The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1891-11-07
A Well-Earned Tribute.

a W0ll.Earn00 Tribute.
! A couple of weeks ago an even
happened at Atlanta, Georgia, tina
has been permitted to pass withou
newspaper comment. 1t was tn
unwilling of a monument to thu
late Henry w. Grady, editor Of tn
Atlanta Constitution. In his life
and works he was a true type o
the greatest of Americans. In the
editorial profession he stood with
out a peer. Colonel Ingersoll ex-
cepted, he was Americas most yer.
satile and brilliant orator. His
genius was the inspiration of the
New South. His craftsmanship
gave form and potency to an idea
that made Georgia the leader in
those better conditions which, infu-
enced by his writings and speeches,
soothed the hatred and did away
with the sectional prejudices I'M
avoidably engendered by our civil
war, and brought the masses Of our
people together once more upon a
platform of charity, patriotism and
love wrought out by his noble in
tellectuality. Quietly and without
obtrusiveness did Mr.. Grady insin-
uate himself into the affections of
the people North and South, until
at the time of his death he had,
quite imperceptibly to both fac
tons, gained an influence that
enabled him to sway multitudes !;
and, be it said to his glory, his
power was always welded patriot
ically and for the greatest good of
all as he saw the right. But it was
in the subjugated and demoralized
South that his benefcence was most
effective for good-and We will say
his good works and influences most
needed for there the dreadful cy-
clone Of war had expended its
fury, and there its effects upon the
social status of the people had been
most destructive and terrible. There
the safeguards of law and social
order had been swept away by the
armed legions of the conqueror,
and anarchy and chaos enthroned.
And to increase the calamitousness
of the situation a horde of slaves,
totally untitled by education or ex-
perience to participate in the gov
eminent of a community, had been
given the franchise of which the
civilized portion of the population
had been deprived. Moreover, the
country was infested by gangs of
ex-army followers, and political
strikers having no interest in the
land except their salaries and the
possible change Of shirts carried
in their carpet-bags, whose mission
it was to hold Office and fan the
flames of factional hatred that had
been kindled by the war, filled the
South from one end to the other.
These creatures, having the ear of
the government at Washington,
constantly magnified the faults Of
the Southern people, infamed the
egotism and aroused the passions
of the ignorant and stupid negroes,
keeping up the discord and inten-
styling the rancor that divided the
sections and continually menaced
the country with riot and blood
shed. Out of this hell Of baseness
and despair the great Georgia editor
did more than any other one man
to lift his fallen and trampled coun-
trymen. They heard the siren song
of his oratory and his editorials and
were charmed into a new hope by
their music. Malice and hate were
forgotten and white-robed peace re-
turned, bringing to the war-scourged
land a prosperity greater than had
ever been known before. The loss
of such man is national calam-
ity greater than the loss of an army
to general. His name and fame
deserve perpetuation, while patriot
ism, honor, virtue and intellect are
remembered and revered, and
monument is but poor tribute to
the memory of one so deserving.
Honor to Henry w. Grady!