Joel Chandler Harris' life of Henry W. Grady including his writings and speeches

by Unknown

As it was then among the boys, so it was afterwards among men. He wore his heart upon his sleeve, and gave it to all without reserve. In some this characteristic would have been weakness, but in him it was a chief element of strength because of the very fact that he possessed it in such a marked and striking degree. Even those who were his enemies were won to him when they came into his presence, and had their dislikes charmed away by the magnetism of his manner and his open and unreserved frankness.

Henry Grady had eminent characteristics which made him great, and it is proper and right that we should place upon record our estimate of them, and cannot but be highly beneficial to us to thoughtfully consider some of them.

His mind was exceedingly subtle, and his perceptible powers unusually and remarkably keen. He comprehended at a glance, and discriminated as if by intuition. It was this, doubtless, that gave him that wonderful expressiveness of speech which so completely captivated all who ever heard him. He saw clearly—therefore he had power to make others see.

We all have within us at times vague and inexpressible thoughts, and we feel a desire for some one who can interpret them for us, and give utterance and expression to that which we cannot even put into the form of a suggestion. We feel the need of a Daniel who can tell us the dream, and then give us the interpretation of it. Who that has listened to the magic of Grady’s speech, or gathered the subtle thought from his well-chosen words, has not found in them the expression of that which seemed to lie slumbering in his own bosom, only to be awakened by the touch of his master hand! Such is the service which genius renders to humanity, and such did he render for us with a power that was almost matchless and unapproachable.

But, superb as were his mental gifts, it was not this alone, or even chiefly, that made him great and gave him power such as few ever possessed to attract men to him. There have been those who equaled if they did not surpass him here, but who yet have failed to impress themselves upon humanity with a tithe of the force exerted by him. It was his great heart that endeared him to us all and made us love him and rejoice in his success, with a feeling that knew no jealousy, and ever prompted us to bid him God-speed in his onward and upward career to the high destiny which seemed to await him.

True love is unmistakable in its manifestations. He who really and truly loves his fellows need not fear that they will fail to find it out. It will manifest itself, not in the arts and wiles of the demagogue, but in a thousand ways which need not be premeditated, and cannot be misjudged or misunderstood.

Grady loved humanity, and love with him was not weak sentimentality, but strong, over-mastering passion. He loved humanity, not in the abstract, but in the person of those members of it who came within reach of him. And this love to them was not a mere sentiment, but a real passion, to which he gave expression in his never-tiring acts of devotion and his ceaseless efforts to aid them in every way and by every means that lay in his power. It was thus that he grappled his friends to him with hoops of steel and held them in a grasp which nothing could loosen.

It was Grady’s strong emotional nature that gave wings to his words and carried them so deep into the hearts of his fellow men. Thought must have feeling back of it before it can have power to stir men’s blood and move them to action. The twain must be married together as one, and from their union springs a light and power which are potent factors in the redemption of humanity. In Grady they were united, and hence his words burnt their way into the souls of men. The magnificence of his thoughts, and the untold wealth of feeling which sprang from his great heart, were not to be resisted, and easily won and held the admiration and homage of his fellow men.

But the deep pathos of Grady’s heart, so often stirred into those grand utterances which made him famous, seems now to have been but the prophecy of the far deeper pathos of his untimely death. Oh how sad it was to see him lying there upon his bier mute and motionless, when but yesterday the nation hung upon his words, and men of all sections and political parties delighted to do him honor. Oh how strong in our breasts is the wish that he might have lived, not only for himself, his family and friends, but also for the sake of his country, and especially his beloved Southland, just beginning to feel the disenthrallment from her bonds, and to realize that one had arisen who seemed to have the power to place her before the Nation and the world in her rightful position, and claim for her that sympathy and forbearance which she so much needs in the solution of the great problem which has been thrust upon her.

But he is gone, and we can only mourn his loss, and indulge the hope that the good he has done may live after him, and that even the sad bereavement of his death may do much to help seal the truth of his last public utterance upon the hearts of the people of this great country, and ultimately bring them together as one in a union of fraternal fellowship and love.