The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-01-16
Grady'S Great Speech.
CONCLUDED FROM FIRST PAGE. I

ment--agalnSt winch L enter no pro-
test---holds the South united and com
pact. What solution, then, can we
offer for the problem? Time alone
can disclose it to US. We simply re-
port progress, and ask your patience
If the problem be solved at all---and
firmly believe it will, though nowhere
else has been---it will be solved by the
people most be deeply pledged in
honor to its solution. | had rather see
my people render back this question
rightly solved than to see them gather
all the spoils over which faction has
contended since Catalina conspired and
Caesar fought. Meantime We treat the
negro fairly, measuring to him justice
in the fitness the strong should give to
the weak, and leading him in the
steadfast ways of citizenship that he
may no longer be the prey of the I'M
scrupulous and the sport ofthe thought
less. We open to him every pursuit
in which he can prosper, and seek TO
broaden his training and capacity. We
seek to hold his confidence and friend
ship-and to pin him to the soil with
ownership, that he may catch in the
fire of his own hearthstone that sense
of responsibility the shiftless can never
know. And we gather him into that
alliance of intelligence and response
bility, that, though it now runs close
to racial lines, welcomes the response
BILE and intelligent of any race. BY
this course, confirmed in our Judgment
and justified in the progress already
made, we hope to progress slowly but
surely to the end.
The love we feel for that race you
cannot measure nor comprehend. As
| attest it here, the spirit Of my old
black nanny, from her home up there,
looks down to bless, and through the
tumult of this night steals the sweet
music of her grooming as thirty years
ago she held me in her black arms and
led me smiling into sleep. This scene
vanishes asI speak and catch a vison
of an old Southern home with It's lofty
pillows and its white pigeons huttering
down through the golden air. l see
women with strained and anxious faces,
and children alert, yet helpless. | see
night come down with its dangers and
its apprehensions, and in big homely
room | feel on my tired head the
touch of loving hands---now worn and
wrinkled, but fairer to me yet than the
hands of mortal woman and stronger
yet to lead me than the hands Of NOR
tai man---as they lay a mothers bless
ing there, while at her knees the
truest alter | have yet fouud---I thank
God that she is safe in her sanctuary,
because her slaves, sentinel in the 81
lent cabin, on guard at her chamber
door,put black mans loyalty between
her and danger. | catch another vision.
The crisis of battle---a soldier struck,
staggering, fallen. see slave, strug-
Cling through the smoke, winding his
black arms about the fallen form, reck-
less of hurting death---bend his
trusty face to catch the words that
tremble on the stricken lips, SO wrest-
ling meantime with agony that he
would lay down his life in his masters
stead. l see him by the weary bedside,
minlstering with accomplishing pa
tience, praying with all his humble
heart that God will lift his master I'D,
until death comes in mercy and in
honor to still the soldiers agony and
seal the soldiers life. | see him by
the open grave, mute, motionless, I'M
covered, suffering for the death of him
who in life fought againt his freedom.
| see him when the mound is heaped
and the great drama of his life is closed
turn away and with downcast eyes and
uncertain step start out into new and |
strange fields, faltering, struggling, but
moving on, until his stumbling figure
it lost in the the light of this better and |
brighter day. And from the grave
comes a voice saying, " Follow him
Put your arms about him in his need,
even as he put his arm about me. Be
his friend as he was mine" And out
into this new world strange to me as
to him, dazzling, bewildering both---I
follow! And may God forget my
peoplewhen they forget these
Whatever the future may hold for
them whether they plod along in the
servitude from which they have never
been lifted since the Cyrenian was laid
hold upon by the Roman soldiers,and
made to bear the cross Of the fainting
Christ whether they find homes again
in Africa, land thus hasten the prophecy
of the psalmist, who said: land sud
denly Ethiopia shall hold out her
hands to God" whether forever dis
located and separate, they remain a
weak people beset by the stronger, land
exist as the Turk, who lives in the
jealousy rather than in the conscience
Of Europe-or whether in this miracu-
lous Republic they break through the
caste of twenty centuries, and, belying
history, reach the full statue
Of citizenship, and in peace maintain
tive shall give them uttermost justice
and abiding friendship. And what
ever we do, into whatever seeming es-
we may be driven. nothing
shall disturb the love we bear this Re
public, or mitigate our conservation to
its service. | stand here, Mr.. Presi-
ient,to profess no new loyalty. When
General Lee, whose heart was the tenn
pie of our hopes, and whose arm was
clothed with our strength, renewed
his allegiance to this government at
Appomattox,h he spoke from heart too
great to be false, and he spoke for
every honest man from Maryland to
Texas From that day to this Hamli-
,ar has nowhere in the South sworn
young Hannibal to hatred and ven
,eanCe, but everywhere to loyalty and