less endowed with super-human mind.
| protest against such high praise.
''Nor is the ease of all angels
against all devils true. / sketch five
negro characters. two good two bad
and one humorous. / draw full
length the character of two great Re-
publican leaders-Lincoln and Stew
cns-one good and one bad. Should a.
reviewer deliberately try to deceive
his readers even to promote harmony
between the North and the South?
"Can harmony be gained by false
hood?
"The Outlook assumes that my
up-it's all over now and were ash
AIMED of it, 1t is so. Hear this choice
deliverance of calm philosophic criti-
cism from the Boston Transcript:
HE reaches the acme of his sec
tional passion when he exalts the Ku
Klux Khan into an association of
Southern patriots, when he must
know, or else be strangely ignorant of
American history that its members
q Mt daGnnrn
and scoundrels as ever went I'M
hanged.
Did it ever occur to the Outlook
that / may be trying to reach Darkest
New England with a few rays of sun
light? One of the best preachers in
Boston, a man of the sweetest Chris
tian character, a leader of Evangeli-
cal Christianity, whose sermons the
Transcript prints on Mondays was a
Ku Klux Klansman and at this writ
ing is still unhanged, and very popu-
lar in Boston. Has the Transcript
moved to Salem?
MY father is venerable minister
of Christ. He has built twenty
fourishing Baptist churches in Pied
mont North Carolina, in pastorate or
sixty years. He is one of those 'des-
peradocs,' and is still unhanged. /
could give the names of a thousand of
the noblest men in America.
THE Outlook was founded by Mr..
Beecher 20 promote Christian UnioE.
VIII my father vote even to unite
with his Northern brethren of the
same faith so long as such experts i'll
ignorance as the Boston Transcript
teach that in saving the civilization of
the South he was a ruffian, des-
perado and scoundrel!
'Is it possible to promote harmony
by lie?
II am a sensational fanatic but a
citizen of New York, with scores of
warm friends in the great rushing
North. Their support has given me
my success in life. This is my country
the whole of it from sea to sea and
from Alaska to the Keys of Florida.
love the people of the North and I
have promised that if God gives me
strength they shall know mine own
people of the South and love them
too. Is it a crime? / am writing out
of the fulness of life the story of my
father and mother and brethren. 1t
is an authentic human document. In
these books I am giving utterance to
the deepest soul convictions of eigh-
taan million Southern paapin IF This