The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-12-26
HENRY w. GRADY.

ms DrllllhnL OChtOI ulcu ot mo hohO
in Atlanta, Georgia, on the 23d inst, IN
the Ihirty-ninth year OF his age. lie
had Just returned from visit to Boston
where he had made one OF his rhetorical
speeches in which be had act forth doc
trines most repugnant to Northern ears,
yet with such eloquence and force as to
win plaudits from his auditors, members
of all political parties.
Chauncey NJ. Depew, in paying q
beautiful tribute to him at the New Eng
land dinner in New York City on the
night his death was announced, spoke
of this northern federation OF southern
ideas as follows:
with powers of presentation and fer
vor of defamation worthy the best days
and noblest efforts Of eloquence, he
stood beneath the shadow of Bunker
Hill and uttered opinions justifying the
suppression of the negro vote, which
were hostile to the views Of every man
in his audience. And yet they gave to
his argument an eager and candid hear
ing and to his oratory unstinted and
generous applause. 1t was the triumph
of Puritan principles and Puritan
pluck"
This sort of liberation the southerner
knows little about, nor Is he FAMILIAR
with the principles underlying the
foundation of our government, the ao-
berence to which brings it about.
Were he, no representative southerner,
as Grady was, could have uttered such
sentiments as he did at Boston. Even
the democratic press could not endure
them, The Boston Herald called them
Revolutionary" and the New York
World was equally denunciatory OF
them, although they spoke kindly, as
Mr.. Depew has of the man himself.
Mr.. Depew went on to say that mo
system of suffrage could survive the in
timidation of the voter, or the falsitica-
ton of the count" which was just what
Mr.. Grady justified and the newspapers
mentioned above condemned in turn.
"This is a burning question" SAID Mr..
Depew, mot only in Georgia hut in New
York, 1t is, that government shall be
by the people"
1t is precisely this government by the
people that Mr.. Grady denied at Boston:
He said that only the white people should
govern. "The negro vote can never
control in the South" said he; land It
would be we'll il partisans in the North
would understand this" he added. But
why should we be surprised at all this
A people who for generations have
bought and sold their fellow men can
hardly be expected at once TO accord to
the bought and sold the rights they de-
mand for themselves, no matter II q
terrible war has nominally secured
them. 1t will take long time for the
South to educate themselves up to the
doctrines on which our government is
founded, the equal rights OF all, and we
should be patient with them. And, not
withstanding the failure of this most
foremost of southerners to comprehend
them, it is loss to the South and to US
to lose him. For, despite his lack OF jus
tice to the enfranchised race, he was
loyal to the Union, was really glad that
slavery had gone, and was ready with
heart and hand to help on the South IN
its new career of prosperity. BY and
by, no doubt, he would have discarded
his Bourbon ideas of ruling by force and
fraud and would have accepted the
modern doctrines Of a government by
the people only.
Mr.. Depew made the common remark
that there was more liberation and less
bigotry in New England than in any
other part of the world. This is very
true and we need 10 exercise it all in our
handling of this southern question. 1t
is CALLING to us to be sure, to know that
by the suppression of the negro vote by
force and fraud in 1876, president Hayes
was deprived of 40 ELECTORAL votes and
in 1884 by the same methods, though
perhaps not in this case amounting as
Al. 70 1ar a nj ~ a :
seated in the presidential chair and
that also by these same methods the
South maintains an undue representa-
ton for its party in both houses OF Con.
gress; yet in the face OF these well
known facts, of which the southern lead
ere are constantly boasting, there if
getting into the southern mind a dim
sense of the incongruity of this state OF
things in government which processes
to be democratic. Otherwise they would
not feel calico on to defend 1t as Grady
has and as they all do.
The death of Mr.. Grady and the kind
words that are everywhere spoken OF
him in the North despite his undemo-
cratic ideas, will bring the subject on
which he treated in Boston more promi-
nently before the southern people. 1t il
problem they must solve, and in their
solution of it, let us be patient, for It ls
not so very, very long ago that New
England, now SO tolerant, was hanging
witches and prosecuting Quakers and
there are those not yet old who have
seen abolitionists mobbed and against
whom the chief arguments used were
stale eggs and the query, "Do you want
your daughter TO marry a niger I"
1t may be that in the solution OF this
problem which seems to give the South,
according to their own account, so much
present trouble, not to say anxiety for
the future, they might be helped by the
suggestion of President Harrison in his
recent message to Congress, that the
federal laws in regard to the election OF
Representatives to Congress be strength
ened. Let the South in good earnest
assist in strengthening them and IL, as
they fear, they are not adapted to the
solution OF the problem, they would
either become dead letter or be re.
pealed. Above all let them apply tc
this question Puritan principles and
Puritan pluck" in both of which they
seem to be- lacking. and the difficulties
of the case will vanish as they proceed
IN Tho anplira tim