_My Dear Sir_:—I feel as if, in coming to what I had hoped to be a
joyous occasion, I am coming to the house of mourning—the home of
sorrow. Since the tragic end of the young Irish patriot, death has not
more ruthlessly invaded the land of “shining marks” than when he the
other day came to your beautiful city—a city of happiness and “high
ways”—and, as if looking with remorseless purpose into the very secrets
of domestic felicity and popular affection—took up and carried away into
the land of the unseeable the idol of a happy home and of a great city.
Not only was Henry W. Grady the idol of his own city and State, but
without office and without estate, though young in years, he had
attained a maturity of both pen and heart which brought renown as an
American patriot far beyond what place or power can give. His death is a
national calamity. In times of peace, when much of the press and many of
the public men are inviting patronage and seeking favors in fanning the
passions born of a sectional issue, to see a truly national and brave
man, who, loving his own native section, can nevertheless glory in a
common country and a common destiny for all the American people—is to
the patriot philosopher, who divines the happiness of a reunited people,
the bright star of hope rising to dissipate the prejudices of the past
and light up the pathway to the coming millions.
Unfortunately, oh, how much to be deplored! the passions of the sections
have been kept alive by the pen and tongue of the politician seeking
patronage and office.
The young man of your city whose death all patriots mourn, put himself
on a higher plane—freed from passion and rising above his own ambition,
he gave tone and temper to a national sentiment, which might be uttered
in Boston or Atlanta with equal propriety and patriotism and from the
emotions of his patriotic heart, he spoke words which, while they were
full of the manhood of his own loved South, nevertheless warmed into a
generous sympathy the North man as well as the South man, and put
American citizenship so high that the young men of the country may,
without the sacrifice of local pride, ever aspire to reach it.
As an example of Southern manhood, patriotic fervor, and a statesmanship
extending over the entire country and into the coming generations, all
sparkling with the scintillation of an intelligent courage that defied
alike the prejudices of the ignorant and the appeals of the demagogue,
he was the representative and leader of a sentiment in the South which
promised speedily a reforming of public sentiment north and south, a
turning from the shades of the past into the lighted avenues of the
future—these avenues opening to all alike without the sacrifice of
manhood or the domination of section.