-------
_From the “Boston Advertiser.”_
THE untimely death yesterday of Henry Woodfin Grady is sad news. He was
predisposed to lung diseases, and the circumstances of his visit to
Boston were most unfortunate. The weather was very mild when he arrived
here, but became suddenly chill and wintry just before his departure.
Half our native population seemed to have caught cold owing to the
sudden and severe change in temperature, and Mr. Grady contracted
pneumonia in its most violent form, so that he grew steadily worse to
the end. His trip to Boston was eagerly anticipated, both because he had
never been in New England, and also for the reason that the greatest
interest had been created both North and South over the announcement
that he would speak on the race problem. The impression made by his
address—for it rose far above the ordinary after-dinner speech—is still
strong, and the expectation created in the South is attested by the fact
that a body-guard, as it were, of admiring friends from among leading
representative Southerners made the trip with Mr. Grady for the express
purpose of hearing his exposition of the race problem.
Of Mr. Grady’s address there is nothing new to add. It was one of the
finest specimens of elegant and fervid oratory which this generation has
heard. It met the fondest anticipations of his friends, and the people
of his native State had planned to pay him extraordinary honors for the
surpassing manner in which he plead their cause. The address, considered
in all respects, was superior to that which he delivered in New York and
which won national reputation for him. His treatment of the race problem
was in no respect new, and it met with only a limited approval, but
while he did not convince, Mr. Grady certainly won from the North a
larger measure of intelligent appreciation of the problem laid upon the
South. It was impossible not to perceive his sincerity, and we
recognized in him and in his address the type and embodiment of the most
advanced sentiment in the generation which has sprung up at the South
since the war. Mr. Grady’s father lost his life in the Confederate army;
Mr. Grady himself spoke in the North to Union veterans and their sons.
It was perhaps impossible, from the natural environments of the
situation, that he should speak to the entire acceptance of his
auditors, or that he should give utterance to the ultimate policy which
will prevail in the settlement of the race problem. But we of the North
can and do say that Mr. Grady has made it easier for one of another
generation, removed from the war, to see with clearer vision and to
speak to the whole country on the race problem with greater acceptance
than would now be possible. To have done this is to do much, and it is
in striking contrast with the latter-day efforts of that other great
figure in Southern life who has but lately gone down to the grave
unreconciled.
The North laments the death of Mr. Grady, and sincerely trusts that his
mantle as an apostle of the New South will fall upon worthy shoulders.
Business interests are bringing the North and South together at a
wonderfully rapid rate. This is not the day nor the generation in which
to witness perfect that substantial agreement for which we all hope. But
we are confident that if to the firmness of the Northern views upon the
civil rights of the black man there be added a fuller measure of
sympathy for those who must work out the problem, and if Mr. Grady’s
spirit of loyalty, national pride and brotherly kindness becomes deeply
rooted in the South, the future will be promising for the successful
solution of that problem which weighs so heavily upon every lover of his
country.
------------------