judged 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 doubly 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 deathless glory of American arms-speaking an eloquent witness in its white peace and prosperity to the indissoluble union of American States and the imperishable brotherhood of the American people. Now, what answer has New England to this message? Will she permit the prejudices of war to remain in the hearts of the conquerors, when it has died 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 a delusion? If she does, the South, never abject in asking for comradeship, must accept with dignity the 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, be verified in its fullest and final 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 united forever. There have been difficulties, contentions, and controversies, but I tell you that in my judgment, ""Those opposed eyes, Which like the meteors of a troubled heaven, Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks, NOTES 1. Mr. Grady's father was a Confederate officer. The name alluded to as especially dear to him was that of his father. 2. At the time of the delivery of this speech, Mr. Grady lived in Atlanta. From your history, verify what he says of the ground surrounding his home being sacred. 3. Find out all you can of what passed between Lee and Grant at the time of the surrender at the Appomattox Court House. 4. Define as used here: enamored, inscrutable, dauntless, heritage, ennobled, adjudged, omniscient, consecrated, hallowed, indissoluble, strained courtesy, captain, abject, contentions, controversies, intestine, well-beseeming. SUGGESTIVE EXERCISES 1. Explain the term, "The New South." 2. What was her new work? 3. From what was she emancipated? 4. How could this emancipation come from defeat? 5. What difference did Grady imply between war and rebellion? 6. What was the heritage left by the soldier father in his soldier's death? 7. What two things does he declare the war did? 8. When is any place "hallowed"? 9. Can any emotion other than suffering make a thing sacred? 10. What is meant by Grant offering his hand straight from his heart? 11. Why was it tactful to call attention to what had been the ideals of Grant and Webster? 12. What answer must New England make to such a message? 13. What in this speech shows the breadth and sincerity of the speaker? 14. What in this speech do you like best? Why? REFERENCES RYAN: The Conquered Banner, the Cause of the South. EMMETT: Dixie. PAGE: In Ole Virginia. WATTERSON: Abraham Lincoln. PAYNE: Home, Sweet Home. FINCH: The Blue and the Gray. TENIROD: Ode to the Confederate Flag. EMMA LAZARUS: The South. TOWNSEND: A Georgia Volunteer. TECKNOR: Little Giffen of Tennessee. Bonnie Blue Flag. Old Kentucky Home. CHRISTMAS EVERYWHERE Everywhere, everywhere, Christmas to-night! Christmas where snow peaks stand solemn and white, Christmas where children are hopeful and gay, For the Christ-child who comes is the Master of all; IT THE RAINY DAY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW T is a cold day in autumn, with the rain falling and the wind sighing dismally. Outside the poet's window is only a moldering wall, ivy-covered, with dead leaves falling continuously. The picture is a symbol of misery and despair, made more hopeless by reference to the poet's life, which, like the day, is dark and dreary his past crumbling like the ivy-grown wall, desolate with the hopes of youth falling unrealized. The reader's heart is touched with sadness in sympathy with the experience of the poet. But the poet's heart is touched with hope born of the consolation that his is a universal experience; and his vision of sunshine behind the clouds. and drear shadows becomes one of triumphant beauty and cheer for the race. No preaching - just a vision all of us insist on sharing. Read the poem thoughtfully. THE RAINY DAY The day is cold, and dark, and dreary; My life is cold, and dark, and dreary; My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past, Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; SUGGESTIVE EXERCISES 1. What scene does the poet observe? 2. What in the scene tells of dreariness? 3. Why does it remind the poet of his own past life? 4. In what sense did he mean the first line of stanza 2? 5. Explain the third line of the stanza? 6. What is the meaning of the fourth line? 7. Does it seem that he could easily recover from such dark discouragement? 8. Yet how do you account for the first line in the last stanza? 9. What element in his nature comes uppermost? 10. What note of hope and comfort is sounded for the entire race? REFERENCES BRYANT: The Gladness of Nature. March. MRS. BROWNING: The Little Cares that Fretted Me. COATES KENNEY: The Rain on the Roof. JOHN DAVIDSON: Rain in the New Forest. TENNYSON: Tears, Idle Tears. RILEY: The Shower. A Song. STEVENSON: Tropic Rain. LONGFELLOw: Rain in Summer. LOWELL: Summer Storm. WILLIAM C. BENNETT: Invocation to Rain in Summer. |