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_From the “New York Commercial Advertiser.”_
WHAT undoubtedly interested and fascinated people most in the late Henry
W. Grady was the fact that he represented an order of genius now almost
extinct in our country, and yet one in which some of the favorite
episodes of its history are entwined. The orator who appealed at once to
the reason and the feelings was beyond question the foremost power of
our early national century of history. He was not predominant in the
councils which founded our government, nor in the first decade of its
administration; because the duties of that period called for the calm
deliberations of statesmen rather than the arousing of voters to action.
As this era of national infancy drew to its close, and the gigantic
problems, destined at a later day to involve the nation in civil war,
came forth into sudden prominence, the orator became the central figure
of the national stage. The rank and file gave their allegiance to their
chosen oratorical leader. He spoke in their behalf in Congress; he
defined in all political gatherings the will and purposes of his
constituents; and not less powerfully was his influence exerted to shape
those opinions and purposes. Indeed, the speeches of Clay, Calhoun and
Webster, and at a later day of Douglas and Lincoln, are better
understood when regarded as shaping public opinion than as following the
popular will already formed. The speeches of these leaders supplied the
need which is now met by the newspaper editorial in journals of
influence and public spirit. Like the newspaper of this later day, the
American orator of half a century ago was quick to note a change in the
trend of public sentiment, and at his best fearless in leading the
movement even before the popular mind had given assent.
The civil war brought to a close the epoch in which flourished this
interesting and impressive figure of our earlier politics. To-day,
partly because of the greater diffusion of news and intelligence, partly
by reason of the more technical and analytical character of the national
problems which confront us, he has quite disappeared from the political
stage. One need only recall the congressional or campaign speeches of
our ablest public speakers to appreciate the truth of this. It was Mr.
Grady’s good fortune that he, equipped with the keen insight and fervid
eloquence of our old public leaders, was placed in an epoch and a
community where the reconciling of the North and the South called for
just these powers. Presently, when the wave of closer commercial
intercourse and the better mutual understanding shall have swept with
unprecedented rapidity over the whole nation, the feelings which made
such mediation necessary will be quite dead. But the work of the men who
led the way is not likely to be forgotten.
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