Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-03-14

claTing their magnificent opportunity and
urging their employment OF it ali for benef-
cent and rightez IL purposes.
Again, I remark tlat Henry W Grady
stood for Christian patriotism irrespective OF
political spoils- He declined all Official re-
ward He could have been Governor OF
Georgia but refused it. Ee could have been
Senator of the United States, bus declined II.
lie remained plain Mr. Grady. Nearly all
the other orators of the political arena. as
soon as the elections are oyer. go TO Wash
ington, or Albany, or Harrisburg. or At.
lanta, 20 get IN city or State or National
ofice reward for their services, and not get
ting what they want spend the rest of the
time of that administration In pouting about
the management of public affairs or cursing
Harrison or Cleveland. When the great
political campaigns were over Mr.. Grady
went home to his newspaper He demon
toll for principles which he thought to be
right. simply because they were right
Christian patriotism is too rare commodity
in this country. Surely the joy of living
under such free institutions as those estab-
lished here ought to be enough reward for
political fidelity. Among all the great writ
ers that stood at the last Presidential cleo
ton on Democratic and Republican plat
forms, you cannot recall IN your mind ten
who were not themselves looking for reml-
nerative appointments. Aye, you can count
them all on the fingers Of one hand The
most illustTiouS specimen of that style OF
man for the last ten years was henry w.
Grady.
Again, Mr. Grady stood for the new south
and was Just what we want TO meet three
other men, one to speak for the new north
another for the new east and another for the
new west The braveSt speech made for the
last quarter of a century was that made by
Mr.. Grady at the New Eng gland dinner in
New York about two or three years ago. |
sat with him that evening and know some
thing of his anxieties for he was 70 tread on
dangerous ground and might by one mis-
spoken word have antagOnlZed forever both
sections. His speech was a victory that
thrilled all of who heard him and all who
read him. That speech, great for wisdom,
great for kindness, great for pacitication,
great for bravery, will go down to the gene
rations with Webster's speech at Bunker
Hill. William Wirt's speech at the arraign-
ment of Aaron Burr, Edmund Burke's
speech on Warren Hastings, Robert Emmet's
speech for his own vindicatlOn
Who will in conspicuous action represent
the new north as he did the new south? Who
shall come forth {: : the new east and who
for the west? Let old political issues be
buried let old grudgeS die. Let new theories
be launched. With the coming in of
nation at the gates of Castle Garden every
year and the wheat bin and corn crib of our
land enlarged with every harvest. and a vast
multitude Of our population still plunged In
illiteracy to be educated, and moral Ques-
our Republic let the old political platforms
that are worm-eaten be dropped and plat
forms that shall be made of two planks, the
one the Ten Commandments and the other the
Sermon on the Mount lifted for all of us to
stand on But there is a lot of old politi-
clans gruInbling all around the sky who don't
want new south a new north, a new east or
a new west. They have some old war
speeches that they prepared in 1861, that in
all our autumnal elections they feel called
upon to infiict upon the country. They grow
louder and louder in proportion as they are
pushed back further and further and the
Henry W. Gradys come to the front. But
the mandate. l think, has gone forth from
the throne of God that new American ma
ton shall take the place of the old, and the
new has been baptized for God and liberty
and justice and peace and morality and re-
Hgion.
And now our much Iamented friend has
gone to e i've account. Suddenly the taclle
and potent pen is laid down and the eloquent
tongue is silent. What? Is there no safe
guard against fatal disease? The impersOna-
ton of stout health was Mr.. Grady. What
, onpactness of muscle! What rudy COM
plexiOn! What flashing eye! Standing with
him in a group Of twenty or thirty persons at
Piedmont, he looked the healthiest as his
spirits were the blithest. Shall we never feel
again the hearty grasp of his hand or be
with his eloquence? Men of the
great roll. men of the pen, men Of wit, men
of power, if our friend had to go when the
call came, so must you when your call
comes. When God asks you what have you
done with your pen or your elOquence or your
wealth or your social position, will you be able
to give satisfactory answer? What have we
been writing all these years? If mirth, has
it been innocent mirth, or that which tears
and stings and lacerates? From our pen
have there come forth productions healthy
or poisonous? In the last great day when
the warrior must give account of what he
has done with his sword, and the merchant
what he has done with his yard stick
and the mason what he has done with
his trowel, and the artist what he has
done with his pencil. we shall have to give
account of what we have done with our pen.
There are gold pens and diamond pens and
pens Of exquisite manufacture, and every few
weeks l see some new kind of pen, each said
to be better than the other; but in the great
day of our arrangement before the Judge or
quick and dead that will be the most beauti-
full pen, whether gold steel or quill, which
never wrote a profane or uEclean cruel
word, or which from the day it was carved,
or split at the nib, dropped from its point
gratitude to God and benediction for man.
May God comfort that torn up Southern
home and all the homes Of this country and
Of all the world which have been swept
by this plague of influenza, which has
deepened sometimes into pneumonia, and
sometimes into typhus, and the victims of
which are counted by the ten thousand! Sa
tan, who is the Prince of the Power of the
Air" has been poisoning the atmosphere in all
nations. Though it is the first time in our re-
he has done the same thing be,
fore. In 1896 the unwhOlesOme air Of Cairo,
Egypt, destroyed the life of ten thou.
sand in one day, and in Constantinople in
1714 three hundred thousand people died oft.
I am glad that by the better sanitation of our
cities and wider understanding of hygienic
eli 81
heing resisted but neStilential atmOSphera is