Chapter II (11)

Mr. Grady’s work had attracted the attention of prominent men everywhere, and in 1880 Cyrus W. Field, of New York, lent him $20,000 to buy a fourth interest in the _Constitution_. Mr. Field has stated since Mr. Grady’s death that he never had cause to regret the loan, as it was promptly repaid and had been the means of enlarging Mr. Grady’s work. Mr. Grady bought 250 shares, or $25,000 of the $100,000 of _Constitution_ stock, from Messrs. Howell, Hemphill, and Finch, who had previously purchased the interest of Albert Howell. The stock was then equally owned by Captain E. P. Howell, Mr. W. A. Hemphill, Mr. N. P. T. Finch, and Mr. Grady. The staff was then reorganized, with Captain Howell as editor-in-chief, Mr. Grady, managing editor, and Mr. Finch and Joel Chandler Harris as associate editors. Mr. Wallace P. Reed was added in 1883, and Mr. Clark Howell, now managing editor, came on in 1884 as night editor. When he was promoted to be assistant managing editor in January, 1888, Mr. P. J. Moran, who had been with the _Constitution_ since the suspension of the _Sun_ in the early seventies, succeeded to the position of night editor. In 1886 Mr. Finch retired, and his interest was shared by Messrs. E. P. Howell, Hemphill, Grady, and Clark Howell, and two new proprietors, Messrs. S. M. Inman, of Atlanta, and James Swann. The _Constitution_ has held on its staff at different times many of the most brilliant writers in the country, among them Sam Small, Henry Richardson, editor of the Macon _Telegraph_, Bill Arp, Betsey Hamilton, T. DeWitt Talmage, and a number of others. The editor of the Atlanta _Evening Journal_ graduated from the city editorship of the _Constitution_ in 1887, and was succeeded by Mr. J. K. Ohl, who still has charge of the city department. Mr. R. A. Hemphill had acquired some stock and was in the business department. The _Constitution_ under the management of Mr. W. J. Campbell has built up a large publishing business and now does the printing for the State. The weekly circulation is in charge of Mr. Edward White, who has an army of agents in all parts of the Union. The western edition in the last month has grown to large proportions.

In 1883 the _Constitution_ had outgrown its three-story building on Broad Street, and the company bought the present site on the corner of Alabama and Forsyth, and began the erection of the new _Constitution_ building. It was completed in August, 1884, at a cost of $60,000 including the site, and the $30,000 perfecting press and other machinery ran the whole cost of the plant up to $125,000. The site is the best for its purpose in the city. In the heart of the town and on an eminence above most other points, the editorial rooms on the fourth and fifth floors overlook the city and the undulating country for miles around. On the north, historic Kennesaw rises, a grim monument of valor, and the white spires at its foot are visible to the naked eye. On the south, Stone Mountain raises its granite dome fifteen miles away, and to the northeast the eye reaches the first foothills of that bracing region of the moonshiners where the Blue Ridge breaks up and makes a Switzerland in Georgia.

In November, 1884, the _Constitution_ christened its new building with the first news of Cleveland’s election. The Legislature then in session filled the _Constitution_ building at night, eagerly and enthusiastically watching the returns. When at last one morning the result was definitely known, a joyous party went from the _Constitution_ building to the Capitol, where occurred the memorable scene when Mr. Grady adjourned the Legislature.

A great crowd had collected about the _Constitution_ office, and when at eleven o’clock A.M. it was known beyond a doubt that Cleveland was elected, a brass band was brought up, and Mr. Grady and Captain Howell headed the procession. The march through town was hilarious and exultant. The crowd carried a huge can of red paint which was lavishly applied to sidewalks and prominent objects on the line of march. When the procession passed up Marietta Street its enthusiasm led it into the Capitol where the Legislature was in session. Leading the head of the procession to the hall of the House of Representatives, Mr. Grady passed by the door-keeper into the main aisle. Colonel Lucius Lamar, of Pulaski, a man of imposing presence, was in the chair. His long hair fell over his shoulders, and his bearing was magnificent. Advancing down the aisle Mr. Grady paused and, in the stately formula of the door-keeper, cried, with the most imposing and dramatic manner:

“Mr. Speaker; A message from the American people.”

Catching the spirit of the invasion, the dignified Speaker said solemnly:

“Let it be received.”

With that Mr. Grady pressed up to the speaker’s chair, and quickly wresting the gavel from his hand, cried in imposing and exultant tones:

“In the name of God and the American people, I declare this House adjourned to celebrate the election of Grover Cleveland, the first Democratic President in twenty-four years.”

At this there was a whirlwind of applause, and the House broke up with the wildest enthusiasm.

Mr. Grady often said that he and Oliver Cromwell were the only two men who ever adjourned a legislative body in that style.

From the occupation of the new building the _Constitution_ took on tremendous growth. Mr. Grady had conceived an idea of making the greatest weekly in America, and since 1881 that edition had grown prodigiously. When it was enlarged to a twelve-page form in 1881, it had only 7200 subscribers. Special contributors were engaged, special correspondents were sent out, and a picket line of local agents was thrown out all over the South, while sample copies were doing missionary work in the northwest. The first year the circulation jumped to 20,000, the next to 35,000, and when the _Constitution_ went into its new building in 1884 the 50,000 mark was reached. In 1887 the weekly passed 100,000, receiving 20,000 subscribers in December. In December, 1889, while Mr. Grady was in Boston, the paper broke the record with 20,000 subscribers in one day. During the month 27,000 subscriptions were received, and now the circulation is 146,000, of which 140,000 are subscribers and about 6000 sample copies.

The inspiring and reconstructive work of the _Constitution_ culminated in the Cotton Exposition of 1881. The whole country was warmed by a wave of prosperity in 1880, and the people of the South, invigorated and enthused, entered heartily into the purposes of the Exposition. When they came to see that wonderful collection of resources it was a revelation and an inspiration to them. The ball was in motion, and through the decade it has rolled with steadily increasing momentum. The development of the South has already gone beyond the expectation of the most sanguine, and already this region has a firm hold on iron and cotton, the two greatest industries on the continent.

Over all this helpful and inspiring work Captain Howell, the editor-in-chief, had a watchful eye. His heart and his purse were enlisted, and he backed up the vigorous work of his paper with earnest personal work. He was concerned in the leading enterprises as organizer and subscriber to the stock. In the flush of enthusiasm he was a balance-wheel. He added the safe counsel of a mature business man to the enthusiasm of his more youthful partner, and then backed him up with money and prodigious energy.

The Kimball House burned down one Sunday in August, 1883, and immediately the _Constitution_ set to work to raise the immense sum needed to replace the magnificent hotel. It had been the pride of Atlanta. Conventions and distinguished visitors from all sections of the country had been entertained there. It was Atlanta’s reception room, and was a necessity. It must be replaced, and the _Constitution_ threw itself in the breach. Captain Howell became president of the new Kimball House Company, and bent himself to the enormous task of raising $650,000. The whole town was enthused, and Mr. Kimball’s magic services were again called into requisition. On the 12th of August, 1884, exactly one year from the day the old building was burned, the directors of the new Kimball House took tea on the fifth floor, and within six months the magnificent structure was completed. At the grand banquet which celebrated the event Captain Howell presided, and Mr. Grady was one of the principal speakers.

In all this development and upbuilding the other owners of the _Constitution_ backed up its work with personal effort and financial support. Mr. Hemphill and Mr. Inman are stockholders in almost everything about Atlanta, and Mr. Swann, though now a resident of New York, continues to invest his money largely in Atlanta enterprises.

Perhaps the greatest service the _Constitution_ ever did for Atlanta and the State was its work for the location of the Capitol here. The Constitutional Convention of 1877 left the question of location with the people and the election was held that fall. A vigorous campaign was precipitated almost from the adjournment of the Convention. Atlanta was in great straits. The Capitol had been removed there from Milledgeville by the Republicans, and the rank odor of reconstruction times and of negro and carpet-bag rule hung over the spot where their disgraceful transactions had been enacted. The glorious memories of the past were associated with Milledgeville, where the great men of the century had been in training. Macon, Augusta, Savannah, and the press of Southern Georgia sought to array these cherished associations against Atlanta, the dashing new city that had the audacity to set new patterns and do things in her own vigorous way. Something had to be done; enormous obstacles had to be overcome, and Atlanta resolved to do the work. The city council met and decided to spare no pains or expense to get the Capitol. A general campaign committee was organized with Captain J. W. English at its head, and the work from that center was begun. In addition to this a prudential committee of three was appointed and given a _carte blanche_ to carry the election, with unlimited means at its command. On this committee were ex-Governor, now Senator, Joseph E. Brown, Major Campbell Wallace and Captain E. P. Howell, editor of the _Constitution_. The advanced age of the other two members made it necessary for Captain Howell to take the heaviest part of the work upon his shoulders and he worked night and day. Every county in the State, except those about Macon and Milledgeville, was covered with men talking for Atlanta, and the whole State was flooded with Atlanta literature. Some of the most distinguished speakers in the State were on the hustings, and the heaviest timber was on Atlanta’s side. It was a campaign of hard work. Every voter, white and colored, was reached by type and talk; and when the day came Atlanta won by 44,000 votes majority.

While the leading citizens of Atlanta, including the editors and owners of the _Constitution_, were personally at work in the campaign, the paper was the chief point of attack in a bitter newspaper war. Rancor ran almost to bloodshed. Atlanta editors in those days were prepared to talk it out or fight it out as their adversaries pleased. An editor’s courage was in demand as constantly as his pen, and there was no milk and water in editorials. The _Constitution_ held the fort for Atlanta, and its flag flaunted serenely in the worst of the war.

Then came a long fight for an appropriation to build a new Capitol. The _Constitution_ steadily advocated it, and its influence was thrown into the Legislature to back up Mr. Rice, the Atlanta member, who introduced the bill. Finally when a million dollars had been appropriated, the editor, Captain Howell, was put on the Capitol Commission to succeed the late Mr. Crane as the member from Atlanta.

Since then the _Constitution_ has been a power in political campaigns, and its influence was triumphantly exerted in behalf of Governor Colquitt in the famous Colquitt-Norwood campaign, when part of the Democratic Convention split off and nominated Norwood after Colquitt had been named by the majority. Mr. Grady took charge of Governor Colquitt’s campaign, and to his efforts, more than to anything else, Colquitt’s election was due. In the Bacon-Boynton campaign the _Constitution’s_ influence was exerted for Governor Boynton, and finally for Governor McDaniel, when Major Bacon had almost run away with the nomination. When Governor Gordon dashed into the State in 1886 Mr. Grady took charge of the campaign headquarters in Atlanta and directed the work for Gordon. The General’s wonderful magnetism was backed up with such prodigious work as the State had never known. The local influentials all over the State were largely pledged to Major Bacon, and it was thought he had the nomination in his pocket. Week by week, as the returns came in, the Gordon column crept up on Bacon’s, and in the closing weeks the General swept by him with a rush.

The prohibition campaign of 1887 was one of the most remarkable episodes in the history of Atlanta, and the division and tension among friends and neighbors was strikingly shown by the position of the gentlemen who owned the _Constitution_. Captain Howell, the editor in chief, was an ardent anti, and Mr. Grady, the managing editor, was the leading advocate of prohibition. Mr. Hemphill and Mr. Inman were for prohibition, and other stockholders were against it. The campaign committees on both sides loaded down the columns of the paper with bristling communications, while the editor-in-chief and the managing editor had thrown their whole strength into the campaign on opposite sides. Both were on the hustings, and it so happened that both spoke the same night, Captain Howell to an opera house full of antis, and Mr. Grady to a big warehouse full of prohibitionists. The whole town was on the _qui vive_; one-half the people were hurrahing for Howell and the other were cheering for Grady. The editors drew more than the houses would begin to hold, and their audiences were in a frenzy of delight.

The speeches were the talk of the day, and for days afterward their arguments were discussed and repeatedly mustered into service by the other speakers.

On the afternoon of the day they were to speak the _Evening Journal_ contained the following spirited notice under the head of “Howell and Grady”:

Jack Spratt
Could eat no fat,
His wife could eat no lean,
Between them both
They cleared the cloth
And licked the platter clean.

The reproduction of this ancient rhyme is not intended as an
insinuation that Mr. Henry W. Grady, the silver-tongued
prohibition orator of to-night, has any of the attributes of
Jack Spratt, or that Colonel Evan P. Howell, the redoubtable
champion of the antis, has any of the peculiarities of Jack
Spratt’s conjugal associate. The idea sought to be conveyed is
that the fat and lean of prohibition will be energetically
attacked by these gentlemen to-night at the same hour from
opposite sides of the table.

It goes without saying that between them both the platter will
be licked clean, and it is to be hoped that this hearty
prohibition meal will be thoroughly digested and assimilated to
Atlanta’s system, that growth in her every tissue will be the
result.

It would be hard to select two more effective speakers and two
more entirely different.

“What is Colonel Howell’s style of oratory?” said one newspaper
man to another.

“Well,” said he, “you have heard Grady? you know how he speaks?”

“Yes.”

“Well, Grady makes you feel like you want to be an angel and
with the angels stand, and Howell makes you feel as if he were
the commander of an army, waving his sword and saying, ‘Follow
me,’ and you would follow him to the death.”

Both of these speakers will raise enthusiasm at the start. As
Grady ascends the platform the band will play “Dixie” and the
audience will be almost in a frenzy of delight. As Colonel
Howard comes forward the band will be likely to play the
“Marsellaise Hymn,”—some air that stirs the sterner nature—and
he will be received with thunders of applause.

With infinite jest and with subtle humor Mr. Grady will lead his
audience by the still waters where pleasant pastures lie; and
there he will “take the wings of the morning and fly to the
uttermost parts of the sea.”

Howell will march his audience, like an army, through flood and
fire and fell; he will cross the sea, like a Norseman, to
conquer Britain. In Grady’s flights you only hear the cherubim’s
wing; in Howell’s march the drum-beat never ceases. Grady’s
eloquence is like a cumulus cloud that rises invisible as mist
till it unfolds its white banners in the sky; Howell’s is like a
rushing mountain stream that tears every rock and crag from its
path, gathering volume as it goes.

Mr. Howell will doubtless deal in statistics; Mr. Grady will
have figures, but they will not smell of the census. They will
take on the pleasing shape that induced one of his reporters to
plant a crop of Irish potatoes on a speculation. To-night
Atlanta will be treated to a hopeful view of prohibition by the
most eloquent optimist in the country. The contrast will be
drawn with all the ruggedness of a strong, blunt man.

The day after the election, when 1100 majority had been announced against prohibition, Captain Howell and Mr. Grady printed characteristic cards. Captain Howell, from the standpoint of victory, gave in a few words his reasons for his course, and closed by saying:

A word about my partners. I have differed from them on this
question, and I know that they have been prompted by the same
consciousness of duty which caused me to so differ. I love Henry
Grady as a brother, and no one appreciates more highly than I
his noble and unselfish devotion to our city; no one knows
better than I his earnestness and faithful attachment to her
welfare. Mr. Hemphill and Mr. Inman are as true and tried
citizens as Atlanta has, and are among my warmest personal
friends. Nothing that has occurred during this campaign could
mar the relations existing between us. The only regret I have
about the campaign is that I found it necessary to differ with
them, but I am confident that they will now join hands with me
in carrying out the purposes (uniting the people) as expressed
above.

Mr. Grady declared his unshaken affection for his partner, and pledged his aid to him in his purposes to unite Atlanta and keep the sale of liquor within bounds. As for his own part in the campaign, he expresses himself in these remarkable words:

When everything else I have said or done is forgotten, I want
the words I have spoken for prohibition in Atlanta to be
remembered. I am prouder of my share in the campaign that has
ended in its defeat than of my share in all other campaigns that
have ended in victory. I espoused its cause deliberately, and I
have worked for its success night and day, to the very best of
my ability. My only regret is that my ability was not greater.

This reunion of the owners of the _Constitution_ was the prompt example which set a pattern for the community. Within a year from the close of the bitterest campaign in Atlanta’s history, one in which many a house and many a family was divided against itself, the acrimony had almost entirely disappeared. The wounds of the campaign were healed and the soreness of defeat had disappeared; Atlanta was re-united, and on every side were signs of prosperity and good-will. In another twelvemonth she had to enlarge her girth a quarter of a mile all round; nine hundred houses were built, every one was filled, and there was a pressing demand for more. The _Constitution_ turned from this struggle with its owners more strongly cemented by personal friendship than ever before, and in the closing weeks of 1889 the paper touched a higher mark of prosperity than it had ever known.

After Mr. Grady’s death the _Constitution_ pursued the even tenor of its way. Saddened by that great calamity the late editor’s associates realized that there was great work for them to do. The succession to the management was as natural as the passing of one day into another. Mr. Clark Howell, Jr., eldest son of the editor-in-chief, had been on the paper six years, first as night editor and then as assistant managing editor. In Mr. Grady’s absence he had been in charge, and in taking the position of managing editor at twenty-six years of age, he assumed duties and responsibilities that were not new to him. He was fortified by an extensive personal acquaintance formed not only in his newspaper experience, but in two terms of active service as a representative of Fulton County in the Legislature, having been nominated for the first term before he was twenty-one years of age.

Mr. Howell won his spurs as a newspaper man before he was twenty. On graduating from the University of Georgia in 1883 he went to the New York _Times_ as an apprentice in its local department. It was Captain Howell’s policy to throw his son on his own resources, and the moderate allowance during college days, was almost entirely withdrawn when young Clark went to New York. A young reporter working on twelve dollars a week was sorely put to it to make ends meet in a great city like New York. From the New York _Times_ city department Mr. Howell went to the Philadelphia _Press_, assisting in the news editing department. It was while he was in Philadelphia, with very little cash, that he seized an opportunity to make some money and a good deal of reputation. Samuel J. Tilden was being urged to allow the use of his name for the second Presidential nomination. He had not said yea or nay, and the country was anxiously awaiting his decision, for his consent would have settled the question of Democratic leadership. Mr. Howell went to New York for the _Constitution_, and his interview with Mr. Tilden was the first announcement of the old statesman’s determination not to enter the contest again. That night Mr. Howell telegraphed the news to two hundred papers, and the interview with the sage of Gramercy Park was read on two continents. The young journalist who had scored a scoop on all the ambitious newspaper men of the country received flattering notices from the press, besides the comforting addition of $400 to his almost invisible cash.

Mr. Howell then came on the _Constitution_ as night editor, and was afterward promoted to the position of assistant managing editor. What native ability and six years of training did for him was made manifest very soon after he assumed his new responsibility.

For days the letters and telegrams of condolence and tributes to Mr. Grady filled the paper, and to that and the monument movement all other matter was, for the time, made subordinate. When at last the burden of the people’s grief had found full expression, the _Constitution_ turned itself with renewed vigor to its work. Captain Howell was on deck, the new managing editor plunged into every detail, and soon a general improvement was the result; the _Constitution_ took on new life. Then Mr. Howell turned on all his energies and put the magnificent machinery at his disposal up to its full speed. The daily issues drew daily commendations of their excellence from the press, and the first twenty-four-page Sunday’s edition was pronounced by many the best the _Constitution_ had ever issued.

The people realized that the _Constitution_, though it had suffered a great loss in Mr. Grady’s death, was still in strong hands, and from all parts of its territory came renewed expressions of confidence and sympathy. So the _Constitution_ continues its work, enlarging and improving as it goes, ever looking to the future while it cherishes a magnificent past which it could not and would not let die.

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LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS

FROM

DISTINGUISHED PERSONS.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

HON. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW.

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NEW YORK, Dec. 23.—The New England Society celebrated to-night its 84th anniversary and the 469th of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers with a dinner.

Mr. Depew spoke to the toast of “Unsolved Problems,” and in the course of his remarks he referred to the death of Henry W. Grady. He said:

“Thirty years ago, Robert Toombs, of Georgia, one of the ablest and most brilliant defenders of slavery, said in his place in the United States Senate that he would yet call the roll of his bondmen at the foot of Bunker Hill monument. To-day his slaves are citizens and voters. Within a few days a younger Georgian, possessed of equal genius, but imbued with sentiments so leavened that the great Senator would have held him an enemy to the State, was the guest of Boston. With a power of presentation and a fervor of declaration worthy of the best days and noblest efforts of eloquence, he stood beneath the shadow of Bunker Hill and uttered opinions justifying the suppression of the negro vote, which were hostile to the views of every man in his audience, and yet they gave to his argument an eager and candid hearing, and to his oratory unstinted and generous applause. It was triumphant of Puritan principles and Puritan pluck. They know we know that no system of suffrage can survive the intimidation of the voter or the falsification of the courts. Public conscience, by the approval of fraud upon the ballot and the intelligence of a community, will soon be indifferent to the extensions of those methods by the present office-holders to continue in power, and the arbitrary reversing of the will of the majority will end in anarchy and despotism.

“This is a burning question, not only in Georgia, but in New York. It is that the government for the people shall be by the people. No matter how grave the questions which absorb the people’s attention or engross their time, the permanence of their solution rests upon a pure ballot.

“The telegraph brings us this evening the announcement of the death of Henry W. Grady, and we forget all differences of opinion and remember only his chivalry, patriotism, and his genius. He was the leader of the New South, and died in the great work of impressing its marvelous growth and national inspirations upon the willing ears of the North. Upon this platform, and before this audience, two years ago, he commanded the attention of the country and won universal fame. His death, in the meridian of his powers and the hopefulness of his mission, at a critical period of the removal forever of all misunderstanding and differences between all sections of the Republic, is a national calamity. New York mingles her tears with those of his kindred, and offers to his memory a tribute of her profoundest admiration.”

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EX-PRESIDENT CLEVELAND.

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NEW YORK, _December 23, 1889_.

MRS. HENRY W. GRADY: Accept the heartfelt sympathy of one who loved your husband for what he was and for all that he had done for his people and his country. Be assured that everywhere throughout the land warm hearts mourn with you in your deep affliction and deplore the loss the nation has sustained.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

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HON. A. S. COLYAR.

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NASHVILLE, TENN., _December 26, 1889_.

MR. A. W. DAVIS, ATLANTA, GA.:

_My Dear Sir_:—I feel as if, in coming to what I had hoped to be a joyous occasion, I am coming to the house of mourning—the home of sorrow. Since the tragic end of the young Irish patriot, death has not more ruthlessly invaded the land of “shining marks” than when he the other day came to your beautiful city—a city of happiness and “high ways”—and, as if looking with remorseless purpose into the very secrets of domestic felicity and popular affection—took up and carried away into the land of the unseeable the idol of a happy home and of a great city. Not only was Henry W. Grady the idol of his own city and State, but without office and without estate, though young in years, he had attained a maturity of both pen and heart which brought renown as an American patriot far beyond what place or power can give. His death is a national calamity. In times of peace, when much of the press and many of the public men are inviting patronage and seeking favors in fanning the passions born of a sectional issue, to see a truly national and brave man, who, loving his own native section, can nevertheless glory in a common country and a common destiny for all the American people—is to the patriot philosopher, who divines the happiness of a reunited people, the bright star of hope rising to dissipate the prejudices of the past and light up the pathway to the coming millions.

Unfortunately, oh, how much to be deplored! the passions of the sections have been kept alive by the pen and tongue of the politician seeking patronage and office.

The young man of your city whose death all patriots mourn, put himself on a higher plane—freed from passion and rising above his own ambition, he gave tone and temper to a national sentiment, which might be uttered in Boston or Atlanta with equal propriety and patriotism and from the emotions of his patriotic heart, he spoke words which, while they were full of the manhood of his own loved South, nevertheless warmed into a generous sympathy the North man as well as the South man, and put American citizenship so high that the young men of the country may, without the sacrifice of local pride, ever aspire to reach it.

As an example of Southern manhood, patriotic fervor, and a statesmanship extending over the entire country and into the coming generations, all sparkling with the scintillation of an intelligent courage that defied alike the prejudices of the ignorant and the appeals of the demagogue, he was the representative and leader of a sentiment in the South which promised speedily a reforming of public sentiment north and south, a turning from the shades of the past into the lighted avenues of the future—these avenues opening to all alike without the sacrifice of manhood or the domination of section.

I repeat, his death is a calamity, and oh, how sad and mysterious!

Truly, A. S. COLYAR.

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HON. MURAT HALSTEAD.

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CINCINNATI, _December 24, 1889_.

MRS. H. W. GRADY:

I desire to inscribe my name among those who feel the public misfortune of Mr. Grady’s death as a personal loss, and hope you may know how true it is that there are no boundaries to sincere regrets and earnest sympathies.

MURAT HALSTEAD.

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HON. SAMUEL J. RANDALL.

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

WASHINGTON, D. C., _December 24, 1889_.

HON. E. P. HOWELL, ATLANTA, GA.:

_My Dear Sir_:—I telegraphed briefly yesterday afternoon, immediately upon hearing of the death of our dear friend. I do not know when I have been more shocked than I have been at this great calamity, and I cannot yet bring my mind to realize it. The ways of Providence are strange indeed, but we should submit with Christian fortitude.

So young a man, with so bright a future, and capable of so much benefit to his State and country, it is hard indeed to part with. His great object in life was to break down sectionalism and bring the South to her full capabilities of development. But I have not the heart to write more.

Give Mrs. Randall’s love to Mrs. Grady and my kindest sympathy, and tell her that as long as life lasts with us Mr. Grady’s hundred and more kindnesses to both will never fade from our memory.

SAMUEL J. RANDALL.

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MR. ANDREW CARNEGIE.

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NEW YORK, _December 24, 1889_.

CAPTAIN HOWELL:

Only those who stood at Mr. Grady’s side as we did and heard him at Boston can estimate the extent of the nation’s loss in his death. It seemed reserved for him to perform a service to his country which no other could perform so well. Mrs. Carnegie and I share your grief and tender to his family profound sympathy. We send a wreath in your care which please place upon the grave of the eloquent peacemaker between the North and South.

ANDREW CARNEGIE.

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MANY DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.

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SPRINGFIELD, MASS., _December 24, 1889_.

THE HONORABLE, THE MAYOR:

Springfield shares the sorrow of her sister city. The death of such a man as Henry Woodfin Grady is a national loss.

EDWARD S. BRADFORD, _Mayor_.

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NEW YORK, _December 24, 1889_.

TO MRS. HENRY GRADY:

The New York Southern Society, profoundly affected by a sense of the public loss sustained in the death of your distinguished husband, offer you their heartfelt sympathy in the great affliction you have suffered.

J. H. PARKER, _Vice-President_.

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NEW YORK, _December 23, 1889_.

GOVERNOR RUFUS B. BULLOCK:

Your dispatch is received with sincere sorrow. Thousands of our citizens recognized in Mr. Grady a man worthy of the highest respect and esteem, and will regard his untimely death a national calamity.

ALONZO B. CORNELL.

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NEW YORK, _December 24, 1889_.

EVAN HOWELL:

Please give my earnest sympathy to Mrs. Grady. The profession has lost one of its three or four foremost members, and the country a true patriot.

BALLARD SMITH.

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● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
when a predominant form was found in this book.
○ Text that:
was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_);
was in bold by is enclosed by “equal” signs (=bold=).