The daily citizen. [volume] (Asheville, N.C.) 1889-1890, 1889-12-15
ELOQUENT GRADY.
EXTRACTS FROM HIS RECENT
GREAT SPEECH.

How He Talked to the Members
of the Boston Merchants' AssO
citation on December IA Noble
Defence of the South.
The following brief extracts from thu
speech of H. w. Grady, editor of the At
lanta Constitution, delivered on the oc
casion OF the recent dinner given by thu
Merchants Association, of Boston, give:
faint idea of the eloquence and force o
the whole:
Far to the South, Mr.. President, separ
ated from this section by a line-oncc de
fined in irrepressible difference, once
traced in fratrlcidal blood, and now
thank God, but vanishing shadow-lies
the fairest and richest domain of thi:
earth. 1t is the home of a brave anC
hospitable people. There is centered al
that can please or prosper human kind
A perfect climate above Il fertile sol
yields to the husbandman every product
of the temperate zone. There by night
cotton whitens beneath the stars, and by
day wheat locks the sunshine in its
bearded sheaf. In the same field clover
steals the fragrance of the wind, and to
bacco catches the quick aroma OF the
rains. There are mountains stored with
exhaustleSS treasures, forests vast and
primeval, and rivers that, tumbling OF
lettering, run wanton to the sea.
THREE ESSENTIAL ITEMS.
OF the three essential items of all indus,
tries-cotton, iron and wood-that re.
Sion has easy control. In cotton, a fixed
monopoly; in iron. a proven supremacy
in timber, the reserve supply OF the re-
public. From this assured and perma.
nent advantage, against which artificial
conditions cannot much longer prevail
has grown an amazing system OF indus.
tries Not maintained bv human con-
trivance Of tariff or capital afar of from
the fullest and cheapest source OF supply
but resting in divine assurance, within
the touch OF the field and mine and for
est, not set amid costly farms, from
which competition has driven the farmer
in despair, but amid cheap and sunny
lands, rich with agriculture, to which
neither season nor soil has set limit-this
system Of industries is mounting to a
splendor that shall dazzle and illumine
the world.
CONTRhSTED PICTURES.
That, SirS, is the picture a., promise of
my home-a land better and fairer than !
have told you, and yet but fit setting
in its material excellence, for the loyal
and gentle quality of its citizenship.
Against that, Sir, we have New England,
recruiting a republic from it's sturdy
1oins, shaking from its over-CrOwded
hives new Swarms of workers, and touch
ing this land all over with its energy and
its courage.
And vet, while in the Eldorado Of
which have told you but | 5 per cent. OF
the lands are cultivated, its mines
scarcely touched, and its population so
Scant that, were it set equidistant, the
sound of human voice could not be
heard from Virginia to Texas, on the
threshold of nearly every house in New
England stands a son, seeking, with
troubled eyes. some new land in which to
carry his modest patrinsony; the strange
fact remains that in 1880 the South had
fewer Northern citizens than she had in
1870, fewer in 20 than i'll go. Why is
this?
QUESTION AND ANSWER.
Why is it sir, though the sectional line
be now but a mist that a breath may
diSpel, fewer men of the North have
crossed il over to the South than wehnit
was crimson with the best blood of the
Republic, or even when a Shareholder
stood guard of every inch of it's way?
There can be but one answer-it is the
very problem we are now to consider.
They key that opens that problem will
unlock to the world the fairest position
of this republic, and free the halted feet
of thousands whose eyes are already
kindling with its beauty.
Better than this, it will open the hearts
of brothers for thirty years cstranged
and clasp i'll lasting COmradcship a mil
lion hands now withheld in doubt.
Mr.. Grady then discussed the race
problem in mastery manner, and an
Swered the questions contained i'll Presi-
dent Harrisons recent message as to
what the South was doing on the negro
question fully, by facts and figures,
closing his speech of over an hour with
the following
ELOQUENT PERORATION:
As we approach the fourth centennial
of that stupendous day when the old
world will come to marvel and learn amid
our gathered treasures, let us resolve to
crown the miracles of our past with the
spectacle of Republic compact, united
and indissoluble in the bonds OF love-
loving from the lakes to the gulf, the
wounds Of war healed in every heart as
on every hill, serene and resplendent at
the summit of human achievement and
earthly glory, blazing out a path and
making clear the way to which all the
nations of earth must come i'll Gods ap-
pointed time.