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_From the “New York Tribune.”_
THE death of Henry Grady is a loss to the whole country, but there is
some consolation in the general recognition of this fact. During his
brief career as a public man he has said many things that it was
profitable for both North and South to hear, and he has said them in
such a way as to enhance their significance. As editor of one of the few
widely influential papers of the South, he possessed an opportunity,
which he had also in great measure created, of impressing his opinions
upon Southern society, but it was to a few occasional addresses in
Northern cities that he chiefly owed his national reputation. His
rhetorical gifts were not of the highest order, but he had command of a
style of speaking which was most effective for his purposes. It was
marked by the Celtic characteristic of exuberance, but it was so
agreeable and inspiring that he was able to command at will audiences at
home and abroad. When so endowed he has also a significant message to
deliver, and is, moreover, animated by a sincere desire to serve his
generation to the full measure of his ability, the loss which his death
inflicts is not easily repaired. The whole country will unite in
deploring the sudden extinction of a faithful life. Mr. Grady’s zeal,
activity and patriotism were fully recognized in the North, as we have
said, but yet it was pre-eminently to his own people that he was an
example and inspiration. His loyalty to the cause in which his father
fell was untinged with bitterness, and he never permitted himself to
imagine that vain regrets were more sacred than present obligations. He
was an admirable illustration of that sagacious and progressive spirit
which is gradually, but surely, renewing the South, and which, though it
still lacks something of being altogether equal to its opportunities,
does nevertheless recognize the fact that “new occasions teach new
duties, time makes ancient good uncouth.”
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