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the gravest problem that ever met human intelligencethe establishing of a status for the vast body of his liberated slaves.

What does he do this hero in gray, with a heart of gold? Does he sit down in sullenness and despair? Not for a day. Surely, God, who had stripped him of his prosperity, inspired to him in his adversity. As ruin was never before so overwhelming, never was restoration swifter. The soldiers stepped from the trenches into the furrow; horses that had charged Federal guns marched before the plow; and the fields that ran red with human blood in April were green with the harvest in June. From the ashes left us in 1864 we have raised a brave and beautiful city. Somehow or other we have caught the sunshine in the bricks and mortar of our homes, and have builded therein not one ignoble prejudice or memory.

The old South rested everything on slavery and agriculture, unconscious that these could neither give nor maintain healthy growth. The new South presents a perfect democracy, the oligarchs in the popular movement— a social system compact and closely knitted, less splendid on the surface, but stronger at the core; a hundred farms for every plantation, fifty homes for every palace, and a diversified industry that meets the complex needs of this complex age.

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The new South is enamored of her new work. soul is stirred with the breath of a new life. The light of a grander day is falling fair on her face. She is thrilling with the consciousness of a growing power and prosperity. As she stands upright, full-statured and equal among the people of the earth, breathing the keen air and looking out upon the expanding horizon, she understands that her emancipation came because in the inscrutable wisdom of God her honest purpose was crossed, and her brave armies were beaten.

This is said in no spirit of time-serving or apology. The South has nothing for which to apologize. She believes that the late struggle between the States was war and not rebellion, revolution and not conspiracy, and that her convictions were as honest as yours. I should be unjust to the dauntless spirit of the South and to my own convictions if I did not make this plain in this presence. The South has nothing to take back.5 In my native town of Athens is a monument that crowns its central hills- a plain, white shaft. Deep cut into its shining side is a name dear to me 6 above the names of men, that of a brave and simple man who died in a brave and simple faith. Not for all the glories of New England-from Plymouth Rock all the way-would I exchange the heritage he left me in his soldier's death. To the feet of that shaft I shall send my children's children to reverence him who ennobled their name with his heroic blood. But, sir, speaking from the shadow of that memory, which I honor as I do nothing else on earth, I say that the cause in which he suffered and for which he gave his life was adjudged by higher and fuller wisdom than his or mine, and I am glad that the omniscient God held the balance of battle in His Almighty Hand, and that human slavery was swept forever from American soil-the American Union saved from the wreck of war.

This message, Mr. President, comes to you from consecrated ground. Every foot of the soil about the city in which I live is sacred as a battle-ground of the Republic. Every hill that invests it is hallowed to you by the blood of your brothers who died for your victory, and double hallowed to us by the blood of those who died hopeless, but undaunted, in defeat-sacred soil to all of us, rich with memories that make us purer and stronger and better, silent but stanch witnesses in its red desolation of the matchless valor of American hearts and the death

less glory of American arms--speaking an eloquent witness, in its white peace and prosperity, to the indissoluble union of American people.

Now, what answer has New England to this message? Will she permit the prejudice of war to remain in the hearts of the conquered? Will she transmit this prejudice to the next generation, that in their hearts which never felt the generous ardor of conflict it may perpetuate itself? Will she withhold, save in strained courtesy, the hand which, straight from his soldier's heart, Grant offered to Lee at Appomattox? Will she make the vision of a restored and happy people, which gathered above the couch of your dying captain, filling his heart with grace, touching his lips with praise, and glorifying his path to the grave-will she make this vision on which the last sigh of his expiring soul breathed a benediction, a cheat and delusion? If she does, the South, never abject in asking for comradeship must accept with dignity its refusal; but if she does not refuse to accept in frankness and sincerity this message of good-will and friendship, then will the prophecy of Webster, delivered in this very society forty years ago amid tremendous applause, become true, be verified in its fullest sense, when he said: Standing hand to hand and clasping hands, we should remain united as we have been for sixty years, citizens of the same country, members of the same government, united, all united now and forever."

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Can you tell why the Civil War was more destructive to the South than to the North?

Was Grady wise in praising the Old South at the beginning of his speech?

When the South entered upon the Civil War was it actuated by selfish ambition, or did it believe in the justice and righteousness of its cause?

In what respects did the New South differ from the Old? When the war was over was it the best policy for the North

to attempt to placate and conciliate the South or to hold it in subjection?

Do you think that Grady's reference to Dr. Talmage's speech is an instance of skillful transition and connection, or do you think that after Grady took his place at the table he originated the eloquent description of the Confederate soldier's return?

Would Grady have done better not to refer to his father's record in the war?

Enumerate the instances in this speech where Grady shows that there is a common sentiment in which the North and the South can unite.

Grady speaks of what new democracy?

In what sense does this speech mark a period in American history?

THE STRENUOUS LIFE

April 10, 1899

THE Civil War determined the relation of the Federal government to the states, but it took another war to settle its relation to the other nations of the world. Washington had advised against entangling alliances with foreign powers and President Monroe, in his famous message of 1823, in an attempt to promote the peace and safety of the United States and to render more remote the possibility of clashes with European nations, declared that henceforth the American continents were not to be colonized by foreign powers. In a word, the United States in the Monroe Doctrine announced that it denied to European powers any action that endangered the sovereignty of any American nation.

In the course of time, however, irresponsible South American governments discovered that after failing to discharge their obligations to foreign nations they might escape punishment by hiding behind the Monroe Doctrine. Gradually, therefore, for the sake of justice, the United States found it necessary to exercise a certain degree of control over the countries it protected. Instead of assuring the United States peaceful isolation, the Monroe Doctrine seemed to promise to keep the country perpetually involved in South American affairs and to bring it from time to time into grave danger of war with Europe.

The crisis came in connection with the Cuban war for independence in the last years of the century. Con

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