Chapter I: Front Matter

THE CLANSMAN

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The Illustrations Shown in This Edition Are Reproductions of Scenes from the Photo-Play of "The Birth of a Nation" Produced and Copyrighted by The Epoch Producing Corporation, to Whom the Publishers Desire to Express Their Thanks and Appreciation for Permission to Use the Pictures.

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THE CLANSMAN

An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan

By THOMAS DIXON

Author Of The Leopard's Spots, Comrades, Etc.

Illustrated With Scenes From The Photo-Play THE BIRTH OF A NATION Produced And Copyrighted By Epoch Producing Corporation

GROSSET & DUNLAP Publishers :: New York

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Copyright, 1905 BY THOMAS DIXON, JR.

The Country Life Press, Garden City, N. Y.

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TO THE MEMORY OF A SCOTCH-IRISH LEADER OF THE SOUTH

MY UNCLE, COLONEL LEROY MCAFEE

GRAND TITAN OF THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE KU KLUX KLAN

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TO THE READER

"The Clansman" is the second book of a series of historical novels planned on the Race Conflict. "The Leopard's Spots" was the statement in historical outline of the conditions from the enfranchisement of the negro to his disfranchisement.

"The Clansman" develops the true story of the "Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy," which overturned the Reconstruction regime.

The organization was governed by the Grand Wizard Commander-in-Chief, who lived at Memphis, Tennessee. The Grand Dragon commanded a State, the Grand Titan a Congressional District, the Grand Giant a County, and the Grand Cyclops a Township Den. The twelve volumes of Government reports on the famous Klan refer chiefly to events which occurred after 1870, the date of its dissolution.

The chaos of blind passion that followed Lincoln's assassination is inconceivable to-day. The revolution it produced in our Government, and the bold attempt of Thaddeus Stevens to Africanize ten great States of the American Union, read now like tales from "The Arabian Nights."

I have sought to preserve in this romance both the letter and the spirit of this remarkable period. The men who enact the drama of fierce revenge into which I have woven a double love story are historical figures. I have merely changed their names without taking a liberty with any essential historic fact.

In the darkest hour of the life of the South, when her wounded people lay helpless amid rags and ashes under the beak and talon of the Vulture, suddenly from the mists of the mountains appeared a white cloud the size of a man's hand. It grew until its mantle of mystery enfolded the stricken earth and sky. An "Invisible Empire" had risen from the field of Death and challenged the Visible to mortal combat.

How the young South, led by the reincarnated souls of the Clansmen of Old Scotland, went forth under this cover and against overwhelming odds, daring exile, imprisonment, and a felon's death, and saved the life of a people, forms one of the most dramatic chapters in the history of the Aryan race.

Thomas Dixon, Jr.

Dixondale, Va.
December 14, 1904.

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CONTENTS

BOOK I

THE ASSASSINATION

CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Bruised Reed 3
II. The Great Heart 19
III. The Man of War 33
IV. A Clash of Giants 38
IV. The Battle of Love 56
VI. The Assassination 61
VII. The Frenzy of a Nation 80

BOOK II

THE REVOLUTION

CHAPTER PAGE
I. The First Lady of the Land 90
II. Sweethearts 101
III. The Joy of Living 112
IV. Hidden Treasure 115
V. Across the Chasm 120
VI. The Gauge of Battle 131
VII. A Woman Laughs 136
VIII. A Dream 148
IX. The King Amuses Himself 152
X. Tossed by the Storm 162
XI. The Supreme Test 165
XII. Triumph in Defeat 179

BOOK III

THE REIGN OF TERROR

CHAPTER PAGE
I. A Fallen Slaveholder's Mansion 187
II. The Eyes of the Jungle 204
III. Augustus Caesar 209
IV. At the Point of the Bayonet 218
V. Forty Acres and a Mule 235
VI. A Whisper in the Crowd 244
VII. By the Light of a Torch 254
VIII. The Riot in the Master's Hall 263
IX. At Lover's Leap 276
X. A Night Hawk 284
XI. The Beat of a Sparrow's Wing 297
XII. At the Dawn of Day 305