The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-01-16
Grady'S Great Speech.
Delivered Before the Boston Merchants ASSoCi-
alton, December 18th, 1885,
Manly and Patriotic Discussion Of the Race Probemhe Truth and the
Whole Truth this Gifted Young Shener Saw it and Believed
itA Speech that will Live and one that Ought to be Read
BY Every Voter and Young Man in The Land.

and wood-that region has easy con-
troll. In cotton, fixed monopoly
in iron, proven supremacy-in timber,
the reserve supply of the Republic.
From this. assured and permanent ad
vantage, against which artificial con-
ditions cannot much longer prevail,
has rosn an amazing system of in
dustries. Not maintained BY human
contrivance Of tariff or capital, afar off
from the fullest and cheapest source of
supply, but resting in divine assur
ance, within touch of field and mine
and forest-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 splendor that shall daz-
zle and illumine the world. That,
sir, is the picture and 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 Eng
land, recruiting the Republic from its
sturdy loins, shaking from its over
crowded hives new swarms OF workers,
and touching this land all over with
its energy and its courage. And yet
while in the Eldorado of which l
have told you but IS per cent. of lands
are cultivated, its mines scarcely
touched, and its population so scant
that, were it set equidistant, the sound
of the human voice could not be heard
from Virginia to Texos-while on the
threshold of nearly every house III New
England stands son, seeking, with
troubled eyes, some new land in which
to carry his modest patrimony, the
strange fact remains that in 1880 the
South had fewer Northern born ci,i-
zens than she had in 1S7o--fewer in
10 than in 60. Why is this? Why
is it, sir, though the sectional line be
now but a mist that the breath may
dlspel, fewer men Of the North have
| crossed it over to the South, than when
it was crimson with the best blood of
the Republic, or even when the slave
holder stood guard every inch of its
way?
There can be but one answer. 1t is
the very problem We are now to con-
slider. The key that opens that prob
lem will unlock to the world the fair
est half 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 :or thirty years estranged,
and clasp in lasting comradeship
million hands now withheld in doubt.
Nothing, sir, but this problem and the
suspicious it breeds hinders clear un-
derstanding and perfect union.
Nothing else stands between US and
such love as bound Georgia and Mas
sachusetts at Valley Forge and York
town, chastened by the sacrifices of
Manassas and Gettysburg, and illum-
ined with the coming OF better work
and nobler destiny than was ever
wrought with the sword or sought at
the cannon's mouth. If this does not
invite your patient hearing tonight
hear one thing more. My people,
your brothers in the South-brothers
in blood, in destiny. in all that is best
| IN o,,r ooI f,,t,,ra eo hoeot
with this problem that their very ex-
istence depends on its right solution.
Nor are they wholly to blame for its
presence. The slave ships of the Re-
public sailed from your ports-the
slaves worked in our fields. You will
not defend the traffic, nor l the insti-
tuition. But do here declare that in
its wise and humane administration in
lifting the slave to heights of which he
had not dreamed in his savage home,
and giving him happiness he has not
| yet found in freedom--our fathers left
their sons saving and excellent her
itage. In the storm OF war this insti-
tuition was lost. thank God as hear
tily as you do that human slavery is
gone forever from American SOIL But
the free man remains. With him a
problem without precedent or parallel.
Note its appalling conditions. Two
utterly dissimilar races on the same
soi!-with equal political and civil
rights-almost equal in numbers, but
terrible unequal in intelligence and re.
: sponsibility-each pledged against fu-
sion-one for century in servitude to
the other, and freed at last by desc
: lating war-the experiment sought by
neither, but approached by both with
doubt-these are conditions. Under
\ these, adverse at every point, We are
required to carry these two races in
S peace and honor to the end.
: Never, sir, has such a task beer
given to mortal stewardship. Never
( before in this Republic has the white
: race divided on the rights of an alier
race. The red man was cut down al
S a weed, because he hindered the wa,
: of the American citizen. The yellow
| man was SHIT out of this Republic be
d cause he is an alien and inferior. Tn.