The Laughter of Carthage (55 page)

They bowed visored heads in prayer, led by the firm, musical tones of their Grand Kladd: a simple yet heartfelt plea to God to help them maintain and uphold at all times the most holy ideals of their Klan. The prayer completed, the Imperial Wizard raised flowing sleeves to bring complete and reverential silence upon the gathering.

‘All Genii, Grand Dragons and Hydras. Great Titans and Furies, Giants, Exalted Cyclops and Terrors, and all other citizens of the Invisible Empire, in the name of the Valiant and Venerated dead. I affectionately greet you and welcome you to this most Special and Secret Klonverse. Ye have been summoned from every Realm of our Empire on a matter of great and terrible import, to discuss the very future of these United States of America, to which ye have all sworn undying loyalty unto death.’

I remember only hazily the rituals which followed. There were chants and counter-chants, declarations and revelations, most of which were conducted in the secret language of the Klan. It was impossible to follow the cries of ‘Ayak!’ and ‘Akia!’ or ‘Kigy!’ and ‘San Bog!’, but the chant of
The Klansman’s Creed
will never leave my memory, for I was to hear it more than once in the time which followed.

I believe in God and the tenets of the Christian religion and that a godless nation cannot long prosper. I believe that a church not grounded on the principles of morality and justice is a mockery to God and to man. I believe that a church that does not have the welfare of the common people at heart is unworthy. I believe in the eternal separation of Church and State.

I hold no allegiance to any foreign government, emperor, king, pope or any other foreign, political or religious power. I hold my allegiance to the Stars and Stripes next to my allegiance to God alone. I believe in just laws and liberty. I believe in the prevention of unwarranted strikes by foreign labour agitators. I believe in the limitation of foreign immigration.

I am a native-born American citizen and I believe in my rights in this country as being superior to those of foreigners.

The sound of those heartfelt voices moved me almost to tears. It was as if I was in the Alexander cathedral in Kiev again, listening to the chanting of the priests, hearing the names of the Heroes of Kiev pronounced in holy memory, though now they spoke of the Knights Kamelia, the Knights of the Midnight Mystery, the Order of American Chivalry, the Knights of the Great Forest.
Pyered bogom klyanus klyalvoy vyernoyu: Klyatvoy tyazhkoyu, klyatvoy strash-noyu: Pyered bogom klyanus klyatvoy strashnoyu na Rusi Gosu-daryu, kak pyos sluzhit Spasi, gospodi, lyudi tvoya!
O Lord, save thy people! God Save The Tsar! How we wept and kissed that sacred book. And they called out the days, weeks and months according to the Klan: Deadly, Wailing, Hideous and so on. Even the years they dated from the first year of the third reincarnation of the Klan, which was 1915, only a short while after
Birth of a Nation
itself was first released as
The Clansman.
Here was religion and morality become militant and glowing with a just anger. O, the Greek has taken up his sword. Christ has risen! Christ has risen! Those noble, valiant men stood and listened in awed silence as the Imperial Wizard began to speak. It was a statement of the Klan’s ethic, a reminder to all present, of the noble ideals and true purpose of the Order. He quoted Colonel Winfield Jones who was not, he said, a Klansman, but an objective outsider who had written
The Story of the Kit Klux Klan.
The Imperial Wizard stressed the importance of winning and maintaining such friends.

‘Colonel Jones, fellow Klansmen, has told us that the Anglo-Saxon is the typeman of history. To him must yield the self-centered Hebrew, the cultured Greek, the virile Roman, the mystic Oriental. The Psalmist must have had him in mind when he struck his soundless harp and sang: “O Lord, thou has made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou hast made him to have dominion over the works of thy hands, thou hast put all things under his feet.” The Ku Klux Klan desires that its ruling members shall be of this all-conquering Blood. The Ku Klux Klan stands for the noble, the true and the good, for the majesty of the Law, for the advancement of the human race. Our most mystical order, fellow Klansmen, now numbers millions. It has come to speak for the great mass of Americans of the old pioneer stock who are opposed to the intellectually mongrelised “Liberals”. A blend of various peoples of the so-called Nordic race, the race which, with all its faults, has given the world almost the whole of modern civilisation, these Americans have found themselves increasingly uncomfortable and distressed. The sacredness of our Sabbath, of our homes, of chastity, and finally even of our right to teach our own children in our own schools fundamental facts and truths were torn away from us. Those who maintained the old standards did so only in the face of constant ridicule. We suffered economic distress. The assurance for the future of our children dwindled. We found our great cities and the control of much of our industry and commerce taken over by strangers, who stacked the cards of success and prosperity against us. They came to dominate our government.’

The Imperial Wizard’s speech was one of the most moving, one of the most truthful I have ever heard. He went on to say how native Americans were discriminated against in business, legislation and administrative government. He pointed out how the World War revealed that millions who had been allowed to share the Nordic American heritage actually had other loyalties. At last we realised an alien usually remains an alien no matter what is done to him, what veneer of education he gets. The melting-pot was a ghastly failure. The very name was coined by a Jew; a member of the race most determinedly refusing to melt. The American could outwork the alien, but the alien could underlive the American. Aliens from Eastern and Southern Europe were accustomed to squalor. And alien ideas were as dangerous as the aliens themselves no matter how plausible such ideas sounded.

‘The Klan goes back to the American racial instincts, to the common sense which is their first product. Modern research finds scientific backing for these convictions. Three of these racial instincts are vital to our Order’s intention of building an America fulfilling the aspirations and justifying the heroism of the men who made the nation. These are: Loyalty to the white race, to the traditions of America, and to the spirit of Protestantism. They are condensed in the Klan slogan:
Native, white, Protestant supremacy!’

Then, like a tidal wave, the response roared from the floor:
‘Native, white, Protestant supremacy!’

As if lifted by this wave, the Imperial Wizard swept his arms above his head. He spoke of patriotism, of keeping pioneer stock pure. ‘Racial integrity means good citizenship. Races and stocks of men are as distinct as breeds of animals. One does not train a bulldog to herd sheep!’

As the applause went on, the Imperial Wizard made a gesture for silence. The cheering stopped at once. ‘The Klan is not opposed to aliens, only to aliens who attempt to rule Americans!’ The Western Jew had great abilities, but his separation from the Nordic race was religious even more than racial. Far worse were the Eastern Jews of recent immigration, known as Askhenazim, the Judaised Mongols called Chazars. They show a divergence from the Nordic denying any hope of assimilation. ‘The white race must be supreme, not only in America but in the world!’ The idea of white and coloured races living in harmony was absurd. The whole of history had been one of racial conflict. This fact disagreed with maudlin theories of cosmopolitanism, but it was a truth.

‘The Klansman says whites will not become slaves! The Negro is a special duty and problem of white Americans, the Negro is here through no fault of his own. Nevertheless, we should not make promises of social equality which can never be realised. The Klan looks forward to the day when the Negro problem will be solved on a sane basis, when every State enforces laws making sex relations between white and coloured a crime! The Wizard again dampened the applause. He spoke of Rome’s attempt to rule America. ‘Our first Colonies were settled for the purpose of wresting America from the control of Rome.’ He explained how Protestantism and the Nordic people were the same thing. All other peoples wished to destroy it, particularly the Catholics. ‘As the biggest, strongest, most cohesive of all the alien blocs they frequently form alliances with other alien groups against American interests, as with the Jews in New York today. It is a Klan duty to make as many people as possible aware of all this. It is our duty to use the democratic system to ensure Klansmen are candidates in every possible type of election and that Klansmen win! That is how we shall save America. Not through violence or mob rule, but through the purity of our ideals. To this end we are already working!’

Wie lange wir es dauern?
Not long. Other Klansmen rose to speak of Klokards working in all walks of life. Kludds preached that Klan and Church were synonymous. Friends in high places, non-members supporting Klan views, were willing to help. Distinguished visitors from abroad applauded the Klan fight. ‘They deny the wicked lies of those newspapers who say we are a narrow, illiterate people!’

When this clamour died away the Imperial Wizard said in even, thrilling tones. ‘One such visitor is with us tonight. The Grand Dragon of the Realm of the Air will introduce our guest.’ For some moments there was polite applause, dying down until again the steady pumping of engines and paddle were the only significant sounds. Then Major Sinclair stepped forward to intone: ‘Brothers of the Fiery Cross we are honoured by the presence of a great scientist and aviator visiting us from Europe. He has fought the Turk, the Bolshevist, the Catholic and the Jew, and he shares blood with our ancestors who explored and settled this land. His mother was French, his father British. He has often spoken in private of his own ideas which are, I think you’ll agree, one hundred percent American. He does not come to us to criticise and confound, like many strangers to the South. He respects our traditions. It was the British, we shall always remember, who supported the Confederacy. But if I seem narrow in my loyalties to the South, I beg to be forgiven by my brothers. I seek merely to demonstrate that not all outsiders are critics, bigots or agitators.’

He told them how I was a professor of science, an engineer, a flyer and a God-fearing Protestant. ‘An opponent of all we fear and hate. I have invited him to this Klonverse as a representative of those who support us objectively and freely. But also, brothers, he is one who has personally witnessed the horrors of unchecked alienism. We take to our hearts a true Knight of the Air, who has fought hand to hand with bloody Bolshevism, saved thousands from the Red Terror. I give you my friend - as I know he will be yours - Colonel Max Peterson!’

The applause I received was generous but reasonably cautious. I had not expected to speak and was nervous. Nonetheless now that I was here I determined to speak from the heart. All I had was sincerity. I was moved almost to tears as I began my address. While the
Nathan B. Forrest
continued down the muddy Mississippi on her way to Vicksburg I told them of the terrible dangers facing Europe, how I had been a prisoner of the Bolsheviks. Indeed I gave them in a sense my whole life story. Gradually I captured their interest and their sympathy. Encouraged by this my oratory began to soar to heights it had known only once before, when I made my matriculation speech in Petersburg. I described the pathetic sight of desperate women and children begging to board refugee ships, the victims of jealous and vindictive Jews. The Catholic church weakened Italy, France grew feeble by allowing Jews to control business and parliament. Even England was in danger from the same atheists, Socialists and Zionists who attacked beaten Germany. I described how Mussolini and his people resisted the Pope, and consequently building a nation which would attract back many U.S. immigrants. In Ireland the Orange Lodge and other Protestant organizations were directly attacked by Catholic republicans seeking to impose tyranny upon Ulster. (I knew many Klansmen had been recruited from such lodges and noticed a stirring of interest.) Then I spoke of the threat of Islam. I explained how Jewish money, Catholic guns and Negro bloodlust formed a united threat to all our great institutions. I went on for at least an hour, describing the virtues of Americans, their originality in all fields, particularly science and engineering. I showed how industrial centres were threatened, how aliens crept into the entertainment world at every level, many owning newspapers, some already planning radio stations. Only strong legislation could fight the lure of gin and jazz. Russia was destroyed, Europe teetered on the brink. If America were not to fall to Chaos she must set an example. They were on their feet now and stamping, waving their assent. I was elated. I concluded with my own vision of an American future. It would be strong and untainted. Clean, independent cities and towns and richly cultivated land would provide for people in plenty; they would never be afraid to walk down a street or lane at night. The alien, discouraged from procreating by heavy taxes imposed for every child he fathered, would disappear in a matter of decades. Genetic science would produce stronger, healthier Nordic Americans to impress the world.

‘And finally,’ I concluded, above the steady rise of applause, ‘it will be an America where the word “Klansman” is synonymous with honour, nobility and good blood. Your descendants shall again lead this nation. The Klansman alone, as Mr Griffith has shown, stands for progress and decency. He is willing to fight to the death for his Christian purity, for a faith whose vitality has created the finest civilisation in the world, which mighty heroes have defended down the centuries with strength and courage, since the glorious days of Athens and Sparta!’