Joel Chandler Harris' life of Henry W. Grady including his writings and speeches
History
Joel Chandler Harris' life of Henry W. Grady including his writings and speeches
Grady, Henry Woodfin, 1850-1889
A citizen of Atlanta, he loved Georgia; a Georgian, he adored
the South; a Southerner, he worshipped the whole Union. He was
an American in the fullest sense of that term. There was no work
of public or private charity among us which he did not aid by
his tongue, his pen, his head or his purse, whether that work
was to procure the pardon of an abandoned young girl confined in
the chain-gang with criminals, or canvassing the streets of
Atlanta through snow and ice, accompanied with a retinue of
wagons and drays, to accumulate fuel and provisions to prevent
our poor from freezing and from starving. It was in response to
his appeals, more than to all else combined, that a home is now
being erected within sight of the dome of yonder capitol for the
aged and infirm veterans of the Lost Cause. It was to him more
than to all others that our Piedmont Expositions, designed to
show to the world the wealth of our undeveloped mineral,
agricultural and other resources, were carried to a successful
end. It was through his persuasive power that the Chautauqua
Association, designed to more thoroughly educate our people, was
established.
But in the limited time allotted to me, I cannot go into further
details. If you seek his monuments, look around. They are in
every home and every calling of life. In all that which has
tended to develop the material resources of the country, to
enrich his people, to encourage education and a love of the
arts, to relieve suffering, to provide for the poor, and to make
our people better and nobler, he devoted his life, unselfishly
and without hope of other reward than the approval of his
conscience.
He was a model citizen. As a member of society, he was welcomed
to every fireside. He was the center of every group. His doors
were open always to strangers. He was given to hospitality. He
was the life, the soul of every enterprise with which he was
connected. As a patriot, his heart was bowed down with grief
that his countrymen should be estranged. As a humanitarian, his
great heart wept at the suffering of the poor, and his voice was
ever raised in behalf of the afflicted and oppressed. As a
friend, he was devoted, unselfish and loyal. Now, that he is
gone, we know how dear he was to us. We have awakened to the
full appreciation of his great worth, and of the calamity which
has befallen us.
Yesterday we stood by his tomb. No private citizen in this
country ever had such a pageant. For miles the streets were
lined with people. We saw the aged and the young, the rich and
the poor, the white and the black, with eyes dimmed by tears,
with hearts bowed down with sorrow at loss of him. They had left
their homes upon our greatest festal day to pay him the homage
of their tears. To each of them his loss was a personal sorrow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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