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_From the “Macon Telegraph.”_
HENRY GRADY is dead. This announcement carried sorrow all over Georgia
yesterday, for there were few men in whom the people of this State felt
so much interest or for whom they cherished such a warm affection as
they did for this gifted and lovable man. He had not attained his
thirty-ninth year when “God’s finger touched him” and closed his
remarkable career, but his name was familiar from one limit of this
Union to the other. Georgia had no more famous citizen, and perhaps
there never was a man in this State in private station who was so widely
known or so much admired. Mr. Grady never held a public office, and yet
he was a recognized force in Georgia politics almost before he had
reached the years of statutory manhood. He devoted his life to
journalism, and in his chosen field achieved a national fame. He began
his career as a boy editor in Rome, and at an age when most men are
merely selecting their standards and shaping themselves for the real
work of life, he became a prominent and influential figure, a leader of
thought, and a promoter of public enterprises. Eighteen years ago he
moved to Atlanta to pursue his profession in a broader field, and
immediately made himself felt as a positive force in the community. The
debt which Atlanta owes him is great indeed. No man did more to inspire
the pride of community, to set on foot and carry to success great
enterprises for the welfare and progress of the city, to rally its
people to an enthusiastic unanimity on all questions affecting local
prosperity than did Henry W. Grady. These public services would have
endeared him to the people of his adopted city, but they were not so
admirable as his private benefactions. He was first and foremost in many
good works, the fame of which never went beyond the homes of the poor
and unfortunate who were relieved by his ministrations. His hand was
open always to the stricken and needy. He gave to the afflicted with a
generosity which was oblivious to his own circumstances. Of his
influence in promoting public enterprises there are enduring monuments.
By his eloquence of tongue and pen he raised in less than two weeks
$85,000 for the erection of the beautiful Young Men’s Christian
Association building which now adorns one of the principal streets of
Atlanta. He was the moving spirit in the building of the Chamber of
Commerce and the enlargement of its membership until it reached
proportions that made it a power not only in matters of business but in
all the public concerns of the city. The Confederate Soldiers’ Home of
Georgia is a monument to him, for he seized mere suggestions and made
them the text of an appeal which stirred the hearts of the people of
Georgia and evoked a long delayed tribute of gratitude to the broken
veterans of the lost cause. The Cotton Exposition of 1880 and the
Piedmont Expositions of 1887 and 1889, from which Atlanta reaped immense
benefits, were largely due to his persistent labors.
While Mr. Grady became prominent in Atlanta, and justly esteemed by his
fellow-citizens on account of works and triumphs like these, he rose
into national prominence by reason of other evidences of his genius. His
address to the New England Society in New York in December, 1886, was
one of the most famous occasional speeches ever delivered in this
country. The morning after its delivery he literally awoke to find
himself famous throughout the country. Since that time he made various
public addresses which commanded the attention of the United States and
became subjects of common conversation among the people. His speech at
the Dallas Exposition last year and his address to the legislatures of
Georgia and South Carolina at the Augusta Exposition a few weeks later,
were themes of the public press of the entire country. But the best and
ablest public speech of his life was his last. It was that which he
delivered two weeks ago at Boston in the performance of a mission which
proved fatal to him. In this, as in all his famous public addresses, he
seemed to strive with a passionate ardor and a most persuasive eloquence
to bring the North and the South to a better understanding of each
other, to foster the spirit of mutual respect and mutual forbearance, to
inculcate the great idea that this is a re-united country and that the
duty of every good citizen in its every section is to strive for its
domestic peace, for its moral, social and material progress, and for its
glory among the nations of the earth. He handled these great themes with
a master hand and invested his exposition of them with a most
fascinating eloquence. Few men in Georgia ever accomplished so much in
so few years. Few men in Georgia were even the object of such affection
at home and such admiration beyond the bounds of the State. The career
which has been so suddenly cut off was shining with golden promise. The
future seemed to be full of honors and there was everything surrounding
the present that could make life sweet. But the end has come. The most
eloquent tongue in Georgia has been smitten into everlasting silence in
this world. A great, generous heart has been stilled.
A useful citizen, after a brief but busy and momentous life, which was
productive of many enterprises of public importance and beneficent
tendency, has folded his hands in the eternal rest. God’s peace be with
him!
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