The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-12-28
Mr.. GRADY'S."NEW SOJTTH.'
Salient Portions Of the Address Dtiy-
cred at the FOrefathers' Dinner.
Eloquent Tributes to Abraham Lincoln, the
Confederate Soldiers, Living and Dead
and the Restored Union of the States

of the evening at the dinner of the New Eng
land Society, given on Forefathers Day, at Del
monicos, in New York. He was received with
great cordialty. and ended amid storm OF en-
thusiasm The Tribune's report says "Mr.
Grady's glowing tribute to Abraham Lincoln
brought every man to mis- feet. His graphic de-
scription of the defeated returning confederate
soldier was we'll received, and his reference to
the contentment of the Southern negro with his
employer made good impression. At the close
of his speech the band played ''Way Down
South in Dixie" and the entire crowd rose to
their feet and gave three cheers for Mr. Grady,
and three more for the Empire State Of the
South"
Mr.. Grady's speech:
There was South of secession and slavery
that South is dead. There is South of union
and freedom-that South is living, breathing,
growing every hour These words, delivered
from the lips of Benjamin II. Hill. in Tammany
Hall, IN 1866, make my text for to night
Pardon me one word, Mr.. President spoken
for the purpose of getting into the volumes that
go out annually freighted with the rich elo-
quence of your speakers-the fact that the Cav
aler as we'll as the Puritan was on this CONT
nent in ts early days, aud that he was up and
your books carefully and find no mention of
that fact, which seems to me important for pre-
serving sort Of historical equilibrium.
With the Cavalier once established as fact
in your charming little books, l shall let him
work out his own salvation, as he has always
done with engaging gallantry, and we will hold
no controversy to his merits. Why should
WEI Neither Puritan nor Cavalier long sur
vived such. The virtues and traditions of
both happily still live for the inspiration of their
nd tha nf fas N
plause But both Puritan and Cavalier were
lost in the storm of their first revolution, and
the American citizen. supplanting both and
stronger than either, took possession of the
Republic bought by their common blood and
fashioned in wisdom, and charged himself with
teaching men free government and establishing
the voice of the people as the voice of God.
Applause Great types, like valuable plants,
are slow to flower and fruit But from
the union of these colonists, from the
crossing Of their blood, slow perfecting
through century, came he who
stands as the first typical American, the first
who comprehended within himself all the
grace of this Republic-Abraham Lincoln.
Loud and long-continued applause. He was
the sum of Puritan and Cavalier. for in his ar
dent nature were fused the virtues Of both, and
in the depth of his great soul the faults Of both
were lost. Renewed applause He was greater
than Puritan, greater than Cavalier, in that he
was American renewed applausel, and that in
his homey form were first gathered the vast and
thrilling forces of this ideal government, charg
ing it with such tremendous meaning and so ele-
waiting it above human suffering that m artyrdom,
though UNANIMOUSLY aimed, came as a fitting
crown to life cOnsecrated from its cradle to
human liberty Loud and prolonged cheering.
Let US. each cherlshing his traditions and honor
ing his fathers build with reverent hands to the
type of this simple but sublime life. in which all
types are honored, and in the common glory
which we shall win as Americans there will be
plenty and to spare for your forefathers aud for
mine. Renewed cheering.
In speaking to the toast which you have hon
ored me accept the term, '"The New South" as
in no sense disparaging to the old. Dear to me-
sir, are the home of my childhood and the tradi-
tons of my people. There Is new South, not
through protest against the old, but because of
new conditions, new adjustments, and, if you
please, new ideas and aspirations. 1t is to this
that / address myself. | ask, you, gentlemen,
to picture if you can the fOot-sore soldier who.
buttoning up inlhis faded gray jacket, the parole
which was taken, testimony to his children of
his fidelity and faith turned his face southwark
from AppomaJtox in April, 1865. Think of him
as ragged, halfstarved, heavy hearted, enfeebled
by want and wounds. having fought to ex-
haustion, he surrenders his gum wrngs the hands
of his comrades, and lifting his tear-stained and
pallid face for the last time to the graves that
dot the old Virginia hills pulls his gray cap over
his brow. and begins the slow and painful jour
ney What does he find-let me ask YOU who
went to your homes eager to find all the well
come you had justly earned, full payment for
your four years saorafce-what does he find
when he reaches the home he left four years be-
fore9 He finds his house in ruins, his farm
devastated, his slaves freed his stock killed, his
barns empty, his trade destroyed, his money
worthless, his social system, feudal in its mag
nihcence, swept away, his people without law or
legal status his comrades slain and the bur-
dens Of others heavy on his shoulders. Crushed
by Fdefeat, his very traditions gone, without
money, credit. employment, material train
ing-and, besides all this confronted with the
gravest problem that ever met human intelli-
gence-the establishing of status for the vast
body Of his liberated slaves
What does he do-this hero in gray, with
heart of gold-loes he sit down in sulepness
and desparY Not for day. Surely God who
had scourged him in his prosperity inspired him
In his adversely! AS ruin was never before so
overwhelming. never was restoration swifter.
The soldier stepped from the trenches into the
furrow; horses that had charged federal guns
marched before the pillow, and fields that ran red
with human blood in April were green with the
harvest in June; women reared In luxury cut
up their dresses and mado breeches for their
husbands, and, with patience and heroism that
fits woman always as garment, gave their
hands to work There was little bitter
ness in all this. Cheerfulness and frank
ness prevailed. "Bill Arp" struck the
keynote when he said: well / killed as
i
going to work laughter and applausel; or the
soldier, returning home after defeat and roast
ing some corn on the roadside. who made the re-
mark to his comrades: You may leave the
South if you want to, but am going to Sander
vile, kiss my wife and raise a crop and if the
Yankees fool with me any more will whip 'em
again.. [Renewed laughter want to say to
General Sherman. who is considered an able
man IN our parts, though some people think he
is kind Of careless man about fre-that from
the ashes left us in 1864 we have raised brave
and beautiful city; that, somehow or other, we
have caught the sunshine in the bricks and NOR
tar of our homes, and have builded th erein not
one single ignoble prejudice or memory. lap
plause.
But what is the sum Of our work. We have
found out that in the general summing up the
free negro counts more than he did as a slave
We have planted the school house on the hilltop
and made it free to white and black We have
sowed towns and cities in the place of theories.
and put business above politics [Applause We |
Ill