The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-07-14
For The Messenger.

L nave been late in reading 1.-The
Clansman," but better late than never,
for it is a very strong book. An edu-
Gated, thoughtful man said the other
day: THE Leopard Spots and The
Clansman," by Dixon, are powerful
stories of the era of Reconstruction:
dramatic, even terrible, portraitures Of
what good can they accomplish? Were
it not better that they had never been
written: Reconstruction is a thing of
the past, with the greedy carpet-bag-
ger, the renegade scalawag, the thick
Tipped negro O~fficehOlder. Why dish
up for the reading public their abomi-
nations at this late day." | have given
the substances Of the criticism, if not
the exact words.
This seems a reasonable view of the
matter, with which | was at first i'll
clined to agree; but Il little reflection
will convince one that it is a wholly
erroneous view. On the contrary, Tom
Dixon has, in those two books, done
an inestimable service to the South,
and has blaZed the way for the cooler,
more deliberate, more critical work of
the historian. | would like to see
THE Leopard Spots" and The Clans
man in the hands of every boy of dis
eliminating and rejecting age in the
Southern States. No young man, no
component part of the New South"
should pass his life in ignorance Of
that strange and terrible epoch. out
Of the very thrOes of which he was
born. He should know something of
the last and most mOmentOus battle
fought by the "Old South" the South
of the civil war; something of the last
and most splendid victory achieved by
the "Old South" the South of Gettys-
burg, and Chicamauga, and the Will
derness.
1t was fought and won by a people
G~isaTncH, deSpOiIed, di~Sfranchised. hu
inflated over a military sutrapy i'll
every Suhjugatcd state of the South;
over an armed force in every consider
able town: over an array of bayOnet5
around every ballot box; over alien
whites and ignorant negroes in every
office Of trust and profit in the land;
over thieves in every legislature and
in control of every department of the
state, country and municipal govern
nIentS; over Il vast fraudulent debt
piled ND against the resources of every
wasted commonwealth: over the SuS-
pension of the writ of habeas corpus;
over martial laws: Over the conquer
Or's foot 0n every acre Of devastated
soil, and the ~cOnquerOr's mailed hand
m every institution enShrined i'll ira
ditiOn, and consecrated by the love of
generations of the people.
Yet in h short space of ten years
all this was gone, as if it had never
been, like the phantaSmagOria Of a hOr-
rible dream-the ~epauletted mmand-
ers of military districts, the provost
courts, the freedmen's bureau, the gar
risOn troops in time of peace, the
Northern leaders of a negro party
emissaries of Il revolutionary congress.
Naught remained but the trail Of the
serpent and the unfortunate ScalawaG.
left to hold the bag of the Indifferent
contempt of the people he had be-
trayed.
And what wrought this conquest
over the forces of evil. this triumph Of
the apparently weak over the VlSlbiy
strong? The mcOnQuerable moral cOUr-
age of the Southern AnglO-SaXOn, his
patience and dignity under suffering,
+iaa h;s indonoi+ohIo rasistanca 70 on
,n - nrorr form Unormed This
ahhoILU ia soi5io. This hound and
onn o,,hoIimon+ Of +hab hest TYNE
80 ai+izonehin. w,s ne +orrihIn ne he
"a ora, L., With sIvo,d and hovonet
80 Ii.ronarv pidqo ond Petersburg
IT, -n.,o+o Diyon himself. ..The old
cluh-footed Puritan. i'll his mad scheme
of y-aD~cnOca and marty DOW n. had
~ V"I 80 Cornnan+.r tho eck-
w., ca,+h This ,,,,, had inst
r"'V VI ~ 80 u ,aa h,1 doiod
n'Iul' - ~ Du,in fo, -, b,,n.
ne crown pI uit Ho nnloS md wiIds Of
C'Su SV1io $1,000. kn1 to,mht tba
E'oC"tU "irI ". lIaT , 1,irr ond
Llt71'sn Pe"pbe and driven
!ull't ! mIda,noss Of America.
i II - .oT,aIr+ion noonIed the
~ w. ,th and conouored tbe